United Nations Radio

Two clinical trials are planned for a vaginal gel that has shown potential in reducing the risk of HIV-infection for women.

Catherine Hankins, UNAIDS Advisor

The results of the first trial of the gel were released at the International AIDS conference in Vienna, Austria, in July.

According to UNAIDS, the United Nations agency dealing with AIDS, those results were seen as promising and must be confirmed before the product can be made available for general use.

Catherine Hankins, UNAIDS Chief Scientific Advisor, says the protection was 39 per cent for women over the 30-month period for the trial.

"And the women that were using the gel more than 80 per cent of the time to protect their sex acts had a 54 per cent protection. So this was the first time ever that we have seen a positive result for a microbicide gel, which was a women-initiated and women-controlled product. The concern was how to rapidly move to make this product available to women."

Catherine Hankins says the consensus was that there are two more trials that are needed very quickly because there are 2,500 HIV infections a day in Sub-Saharan Africa.

One trial will be conducted in South Africa and another one outside that country to confirm the results from South Africa.

Gail Walker, United Nations Radio
(duration: 1'19")