Ice-cream ingredient could make sex safer: A FOOD additive used to make ice-cream could provide a breakthrough in the prevention of HIV transmission during sex.
Sunday Times, South Africa - July 16, 2000 Ranjeni Munusamy.
Carageenan, a substance derived from seaweed and which is widely used to thicken ice-cream, is undergoing safety tests in South Africa as part of an international microbicide development project. The product, developed by the Population Council in New York, is one of several microbicides - substances which reduce the sexual transmission of infections when applied in either the vagina or the rectum - being tested worldwide. It comes in the form of a tasteless gel that coats the vagina, and laboratory trials have shown that it could prevent HIV infection. A senior scientist at the Medical Research Council in Durban, Dr Gita Ramjee, who is supervising the tests in South Africa, says two groups of women are taking part. Initial tests were carried out in the US, and the second phase is being conducted at family planning clinics in Guguletu township in the Western Cape and Ga-Rankuwa in North West. "The gel is applied only after the informed consent of the women. We follow up every month with examinations to check if there are any sexually transmitted infections and also test their blood for HIV. During each visit, the women are given condoms and counselling for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases," said Ramjee. Safety tests will be complete by the middle of next year, and then tests to determine its effectiveness in preventing infection will begin. "Those tests could take between three to four years before we can announce results," he said. The council has just completed a four-year trial on another microbicide, Advantage S, which proved to be ineffective. Ramjee said because of the urgent need for female-controlled methods of prevention against HIV, South Africa was eager to take part in microbicide trials. "We are negotiating with international scientists to conduct phase three trials on two other products," he said.
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