9 October 2008
Lagos — The University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan yesterday announced the failure of a research effort aimed at preventing male-to-female transmission of HIV.
Prof. Rasheed Bakare, UCH's Deputy Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee (Laboratories), told newsmen that the failed experiment involved the use of a gel named SAVVY by commercial sex workers.
SAVVY, according to him, is a potential microbicide for the prevention of the transmission of the virus.
Bakare said that the experiment failed as some of the women, who hitherto were HIV negative, eventually contracted the virus, despite using the gel.
"We found out that some of the ladies who used the gel have contracted HIV," he said.
The experiment, he said, was carried out in collaboration with Family Health International, a U.S.-based NGO.
Bakare said that UCH had organised a one-day workshop aimed at dissuading the women from further use of the gel, as it had been found not to be effective.
"The aim of this workshop is to tell the ladies to stop the use of SAVVY gel that was given to them and that condom is still more effective," he said.
The experiment, according to Bakare, was started in 2004 with 2,153 women made up of club girls, commercial sex workers and some students participatig.
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