Join search for HIV vaccine, women told
Mar 14, 2006
Women have been urged to participate actively in the ongoing studies in the search for an HIV/AIDS vaccine.
By Timothy Makokha
Women have been urged to participate actively in the ongoing studies in the search for an HIV/AIDS vaccine.
Dr. Hannah Kibuuka, the director, Clinical Programme, Makerere University Walter Reed Project (MUWRP), a research collaboration between Makerere University and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, says the success of any HIV vaccine in future will largely depend on the participation of men and women.
Kibuuka says since 1999, when Uganda started carrying out HIV/AIDS vaccine trials, women’s participation in the HIV vaccine research remains dismal. “This is despite the fact that women face a greater risk of HIV infection,†he said.
With almost five million new HIV infections and three million deaths from AIDS occurring every year worldwide, scientists agree that a vaccine may prove to be the most effective, affordable and long-term approach to stopping the spread of HIV.
The United Nations 2005 Global summary of the HIV/AIDS epidemic estimates 17.5 million women between the ages of 15 and 49 years are living with HIV. These figures reveal the increasingly female-face of AIDS.
However, some of the people who have been hit hardest by the pandemic — women are at risk of being left behind in the search for an effective vaccine against the HIV virus.
According to a recent publication by MUWRP, the first HIV vaccine trial in 1999 at the Joint Clinical Research Centre had only 20% of the participants as women.
The second trial conducted by International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) at the Uganda Virus Research Institute in Entebbe, registered only 16% of the participants as women. In the ongoing trial by Makerere University, Walter Reed Project, only four out of 30 participants are women.
These statistics compare unfavourably against the reality on the ground, where women are disproportionately more predisposed to HIV/AIDS infections than their male counterparts.
In sub-Saharan Africa, women are six times more vulnerable to HIV infection than men.
Ten to 30% of women who go for antenatal care are HIV-positive. Approximately one-third of them will ultimately transmit HIV to their infants.
According to an Atlas of Global Inequality on HIV/AIDS and Gender in Africa 2005, for every 15-19-year-old boy that is infected, there are five to six girls infected in the same age group.
Thus, women need an HIV/AIDS vaccine, just as much if not more than men.
Ultimately, women’s failure to participate in clinical trials could mean significant delays in the availability of an HIV vaccine best-suited to their body needs and could cost countless lives.
In an article, HIV vaccine acceptability among communities at risk, Newman P. says enrolling women in HIV vaccine trials represents an important challenge that must be fulfilled in order to conduct ethical, valid and generalisable trials.
Prossy Naluyima, author of the article, Women: Spectators or players in HIV vaccine effort? in the MUWRP publication, says one of the biggest challenges facing HIV scientists and researchers today is how to involve more women in HIV vaccine research.
She says women’s participation in the trials is just as vital as men’s. “To know if a vaccine is effective for both women and men, it is important to enroll enough women and men in clinical trials.â€
Naluyima says while the reasons for women’s low turn out in HIV vaccine research were not definite, they could include high illiteracy rates among women, negative myths surrounding the vaccine trials, stigma and fear of effects of the study on their health.
In her article, Naluyima dispelled fears about the safety of HIV trial vaccines, saying the vaccines cannot cause HIV infection because they do not contain HIV.
Ends
Women have been urged to participate actively in the ongoing studies in the search for an HIV/AIDS vaccine.
Dr. Hannah Kibuuka, the director, Clinical Programme, Makerere University Walter Reed Project (MUWRP), a research collaboration between Makerere University and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, says the success of any HIV vaccine in future will largely depend on the participation of men and women.
Kibuuka says since 1999, when Uganda started carrying out HIV/AIDS vaccine trials, women’s participation in the HIV vaccine research remains dismal. “This is despite the fact that women face a greater risk of HIV infection,†he said.
With almost five million new HIV infections and three million deaths from AIDS occurring every year worldwide, scientists agree that a vaccine may prove to be the most effective, affordable and long-term approach to stopping the spread of HIV.
The United Nations 2005 Global summary of the HIV/AIDS epidemic estimates 17.5 million women between the ages of 15 and 49 years are living with HIV. These figures reveal the increasingly female-face of AIDS.
However, some of the people who have been hit hardest by the pandemic — women are at risk of being left behind in the search for an effective vaccine against the HIV virus.
According to a recent publication by MUWRP, the first HIV vaccine trial in 1999 at the Joint Clinical Research Centre had only 20% of the participants as women.
The second trial conducted by International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) at the Uganda Virus Research Institute in Entebbe, registered only 16% of the participants as women. In the ongoing trial by Makerere University, Walter Reed Project, only four out of 30 participants are women.
These statistics compare unfavourably against the reality on the ground, where women are disproportionately more predisposed to HIV/AIDS infections than their male counterparts.
In sub-Saharan Africa, women are six times more vulnerable to HIV infection than men.
Ten to 30% of women who go for antenatal care are HIV-positive. Approximately one-third of them will ultimately transmit HIV to their infants.
According to an Atlas of Global Inequality on HIV/AIDS and Gender in Africa 2005, for every 15-19-year-old boy that is infected, there are five to six girls infected in the same age group.
Thus, women need an HIV/AIDS vaccine, just as much if not more than men.
Ultimately, women’s failure to participate in clinical trials could mean significant delays in the availability of an HIV vaccine best-suited to their body needs and could cost countless lives.
In an article, HIV vaccine acceptability among communities at risk, Newman P. says enrolling women in HIV vaccine trials represents an important challenge that must be fulfilled in order to conduct ethical, valid and generalisable trials.
Prossy Naluyima, author of the article, Women: Spectators or players in HIV vaccine effort? in the MUWRP publication, says one of the biggest challenges facing HIV scientists and researchers today is how to involve more women in HIV vaccine research.
She says women’s participation in the trials is just as vital as men’s. “To know if a vaccine is effective for both women and men, it is important to enroll enough women and men in clinical trials.â€
Naluyima says while the reasons for women’s low turn out in HIV vaccine research were not definite, they could include high illiteracy rates among women, negative myths surrounding the vaccine trials, stigma and fear of effects of the study on their health.
In her article, Naluyima dispelled fears about the safety of HIV trial vaccines, saying the vaccines cannot cause HIV infection because they do not contain HIV.
Ends