Birth control increases risk of contracting, transmitting HIV (LAT)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times/For the Booster Shots blog
July 21, 2011, 8:17 a.m.

Using hormonally based birth control nearly doubles the risk an uninfected woman will contract HIV or that an infected woman will transmit the virus to her partner, researchers said Wednesday. Researchers had suspected such a link in the past, but the new study in Africa is the first to confirm their suspicions.

Dr. Renee Heffron of the University of Washington and her colleagues studied nearly 2,500 HIV-positive women in seven African countries -- Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania and South Africa -- from 2004 to 2010. All their male partners were HIV-negative at the beginning of the study. Heffron reported at the Rome meeting of the International AIDS Society that 2.61% of the men whose partner used a hormonal birth control method contracted the virus, compared with 1.51% of the men whose partner used a physical barrier or no contraception.

The team also studied about 1,300 couples in which the man was infected but not the woman. They found that 6.6% of the women using hormonal birth control became infected within a year, compared with 3.8% of those not using the pills or shots.

Heffron warned women about discontinuing their contraception, however, urging that they balance the risks of becoming infected with those of becoming pregnant.
***
more: http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-hiv-birth-control-07212011,0,1539657.story

[sudopod]

1. Obligatory XKCD

http://xkcd.com/925/

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Very bizarre that "no protection" and "physical barrier" were lumped together.

Comparison of "no protection" vs "birth control pill" (and no physical barrier) would seem to be valid, since only one variable is involved. Lumping the two categories together may be conflating dissimilar correlations, so validity is problematic, to say the least.

[sudopod]

4. Exactly O_o nt

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. WTF?

Does anyone, anywhere, think birth control pills can stop HIV infection?

[uppityperson]

5. Anyone who doesn't use a barrier method of course increases chance of HIV transmission

[laconicsax]

6. That seems to be a novel concept to the authors of this study. n/t

[LeftishBrit]

7. I would guess...

that this simply means that people who use hormonally-based birth control are less likely to use condoms. And no condom = increased risk of HIV transmission.

A horribly misleading headline, that will be taken up and exploited by the religious right.

[Warpy]

8. They needed to look at their PARTNERS

After all, men will use any reason at all to avoid condoms.

"Oh, you're on the pill, honey, nothing to worry about."