One Cheap Pill Protects Healthy People from HIV

One Cheap Pill Protects Healthy People from HIV

www.newscientist.com

A daily pill that costs just 25¢ can prevent both men and women from catching HIV from partners carrying the virus.

The results, from two studies in Africa, provide unprecedented opportunities to prevent the spread of HIV.

Just 13 participants taking the combination drug, more commonly known as Truvada, were infected, compared with 78 taking a placebo – a 73 per cent reduction in risk.

Only 18 infections occurred in the group taking tenofovir, a 62 per cent reduction in risk. Taken together, the drug recipients reduced their risk of infection by 68 per cent compared with placebo ta

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Hearing the word "cheap" next to the word "medicine" is rare, especially when it comes to medicine that gives such astonishing results, preventing the HIV virus from spreading between couples. Although it's not 100% effective, it does seem to reduce the risk by about 73% (max), which is a significant number.

Will this medicine be readily available all over the world? I don't know. Not sure how they plan on making it available, and whether the cost will eventually soar. What I do wonder is how many people would take advantage of using it in order to prevent a health tragedy from happening. I imagine that this would be good for those who are a bit on the promiscuous side, and those who have a partner who is already infected.



www.newscientist.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by 2manyquestions


I honestly don't see how this could be effectively marketed to couples if the whole point is to reduce chance of infection via unprotected sex. Sure, it reduces the chance of infection by 73%, but over the course of hundreds of sexual encounters, eventually the odds will catch up with you and you'll get infected anyways.

Seems like it wouldn't be a bad idea to take the pill if you wanna go out and bang everything that moves though.

pretty good news and if they use a condom then there pretty much 100%safe

Studies have shown that condoms are highly effective in preventing HIV transmission when used properly. These studies looked at uninfected people in sexual relationships with HIV-infected partners. The studies found that even with repeated sexual contact, 98 to 100 percent of those people who used latex condoms correctly and consistently did not become infected.

Originally posted by Adyta
reply to post by 2manyquestions

 

I honestly don't see how this could be effectively marketed to couples if the whole point is to reduce chance of infection via unprotected sex. Sure, it reduces the chance of infection by 73%, but over the course of hundreds of sexual encounters, eventually the odds will catch up with you and you'll get infected anyways.

Seems like it wouldn't be a bad idea to take the pill if you wanna go out and bang everything that moves though.

edit on 7/13/2011 by Adyta because: (no reason given)

You're right that chances are that it won't protect you forever, but if you can shave off a few years of being infected with HIV, it adds to your life expectancy. For example if you can stay HIV free for an extra two or three years, you have that much more of a chance of survival. If they don't have a cure for you within 10 years and they find one a year or two later, it's possible you could have been saved had you used the medicine. In places like certain African countries, this is a huge step forward, as there are so many people who are infected. Bringing down the infection rate of individuals reduces the chances for this virus to continue spreading at unprecedented speeds.

I have a 100% effective cure - its called a monogamous relationship.
I can see people using this pill as a way to have unprotected sex - you know AIDS isn't the only thing to be caught through sex. And 73% - not odds I would be willing to gamble on.

Originally posted by Alena Michelle
I have a 100% effective cure - its called a monogamous relationship.
I can see people using this pill as a way to have unprotected sex - you know AIDS isn't the only thing to be caught through sex. And 73% - not odds I would be willing to gamble on.

Seeing as how this article is about AIDS in Africa which is usually spread through rape and sexual abuse, your cute little idea sounds great and all but not at all realistic. Unless the little girls that are raped by infected men are at fault for not "choosing" to not get raped.

I have to agree with the poster that said "medicine" and "cheap" together is quite odd. This sounds like the type of drug that would be up there with chemo pills that cost thousands of dollars a dose. I am very interested to see where this leads.

reply to post by Kitilani


My "cute little idea" was addressing the idea that it would be marketed to adults in the US as a way to prevent the spread of AIDS in multiple partners. I do not recall anywhere in the opening OP talking about child rape - it said sex among partners.
"I imagine that this would be good for those who are a bit on the promiscuous side, and those who have a partner who is already infected."
Do you see child rape in there? Neither do I.

