Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - November 13, 2005
Prega Govender

TEENAGE schoolgirls are bunking school to visit a research centre that offers them R1700 to test an anti-HIV gel whenever they have sex.

The North West Education Department has launched an investigation into claims that the Setshaba Research Centre in Soshanguve, Pretoria, is recruiting pupils during school hours to become guinea pigs.

The centre - an arm of the Microbiological Pathology unit at the University of Limpopo - is one of three sites in the country conducting research trials into the efficacy and safety of a microbicide, Carraguard, in the prevention of HIV infection in women through sex.

Researchers hope at least 6270 women aged 16 years and older will volunteer for the two-year study.

The centre's HIV support officer, Malebo Ratlhagana, this week confirmed that it had approached five schools, including one in Ga-Rankuwa and four in Soshanguve, to encourage young girls to participate in the trial.

But the centre's request for permission to use schoolgirls from the Bojanala East Region in Ga-Rankuwa was turned down by a senior education department official, Moloko Nke.

Nke said in a letter to her seniors that she refused permission because the trials would encourage the girls to become "sexually active".

Tshumane Kadiege, the principal of the Setlalentoa High School in Ga-Rankuwa, outside Pretoria, complained to the department about the "serious problem of learners dodging after lunch".

"We were hugely concerned. We discovered that a car, which we later learnt was from the Setshaba Research Centre, collected our learners because they were taking part in the Carraguard gel trial," Kadiege said.

"I learnt that most of the girls did not get their parents' consent. It's wrong to offer them money to take part in the trials. It will encourage our learners to become sexually active," he said.

Kadiege said Ratlhagana had apologised to him after he confronted her about her method of recruiting volunteers.

"But she said that, according to law, a 16-year-old can participate without getting her parents' consent."

A Grade 11 pupil from Setlalentoa, who was taken to the centre by officials in one of their vehicles, said she was told that girls could not take part if they were pregnant or HIV-positive.

"They said I would get R150 once I started using the gel. We were told that we would be put into one of two study groups if we joined, but I decided not to join," the 17-year-old said.

The centre pays R50 after a volunteer has undergone screening, R150 when they join the programme, and R150 for each of 10 visits over a two-year period.

Ratlhagana said although the trials were not specifically targeting girls or women of school-going age, the HIV-prevalence rate among young girls was very high compared with women in their mid-30s.

A leaflet containing information on the gel warns couples to use condoms whenever they have sex because "Carraguard has not yet been shown to prevent HIV".

Half of the participants will be given a placebo, and when a participant has not used a condom, this is noted for the trial.

Ratlhagana said girls could qualify only if they had had sex in the previous three months.

"At age 16, sexually they don't need [parental] consent," she said.

She denied that the trials would encourage girls to become more sexually active.

"We are not saying do it [have sex] every day. We are not saying, go out and do double."

Asked whether she thought girls would be encouraged to take part purely because of the money, she said: "I think it's 50/50. There are those coming here for the money and those doing it for the love of it."

Dr Khatija Ahmed, the principal investigator at the Setshaba Research Centre, denied that recruitment was done during school hours, or at schools that had refused to give permission.

Reacting to the claim that pupils were bunking classes to visit the clinic, she said it was difficult to identify whether a participant was supposed to be at school if she was not wearing a school uniform. "You might get a few kids who are going to use the opportunity to bunk school, but that is not within our control."

Ahmed said that although girls were advised not to participate in the study if they did not have boyfriends, the centre did not encourage them to start having boyfriends.

She said the Medical Control Council had given approval to conduct the study in women over 16 years without parental consent because they recognized that the younger age group was the most vulnerable to contracting HIV/Aids.

Charles Raseala, Director for Communications for the Education Department in North West, said MEC Oabetswe Tselapedi was "shocked and very concerned" about pupils being encouraged to take part in the study.

"It militates against all our efforts to encourage learners to abstain from sex and to learn more about HIV/Aids," he said.

051113
ST051102