Hiv Prevention Gel

[Tammi]

http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=18170

[Sheryl]

The referenced link does not really make clear that all that has been studied so far is the product's acceptability i.e. whether or not women find it easy and acceptable to use.

It remains to be seen to what extent it reduces the risk of HIV transmission. This will take a long time to ascertain since, for obvious ethical reasons, they cannot intentionally expose women to HIV nor advise them to engage in behavior that might so expose them. They have to take a very large cohort of women, give them all the same medically sound advice (i,.e. use condoms if there is any chance your husband has been unfaithful, or of you yourself ave multiple partners), have half of them use the gel and the other half use a placebo gel, and them see if the rates of HIV infection differ over time.