Originally posted by Kitilani
Seeing as how this article is about AIDS in Africa which is usually spread through rape and sexual abuse, your cute little idea sounds great and all but not at all realistic. Unless the little girls that are raped by infected men are at fault for not "choosing" to not get raped.

I find this unlikely. Care to back up this wild claim with a source? Some kind of statistics?

Something other than "usually"?

Double post...

Originally posted by Alena Michelle
I have a 100% effective cure - its called a monogamous relationship.
I can see people using this pill as a way to have unprotected sex - you know AIDS isn't the only thing to be caught through sex. And 73% - not odds I would be willing to gamble on.

On one hand you're right, but consider the fact that you can't control what your partner is doing when you're not looking. Monogamy is a nice idea, but with teenagers becoming sexually active sooner and more frequently, it's definitely a problem. "Hooking up" on College campuses also isn't unusual for a lot of students. Sexually transmitted diseases are plenty. HIV certainly isn't the only issue, but wouldn't it be nice if you could worry a little less about at least one of them? 73% isn't 100%, but it's better than 0%. Every step toward prevention is important. I too would recommend monogamy or abstinence to prevent infection, but that isn't a reality for many, many people.

Places like certain African nations would appreciate this medicine a whole lot more than we do simply because the problem is far greater for them than it is for us here. As one poster mentioned, rape is a huge problem in Africa, because many hold the false belief that having sex with a virgin will cure them; Hence the rape.

Originally posted by Adyta
I find this unlikely. Care to back up this wild claim with a source? Some kind of statistics?

Something other than "usually"?

Sure thing.

HIV/AIDS, the stats, the virgin cure and infant rape

I thought this was more common knowledge actually so my apologies.

Nearly 60 children are raped every day in South Africa and while experts agree to disagree as to the causes, or whether the pervasive belief in the so-called "Virgin Cure" prevents/cures HIV/Aids is possibly responsible for this deeply disturbing phenomenon, university researcher, Mike Earl-Taylor suggests it could well be a contributing factor, and a major one at that. Moreover, infant rape appears to be unique to South Africa, however, the Virgin Cure is not

HIV and AIDs in SA

Violence against women, including sexual violence, is widespread in South Africa. In a large survey, more than four-in-ten South African men reported to have been physically violent to an intimate partner.113 Over a quarter of men reported ever having raped a woman with nearly one-in-twenty committing rape in the previous year. Little difference was found in the HIV prevalence of men who had raped a woman compared to those who had not. However, the generally high HIV prevalence among all men surveyed means there is a good chance that a man who commits rape has HIV.

The Virgin Cure

Definition: The Virgin Cure is the mistaken belief that if a man has intercourse with a virgin female, he can be cured of AIDS, syphilis, gonorrhea, or other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
According to author Hanne Blank, the idea may have evolved from Christian legends of virgin martyrs whose purity served as a form of protection in battling demons. Researcher Mike Earl-Taylor also indicates the myth gained prominence 19th century Victorian England. Today, it is believed that the Virgin Cure may explain the staggering rise in child/infant rapes in South Africa, which is facing an HIV/AIDS epidemic.

'He thought sex with a virgin would cure him'

Last year, Rory Carroll visited MSF's HIV/Aids clinic in South Africa. Six months on, a TB/HIV clinic is thriving and a rape centre is offering comprehensive care

Just one little anecdote.

Following is the personal account of one of MSF's patients, 23-year-old Babalwa Tembani.

