Anti-H.I.V. Trial in Africa Canceled Over Failure to Prevent Infection

[alp227]

Source: NYT

A new trial of a microbicide gel to protect women from infection with H.I.V. was canceled Friday after researchers reported that it was not working.

The news was a major disappointment for AIDS research. It was not clear why the gel did not work in this trial, since it had seemed to work surprisingly well in a previous one.

Finding a vaginal gel that protects women against the virus that causes AIDS but still allows them to get pregnant has long been sought by AIDS researchers, because it can be used secretly by women who fear being refused or even beaten if they ask their sexual partner to use a condom.

The first trial, reported in South Africa in the summer of 2010, found that a vaginal gel containing the drug tenofovir protected 39 percent of the women who used it, and that those who used it most regularly reduced their chances of infection by 54 percent.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/health/research/anti-hiv-gel-trial-is-canceled-in-africa.html

[Marnie]

1. Big reason it faile is that HIV isn't a microbe.

It's a virus and V for virus.

It is probably great for yeast infections though.

[pnwmom]

2. A virus is a type of microbe.

But not all microbes are viruses.

http://archives.microbeworld.org/microbes/types.aspx

Types of Microbes

Microbes can be divided into six main types: Archaea, Bacteria, Fungi, Protista, Viruses, and Microbial Mergers.

http://archives.microbeworld.org/microbes/virus/

[saras]

3. That's science. They learned something. Too bad they didn't learn it earlier, but shit happens.

Hopefully they'll learn something constructive from the difference in the trials.

[bitchkitty]

4. It seems to me

that "women who fear being refused or even beaten if they ask their sexual partner to use a condom" is the problem that should be addressed. I mean, for fuck's sake!