Women and AIDS

[Cara.]

What Women Really Need

By Melinda French Gates

Newsweek

 

May 15, 2006 issue - A few months ago, on a trip to Africa, I met with a group of women in Kibera, the biggest slum in Kenya. These women ranged in age from 16 to 45 but had one thing in common: AIDS had devastated their lives. A woman I'll call Chanya told me her story. Chanya is a mother in her 30s trying to raise four children. She does not fit the typical profile of a person living with AIDS—at least not the profile that prevails in the West. She is not a man who has sex with men; she is not a sex worker; she does not use IV drugs. She has engaged in no behavior at all that is high risk for AIDS, except for one—she got married. Her husband, tragically, did engage in high-risk behavior: he had unprotected sex outside his marriage. After acquiring HIV, he passed it on to Chanya. She spoke in a hushed but matter-of-fact voice about her situation. "My husband died of AIDS. I knew we should use a third-leg sock," she told me, using the colloquial phrase for a condom, "but he refused. Now my children will be orphans."

 

Full article

[J.Lee]

Heartbreaking. Truly heartbreaking. Thank god that we are now more closer to finding a cure than ever. Maansha'allah.

 

Another thing. Test the man you plan to marry even if he was sexually inactive before he met you, you can never be too careful these days (forget propriety). And if you are already married, take him to the clinic and get both of yourselves tested. You must protect yourself at all costs even if the cost is your marriage; men come dime a dozen ina adeeryaal but you only have one life. Save it.

 

I'm scared to even breath the air these days.

[Naden]

Sobering. This had me a little worried:

 

If developing countries can't run trials, lifesaving breakthroughs will sit in laboratories waiting to be tested. By some estimates, 100,000 people will be needed for HIV-prevention studies over the coming decade.

Despite my strong belief that new therapies hold the future for lifting this misery, I am always weary of ethical standards being applied differentially in 'developing' countires. In many, people are largely poor and desperate and don't speak the language of the researchers. What does informed consent mean when someone is illiterate, has no recourse for lawsuits and can't seek second opinions?

[J.Lee]

There are usually,if not always, native interpreters that accompany researchers: their job is to pretty much inform the "subjects" the risks and the consequences they face were they to give consent. And they have to sign confidentially and as well efficiency contracts before they are able to begin work in the field.

 

There is always trial and error with these things man but this is as close to perfect as we can get.

[Cara.]

Naden, you're right to be wary. It's a documented fact that large pharmeceuticals use third world subjects as human guinea pigs without many of the restrictions and safe-guards available for people in the developed world. However, AIDS drugs aren't fertility drugs or allergy treatments. A person with AIDS may in some cases be better off taking experimental drugs than just dying of the disease or (worse yet) passing it on to his/her children. Most pharmaceuticals wouldn't go to the cost of conducting human trials without having a pretty good idea that the drug is relatively safe and efficacious.

[ElPunto]

Originally posted by naden:

Sobering. This had me a little worried:

 

quote:

---

If developing countries can't run trials, lifesaving breakthroughs will sit in laboratories waiting to be tested. By some estimates, 100,000 people will be needed for HIV-prevention studies over the coming decade.

Despite my strong belief that new therapies hold the future for lifting this misery, I am always weary of ethical standards being applied differentially in 'developing' countires. In many, people are largely poor and desperate and don't speak the language of the researchers. What does informed consent mean when someone is illiterate, has no recourse for lawsuits and can't seek second opinions?

I agree in general. I wonder though - with the new cocktail drugs you have - HIV/AIDS is becoming a managed disease thus reducing the likelihood of people wanting to participate in clinical trials as it is not(so much) a death sentence.

[Naden]

Originally posted by Cara:

Most pharmaceuticals wouldn't go to the cost of conducting human trials without having a pretty good idea that the drug is relatively safe and efficacious.

Cara, I agree. I think an AIDS diagnosis is a crux of human misery since it means a slow, degenerating death and the loss of mostly young, productive people. I also believe that it is fair that clinical trials should be done in all parts of the world since everyone eventually benefits from the treatments once the drugs are approved.

 

What leaves a sour taste in my mouth is the chance, like you said, that big pharmaceutical companies would contract out smaller portions of a drug development phase to local/smaller companies and laboratories with the hope that some of the hoops might be bypassed for accelerated patenting and approval. The benefits are theirs but the risks fall on the smaller fish. I'm just worried that many drugs NOT ready for human trials will gain access to African humans and not necessarily American/European ones.