"My uncle raped me when I was 14. I was arguing with him and he hit me. I blacked out and when I woke up I was in hospital and the police told me I had been raped. My uncle had HIV. After he attacked me he ran away. Later he wrote me a letter asking for forgiveness. He said he raped me because he thought having sex with a virgin would cure him of his disease. He said he felt sorry for me because now I had HIV and I was going to die. Then he killed himself. When my mother died in 1998 my auntie sent me money to come from the Eastern Cape and live with her in Cape Town. I was going to school and everything was good for a while but then I got sick. I told my auntie what had happened but she didn't believe me, she didn't believe that my uncle had infected me, she said I must have caught HIV from my boyfriend.

Child Rape in South Africa

Rape, including child rape, is increasing at shocking rates in South Africa. Sexual violence against children, including the raping of infants, has increased 400% over the past decade (Dempster, 2002). According to a report by BBC news, a female born in South Africa has a greater chance of being raped in her lifetime than learning how to read (Dempster, 2002). When South Africa became a democracy in 1994, there were already 18,801 cases of rape per year, but by 2001 there were 24,892 (Dempster, 2002). Numbers vary by different institutions, but are nevertheless extremely troubling. The Institute of Race Relations found that more than 52,000 rapes were reported in 2000, and 40% of the victims were under age 18 (du Venage, 2002). The University of South Africa reports that 1 million women and children are raped there each year (South Africa: Focus on the Virgin Myth, 2002).

Various cultural beliefs in South Africa regarding rape hinder the problem of decreasing and reporting rape. It is difficult to impossible for a woman to say no to sex. Many girls and women believe that if they know the boy or it is a boyfriend who rapes them, they cannot say no to sex, even forcible sex. Many men believe they are entitled to sex or even believe that women enjoy being raped. In a study done in the Gauteng area, 8 in 10 men believed women were responsible for causing sexual violence and 3 in 10 "asked for it" (Scared at School, 2001). Approximately 50% of male youth believed no to sex meant yes, and nearly one third said forcing sex on someone they knew was not sexual violence (Scared at School, 2001). A majority of men thought "jack rolling" ("recreational" gang rape) was bad, but boys between the ages of 15 and 19 thought it was "good" or "just a game" (Scared at School, 2001).

The raping of infants and/or children may also be due to the belief that sex with a child or baby will cure AIDS.Virginity testing is growing and many times occurs in school. Girls must lie on their backs with their pants and underwear off and legs in the air, preferably on a sloped floor (IRIN HIV/AIDS Weekly, 2001).

Need more?

Originally posted by Adyta

Originally posted by Kitilani
Seeing as how this article is about AIDS in Africa which is usually spread through rape and sexual abuse, your cute little idea sounds great and all but not at all realistic. Unless the little girls that are raped by infected men are at fault for not "choosing" to not get raped.

I find this unlikely. Care to back up this wild claim with a source? Some kind of statistics?

Something other than "usually"?

edit on 7/13/2011 by Adyta because: (no reason given)

I know you didn't ask me, but I thought I'd share a couple sources:

The Impact of HIV & AIDS in Africa

Two-thirds of all people infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa, although this region contains little more than 10% of the world’s population.1 AIDS has caused immense human suffering in the continent. The most obvious effect of this crisis has been illness and death, but the impact of the epidemic has certainly not been confined to the health sector; households, schools, workplaces and economies have also been badly affected. During 2009 alone, an estimated 1.3 million adults and children died as a result of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.2 Since the beginning of the epidemic more than 15 million Africans have died from AIDS.3

Time Magazine

Time Magazine - South Africa's Rape Crisis

Researchers interviewed 1,738 men of all race groups, in both urban and rural settings in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, provinces marked by high rates of AIDS and poverty, and the men answered questions about rape and HIV using small handheld computers in order to guarantee anonymity. Of those admitting rape, 73% said that they had committed their first assault before the age of 20. According to the researchers, many of the study's participants appeared to see no problem with what they had done. These findings, says Mbuyiselo Botha, a senior program advisor at Sonke Gender Justice, an advocacy group for abused women, "highlight the lack of remorse among men in our country, and also the attitude that women remain fair game for us." Men, says Botha, "continue to abuse even to the point of getting away with murder." Read more: www.time.com...

