HIV and genital herpes

A vaginal gel that could prevent the spread of HIV and genital herpes may become available in stores as soon as 2008, according to news reports. The product is good news for African-American women, who stand the greatest risk of contracting HIV and genital herpes, doctors say.

The Food and Drug Administration has granted fast-track status to review VivaGel, a microbiological gel that women would apply hours before engaging in sexual intercourse to prevent transmission of HIV and genital herpes, according to the Australian-based company, Starpharma. A fast-track review by the FDA could greatly shorten the federal approval process. Starpharma says the difference between its product and condoms is that the gel does not require women to seek cooperation from their sexual partners, which could go a long way toward saving their lives.

If the trials prove successful, the gel would come as good news for African-Americans, especially women. HIV/AIDS is the No. 1 killer of African-American women age 25 to 34, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 2000 and 2003, the rate of contracting the disease among African-American women was 19 times that for White females and 5 times the rate for Hispanic females. And the rates among African-American men were 7 times those for White men and 3 times the rate for Hispanic males.

Black women also are at the highest risk of being infected with herpes simplex virus type-2 (HSV-2), according to findings by the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, which studied individuals visiting STD clinics in five U.S. cities between 1993 and 1996.

While medical experts are not sure why African-American women appear to be more susceptible to the spread of certain STDs, they agree that the problem may lie in the apparent unwillingness of their partners to wear condoms.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning