Bill Clinton: “I did not sleep with that woman… and neither should you.” DayLife.Com
There’s been some fascinating ‘break through’ in HIV medical technology.
It was announced just this weekend that scientists are close to developing a pill that will prevent somebody from contracting the HIV virus through unprotected sex.
“Studies in primates have shown the drugs do prevent transmission”, reported The Lancet.
What’s with this HIV pill?
In the latest development in the battle against the global epidemic which claimed two million lives last year, researches are looking at using antiretroviral drugs that are currently used to prevent vertical transmission from mothers to babies during birth and offer the same protection during sex for ‘horizontal transmission’.
It’s a global study that is ’showing great promise’ according to The Independent and a study in The Lancent that was published to co-incide with the International Conference on AIDS in Mexico City.
The research is being driven by the lack of progress in the search for a vaccine against HIV, and the failure of efforts to develop vaginal microbicides to protect women which has left scientists determined to find any chink in the virus’s armour.
Here is a scan of the article I saw in ‘The Independent’:
Currently, 3 trials of antiretrovirals are being given to uninfected people at high risk of HIV. This includes 2,400 injecting drug users in Thailand, 1,200 heterosexual men and women in Botswana and 3,000 men who have sex with other men in five countries.
One trial is using Tenofovir, a drug used to treat AIDs in the West. Two are using Truvada, a combination of Tenofovir and STC. A fourth trial involves 980 women in South Africa who are being given an experimental vaginal gel based on Tenofovir.
Questions and ethics
All this raises a few concerns for me personally.
Firstly, this could raise worries about resistance if it were also used as a preventive drug. What if the virus mutates into a super virus? Maybe it would even survive through new transmission modes. In which case, the world could be f***ed.
Secondly, the article mentions that it could be given to high risk groups - people who have sex with multiple partners (especially gay and bisexual men). And if you account for the ‘party scene’ of multiple sexual partners now on the rise in European cities with metrosexual mixing, it’s something I would be pretty concerned about.
Thirdly, it is revealed that by the end of the year people will be able to buy antibiotics to treat chlamydia over the counter and without prescription. Isn’t the fear of HIV the main reason why most responsible people insist on using condoms? After all, most women are on the pill anyway, and gay guys don’t get pregnant, as far as I’m aware of anyway!). With that risk eliminated, and chlamydia pills available at Superdrug, CVS, or Boots, do you think we can expect the condom market to crash in the future?
So I’m sure ethical questions will be raised about HIV prevention. Who should be allowed to take such a drug? Under what circumstances? What about risk of side effects?
As a side note, a new drug called Maraviroc, made by Pfizer, produces high levels of activity in the genital tissue when taken orally and is not used for treatment because we don’t really understand it full yet. But it could provide the basis of a future preventive pill.
Bill Clinton for Monogamy. Yes, you heard me.
I thought it was pretty amusing that Bill Clinton made a plea yesterday for a new emphasis on monogamy to battle HIV and AIDS.
The former US president interviewed with the BBC in Africa. He said, “To pretend we can ever get hold of this without dealing with that – the idea of unprotected sexual relations with unlimited numbers of partners – I think would be naïve. Experts believe that the nature of Africans’ relationships may help explain the continent’s high rate of AIDS.
Then again, Mr Clinton is not particularly noted for keeping his own marriage vows!
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What is your thought on all this? Do you think a pill like this would be the future of treatment? Just as Acyclovir is used prophylactically to prevent breakouts of cold sores, are we still a long way from finding an actual ‘cure’? What are your predictions on what would happen from this? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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