Rape Troubles Nearly All in South Africa

The Gallup survey results add to statistics from Interpol estimating that a woman is raped every 17 seconds in South Africa, and that one in every two women will be raped in their lives in the country. According to Interpol, South Africa has the highest number of declared rapes in the world, with nearly half of the victims younger than 18. In a recent survey conducted by South Africa's Medical Research Council in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces, one in four men admitted to having raped someone, and nearly half said they had attacked more than one victim. The report also found acts such as gang rape to be common because they are considered a form of male bonding, or a way to prove one's manhood or power.

73% you say? I'll take those odds in Vegas any day, where you can win and lose and still come out ahead.

With HIV and other STDs, though, if you lose once, you're done.

I think I'll spend a little more and get the 99% guarantee of a condom.

Originally posted by Alena Michelle
reply to post by Kitilani

 

My "cute little idea" was addressing the idea that it would be marketed to adults in the US as a way to prevent the spread of AIDS in multiple partners. I do not recall anywhere in the opening OP talking about child rape - it said sex among partners.

Then you should have read the article.

The results, from two studies in Africa, provide unprecedented opportunities to prevent the spread of HIV.

The results come on the heels of a widely celebrated positive finding from the so-called CAPRISA 004 trial in South African women

This new prevention success also raises fundamental questions about how to best spend money to thwart the AIDS epidemic. "For a country that has not yet reached the level of care in terms of providing antiretovirals to save people's lives, I think it's going to be quite a while before we'd start using oral antiretrovirals for prevention," says Salim Abdool Karim, an epidemiologist a the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, who co-ran the CAPRISA study.

What article were you looking at?

"I imagine that this would be good for those who are a bit on the promiscuous side, and those who have a partner who is already infected."
Do you see child rape in there? Neither do I.

I see this study was done in Africa in response to the AIDS epidemic in Africa which is widely due to child rape.

I've read all of those sources, and I have yet to see a claim like "X% of HIV cases are transmitted through rape".

Saying HIV is usually transmitted through rape, then linking me to sources talking about high rape percentages doesn't mean that HIV is usually transmitted through rape. Get me something that says something along the lines of;

"Out of all the reported HIV cases, 54% contracted the virus when raped"

I'm not saying you're wrong, because I have no idea... and Google wont give me a straight answer.

Originally posted by 2manyquestions

Originally posted by Alena Michelle
I have a 100% effective cure - its called a monogamous relationship.
I can see people using this pill as a way to have unprotected sex - you know AIDS isn't the only thing to be caught through sex. And 73% - not odds I would be willing to gamble on.

On one hand you're right, but consider the fact that you can't control what your partner is doing when you're not looking. Monogamy is a nice idea, but with teenagers becoming sexually active sooner and more frequently, it's definitely a problem. "Hooking up" on College campuses also isn't unusual for a lot of students. Sexually transmitted diseases are plenty. HIV certainly isn't the only issue, but wouldn't it be nice if you could worry a little less about at least one of them? 73% isn't 100%, but it's better than 0%. Every step toward prevention is important. I too would recommend monogamy or abstinence to prevent infection, but that isn't a reality for many, many people.

Places like certain African nations would appreciate this medicine a whole lot more than we do simply because the problem is far greater for them than it is for us here. As one poster mentioned, rape is a huge problem in Africa, because many hold the false belief that having sex with a virgin will cure them; Hence the rape.

