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HIV-gel woman tells of trials
08/02/2007 19:09 - (SA)
Sydney Masinga
Nelspruit - One of the women who contracted HIV while taking part in a medical trial to test the effectiveness of an anti-HIV/Aids gel, or microbicide, says the only reason she was because there was because she was poor.
The 23-year-old woman, who was tracked down through the offices of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in KwaZulu-Natal, asked not to be named.
She said she was paid R150 a month for 12 months to be part of the trial.
She said she was HIV negative before the trial started, but had contracted the disease by the end of the trial because she didn't use condoms during sex, thinking the microbicide would protect her.
'We don't like using condoms'
"They target people who are poor, uneducated and whom they know are more unlikely to use condoms," she said.
She conceded that the women were advised to use the gel along with condoms, and that those taking part were given both male and female condoms free of charge.
She said this didn't help her or 19 other women who also contracted HIV during the trials.
"They give you the gel and tell you to use it with condoms, knowing full well that we don't like using condoms," she said.
The microbicide was tested on 1 300 women from India, South Africa, Uganda and Ghana.
Most of the women tested HIV-positive after the trials, which were conducted by an American company called Conrad.
In South Africa, 603 women from KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape took part in the trials.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has asked the national health research ethics council to investigate whether the women were properly informed before joining the trial and whether they were warned of the risks.
Had been told of the risks
She has also asked whether the Medicines Control Council had approved the protocol that was followed.
Professor Amesi Dai of the Steve Biko biometric research centre at Wits University said that all those taking part had been told of the risks involved in the tests.
Conrad spokesperson Annette Lakin confirmed that all the procedures and approved protocols had been followed when the tests were conducted.
Lakin said: "All the participants went through counselling before tests were done on them, and we will work with and assist the health department in the investigation."
The women who contracted HIV would be supplied with antiretrovirals for life.
In September 2006, Bill Gates and civil society movements attended a world Aids conference in Toronto, Canada.
The issue of microbicides was debated and supported that same month at a similar conference held in Cape Town. Aids activists hoped the gel would be a breakthrough in the fight against HIV.
Nomfundo Elland, the treatment literacy co-ordinator of the TAC said the preliminary results of the trials were a setback.
"As TAC, we were calling for the trial to be speeded up, hoping that it would have been a real breakthrough.
"It is really sad that these people had to go through this experience.
Selling gel on black market
"The participants were warned that this was just a trial process and they had to use condoms with the gel.
"But, I guess those who tested positive did not follow the instructions properly," she said.
She said there were allegations that some people were selling the gel on the black market.
She warned that it was possible that those who were buying it were not using it properly, increasing the risk of transmission.
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