HIV-blocking gel for women in the testing stage

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – A safe and effective gel allowing women to protect themselves from the AIDS virus may be available by 2010 if current trials involving thousands of women are successful, researchers said Sunday.

Gita Ramjee, director of the HIV prevention research unit at South Africa’s Medical Research Council, said microbe-killing vaginal gels offered huge potential for stemming the epidemic, especially in societies where men are reluctant to use a condom.

Ramjee said five clinical trials are under way involving 12,000 people in South Africa and thousands in other countries. Results should be ready in two years, she said.

“We have waited 25 years to address the epidemic, so 2008 is really not too much longer to wait,” she told a press conference before an international conference on microbicides.

She said that if governments fast-tracked the regulatory approval process, the gels might be on the market by 2010 – although she cautioned that was the earliest anticipated date.

HIV infection is rising more rapidly among women than men in many parts of the world. Half of all adults living with the virus that causes AIDS are female, according to U.N. figures.

In sub-Saharan Africa, home to more than 25 million of the nearly 40 million people infected around the world, women account for nearly 60 percent of infections, with most acquired through heterosexual intercourse. Yet strong taboos still exist on the continent regarding the use of condoms.

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has calculated that a microbicide that is 60 percent effective against HIV and used by only 20 percent of women in 73 developing countries over three years could prevent 2.5 million infections.

As many as 6 million South Africans are infected with HIV, the highest number of any country. It is projected that 2.5 million more may become infected by 2010.