 

I agree in general. I wonder though - with the new cocktail drugs you have - HIV/AIDS is becoming a managed disease thus reducing the likelihood of people wanting to participate in clinical trials as it is not(so much) a death sentence.

ThePoint, it's true that AIDS is not the death sentence it was 10 or 15 years ago. Prevention is probably just as much an important need as treatment in areas where the infection rates are staggering. People in these areas would probably be willing to participate if, like the women in the article, they are unable to convince their partners to use condoms.

 

There is always trial and error with these things man but this is as close to perfect as we can get.

J.Lee, I agree. The trial of those researchers in Libya, however, reminds of instances where people are cheated out of a chance to know what is being done to them or their children.

[Castro]

Originally posted by naden:

I'm just worried that many drugs NOT ready for human trials will gain access to African humans and not necessarily American/European ones.

How else would these drugs be found fit for humans if they weren't tested on humans. Americans and Europeans are a little more valuable than Africans, I'm sad to report. Africans will die of one catastrophy or another: war, drought, disease or Hyenas. Let the drug companies use it on a few. If the drugs work, it's great for everyone. If they don't, well, I can't think of anyone, even Africans, being overly distraught about it.

 

It really is inhuman to think along these lines but that's how far our homelands have degenerated.

 

Originally posted by J.Lee:

Test the man you plan to marry even if he was sexually inactive before he met you, you can never be too careful these days (forget propriety). And if you are already married, take him to the clinic and get both of yourselves tested.

Don't you know that men are still severely horny well into their 90's. And that given the opportunity, enough temptation, and the possibility of not getting caught they'd engage in extra-marital affairs? Getting tested means nothing when a person can go out and get laid the evening of the test. Unless by getting tested you mean a daily, right before bed time, kinda thing.

[Naden]

^ I don't know. It is desperate that Malaria, gastritis, and childbirth among others clamor for the African soul.

 

Medical research is just as competitive and cutthroat an industry as others and lax restrictions might mean a hundred different researchers from the developed world running parallel trials through their affiliates in 'developing' countries that lack the ethics watchdogs. Before you know it, grave injuries and deaths are not reported in the results and healthy folks are infected to try the vaccine side of research without them knowing what's happening. It's all very desperate. But like Cara said, for the person with AIDS, any drug offers hope and reservation is the luxury of healthy folks.

[Cara.]

At what point do our worries go from genuine concern to a patronizing belief that those ignorant clueless Africans are being taken advantage of? If I had AIDS and was offered an experimental drug that could potentially cure me or even give me a better quality of life, I wouldn't refuse it. Even if it turns out to be a dud, it probably hasn't significantly shortened my lifespan.

 

The Point,

 

AIDS is indeed manageable in developed countries because of those antiretroviral cocktails. Unfortunately these same drugs aren't quite as available in the 3rd world, because they are too expensive for the average African. Most people in Africa who do have access to anti-HIV therapies take only one or two drugs. Most can't even afford that much. Women are particularly at a disadvantage because they don't have control over household finances.

 

Argh. Do you know that the HIV virus prevalent in most of Africa is different from the strain affecting the 1st world? It's more virulent, more likely to lead to AIDS faster and with worse symptoms. We got fcuked (no pun intended).

[Nephissa]

Sad Walahi. Africa needs to step forward so badly. I wish euthanasia was available to these poor suffering people. They should atleast be able to die with dignity.

[J.Lee]

Castro: Dude. Let's say you and your spouse get tested and the results came back negative. From that point on you, if you weren't already, should began to use the various preventative methods so that if they were to sample unfamiliar charters you'd be protected despite what s/he might bring home or to the marital bed.

 

There is no need to get tested daily. Just yearly.

[Castro]

Ok, dudette. We're on the same page. Clearly the xaax-factor is powerful enough that people still seek it despite the obvious, sometimes fatal, risks. Now, no matter what testing and precautions are employed, if awareness, trust, faith and other intangible deterrents are not in effect, we will continue to have infection rates of 30-40% as in some African countries. Sadly.

[Cara.]

^LOL @ "xaax-factor". You have a way with words.

 

Wondering if "xaax-factor" will start appearing on Google Trends...

[Khalaf]

Aids is man-made.