I have no issue with a pill that might stop a rape victim from contracting AIDS. However, in your OP, you didn't mention it as a preventive in rape cases you said, " I imagine that this would be good for those who are a bit on the promiscuous side, and those who have a partner who is already infected."
The word child or rape occures no where in your OP. I addressed what you wrote, with my opinion.
You quote, "A daily pill that costs just 25¢ can prevent both men and women from catching HIV from partners carrying the virus." This says men/women/partners not children and rape. Forgive me for not inferring from your OP that what this thread is really about is child rape spreading AIDS in Southen Africa.

reply to post by Alena Michelle


You should really read the article linked in the OP and not just what the OP wrote around it. It is specifically addressing the epidemic in Africa which is not caused by discreet liaisons.

Originally posted by Adyta
I've read all of those sources, and I have yet to see a claim like "X% of HIV cases are transmitted through rape".

Saying HIV is usually transmitted through rape, then linking me to sources talking about high rape percentages doesn't mean that HIV is usually transmitted through rape. Get me something that says something along the lines of;

"Out of all the reported HIV cases, 54% contracted the virus when raped"

I'm not saying you're wrong, because I have no idea... and Google wont give me a straight answer.

edit on 7/13/2011 by Adyta because: (no reason given)

So your problem is with the word "usually?"
Sounds like you are going to have to deal with that one on your own.

Originally posted by Kitilani
reply to post by Alena Michelle

 

You should really read the article linked in the OP and not just what the OP wrote around it. It is specifically addressing the epidemic in Africa which is not caused by discreet liaisons.

Originally posted by Adyta
I've read all of those sources, and I have yet to see a claim like "X% of HIV cases are transmitted through rape".

Saying HIV is usually transmitted through rape, then linking me to sources talking about high rape percentages doesn't mean that HIV is usually transmitted through rape. Get me something that says something along the lines of;

"Out of all the reported HIV cases, 54% contracted the virus when raped"

I'm not saying you're wrong, because I have no idea... and Google wont give me a straight answer.

edit on 7/13/2011 by Adyta because: (no reason given)

So your problem is with the word "usually?"
Sounds like you are going to have to deal with that one on your own.

You replyed to me but quoted Adyta. Your bad...oops

Originally posted by Alena Michelle

Originally posted by 2manyquestions

Originally posted by Alena Michelle
I have a 100% effective cure - its called a monogamous relationship.
I can see people using this pill as a way to have unprotected sex - you know AIDS isn't the only thing to be caught through sex. And 73% - not odds I would be willing to gamble on.

On one hand you're right, but consider the fact that you can't control what your partner is doing when you're not looking. Monogamy is a nice idea, but with teenagers becoming sexually active sooner and more frequently, it's definitely a problem. "Hooking up" on College campuses also isn't unusual for a lot of students. Sexually transmitted diseases are plenty. HIV certainly isn't the only issue, but wouldn't it be nice if you could worry a little less about at least one of them? 73% isn't 100%, but it's better than 0%. Every step toward prevention is important. I too would recommend monogamy or abstinence to prevent infection, but that isn't a reality for many, many people.

Places like certain African nations would appreciate this medicine a whole lot more than we do simply because the problem is far greater for them than it is for us here. As one poster mentioned, rape is a huge problem in Africa, because many hold the false belief that having sex with a virgin will cure them; Hence the rape.

I have no issue with a pill that might stop a rape victim from contracting AIDS. However, in your OP, you didn't mention it as a preventive in rape cases you said, " I imagine that this would be good for those who are a bit on the promiscuous side, and those who have a partner who is already infected."
The word child or rape occures no where in your OP. I addressed what you wrote, with my opinion.
You quote, "A daily pill that costs just 25¢ can prevent both men and women from catching HIV from partners carrying the virus." This says men/women/partners not children and rape. Forgive me for not inferring from your OP that what this thread is really about is child rape spreading AIDS in Southen Africa.

I figured people would read the article instead of just reading what I had to say about it. Besides, I'm not arguing with you over your reply. I understand what you were replying to, which was my suggestion that maybe the drug would be marketed in the U.S. I got no beef with you as far as I know.