The Sunday News
Joel Tsvakwi, Sunday life Reporter
WITH the scourge of HIV and Aids more prone in the south of the Sahara it has been noted that women need choices of preventing HIV infections.
Experts believe that 50 percent of south of the Sahara women are said to be in one way or the other affected by HIV and Aids.
In a clinical controlled study dubbed ASPIRE it also emerged that adherence to a remedy (ASPIRE vaginal ring) has got high chances of preventing and minimising new HIV infections.
The wide scale clinical trial was conducted in collaborative effort between University of Zimbabwe and University of California San Francisco(UCSF) on what they called Microbicide Trials Network(MTN).
The study was conducted in Uganda, South Africa, Malawi and Zimbabwe with 6 229 women taking part. ASPIRE is a vaginal ring containing an antiretroviral drug (ARV) called dapivirine that women insert in their genital tract and is used for a month at a time.
Studies have proven that daily use of an ARV tablet Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is very effective in preventing HIV.
Health Journalists of Zimbabwe (HeJAZ) organised a meeting last week in Bulawayo dubbed ‘‘ASPIRE Results Dissemination and The Hope Study’’ and Garikai Chaunza the acting chairman implored journalists to report more on the issue of HIV and Aids despite the now wide held perception that the HIV story is tired phenomena.
Addressing journalists at the same event Portia Hunidzanaiwa UZ-UCSF said women need to have various options to use so as to minimise and to prevent HIV infection.
“Women’s preferences are not all the same just as women have choices in contraception, they should have choices for HIV prevention too. Even the most effective product cannot protect against HIV if it is not used, a product that best suits one’s lifestyle and needs is more likely to be used,” said Hunidzanaiwa.
The study which was conducted between June 2012 and August 2015 proved that adherence which varies with age was a fundamental factor in reducing and minimising new infections.
“Combined, there were 56 percent fewer HIV infections among women older than age 21. Blood samples and used ring testing showed that younger women were less adherent to the ring,” she said.
