Drugs, Contraceptives Failing to Conquer Virus; Many Tools Are Low-Tech, Underused

Thursday at the 14th International AIDS Conference, a veteran of the worst years of the US epidemic decried the world's failure to muster one of the earliest weapons found to work against the disease: the condom. "Condoms are neither under patent not expensive and should not be in short supply in the world," said Dr. James Curran, who headed the CDC's AIDS fight in the 1980s. A UN report found a shortage of 2 billion condoms this month in Africa alone. "While we are considering making pharmaceuticals available, why not provide a mechanism to provide free condoms worldwide?" Curran asked.

Meanwhile, millions of dollars are being spent on high-tech remedies that may or may not be effective. Vaccine research continues, yet there was little encouraging to report. Indeed, bad news came from Harvard researchers, who described how a patient who had developed a strong immune response to one strain of HIV had apparently been reinfected and sickened by a slightly different strain. The patient had precisely the kind of immune protection sought from several potential new vaccines, so news that a mutant HIV strain had sidestepped his defenses is a discouraging hint that such vaccines might not work as hoped. However, Harvard researcher Dr. Bruce Walker said he still had faith in the vaccine strategy, which is being developed by Merck.

Canadian researchers reported on studies in Africa suggesting that men who are circumcised have, on average, a 50 percent lower risk of contracting HIV. In Africa, 35 different studies have found that uncircumcised men had between two and eight times the risk of HIV infection as circumcised men. Scientists disagree on whether this effect is based on biology or behavior.

Researchers are working to discover a vaginal microbicide that women could use to prevent HIV without their partner's knowledge. Trials of several promising products are underway.

San Francisco AIDS researcher Nancy Padian has launched a trial in Zimbabwe to see if a diaphragm can reduce, not eliminate, risk of sexual HIV transmission. Such interventions are a fraction of the cost of even the cheapest generic antiviral drugs.

Back to other CDC news for July 12, 2002

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