AIDS NEWS ALERTS
AIDS NEWS ALERTS
Study shows high efficacy of female condom
A recent Japanese study showed that the female condom, if used correctly with every sex act, had a six-month failure rate of 0.8%.
The condom’s efficacy rate refers to the rate of pregnancy. However, the female condom also is used by women to prevent the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Previously, a U.S. study showed a six-month failure rate of 2.6%. Also, in the Japanese study, the failure rate when the condom was not used correctly with every sex act was 3.2% for six months, as compared with 12.4% in the U.S. study.
"The mostly likely reason for the difference was that coital frequency was much lower in the Japanese study," says James Trussell, PhD, professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton (NJ) University. Trussell, who analyzed the two studies for an article in the journal Contraception, also is a faculty associate at the Office of Population Research at Princeton.
"The protocols were the same; participants were supposed to have coital frequency of a certain amount," Trussell explains. "But the mean coital frequency in the U.S. study was 12 acts per month, and in the Japanese trial it was 4.9 acts per month, 60% lower."
The Japanese study is good news for clinicians and public health officials who promote AIDS prevention. "If it works against pregnancy, that means it’s not breaking or slipping," Trussell says. "And because of its physical design, it clearly will protect women against sexually transmitted diseases."
The female condom is manufactured and distributed by The Female Health Co. in Chicago. The company holds patents on the condom in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, China, Canada, New Zealand, South Korea, and Australia. (See story on the female condom in Common Sense about AIDS, inserted in this issue.)
African-American women are hard hit by AIDS
African-American women represent 56% of all AIDS cases reported among women, and they have three times the number of new cases that are reported for white women, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in Menlo Park, CA.
The AIDS case rate for African-American women is 61.9 cases per 100,000, about 16 times higher than white women’s AIDS case rate of 3.8 cases per 100,000.
These alarming statistics have created a sense of urgency about AIDS among African-American women, and this is expressed in a recent survey the foundation conducted. The Kaiser Family Foundation survey showed that many African-American women believe AIDS is the most urgent health problem facing the nation today, with 88% saying AIDS is a major threat to public health in the United States.
The African-American women surveyed also revealed these beliefs:
• About 46% of African-American women surveyed say AIDS is a more urgent problem today for their community than it was a few years ago.
• Fifty percent of the women know someone personally who has AIDS, or has died of AIDS, or has tested positive for HIV.
• Nearly 70% are very concerned about their children becoming infected with HIV, and this concern has increased more among women than men in recent years.
• Sixty percent of the women say they need information about discussing AIDS prevention with children.
• About 58% report they have been tested for HIV, including 36% within the last year. However, only 47% of the women surveyed say they are very concerned about becoming infected with HIV.
• One-third of African-American women have talked with a health care provider about HIV testing, and 53% of these women say they brought up the topic. Only 35% of African-American women have ever talked with a health care provider about the risks of being infected with HIV.
• One in five African-American women incorrectly state that today’s HIV tests can determine infection within one month of exposure, and 21% state that they do not know when the tests can determine, with confidence, whether or not someone has been infected with HIV.
Of the African-American women surveyed who have not been tested for HIV, 35% say it is because they are married or in a monogamous relationship; 32% say it is because they are not sexually active; and 14% say it is because they see no need or reason to suspect a problem.
Do-it-yourself kits could lead to unsafe sex
Internet shopping has made it easy for anyone with a credit card to order an HIV test kit for as little as $25, and this prospect has public health officials worried about health hazards, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Rockville, MD-based U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved one test, called Home Access, for home use. However, a Chronicle reporter received an unapproved kit by mail after placing an on-line credit card order for $24.95 plus $3.95 for shipping and handling. The test was shipped from Malta by a European company, Health Diagnostics Ltd., and it had a label printed in Russian beneath another label in English.
Bernard Branson, an HIV-testing specialist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Chronicle that public health officials do not know enough about these tests to determine if they are accurate.
The danger is if someone who has been infected with HIV uses an unapproved test kit and receives a negative result, then the person may falsely believe he or she is free of HIV and could then spread the disease to others through unsafe sex or other risky practices.
FDA officials say HIV test kits are considered medical devices and therefore are subject to the FDA’s jurisdiction.
Study shows PI treatment safe for pregnant women
A study of 37 HIV-infected pregnant women appears to show that protease inhibitor treatment is safe for use during pregnancy.
The study, conducted by scientists at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, found that all 32 babies born thus far have been HIV-negative. In addition, there was a relatively low rate of prematurity and no birth defects among the infants.
Alice Stek, MD, who presented the findings at a meeting of the Society for Maternal and Fetal Medicine in San Francisco, asserted that HIV-positive women should not be denied optimal treatment because of pregnancy.
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