Researchers Seek New Ways To Slow Spread Of HIV

Researchers at Meharry Medical College in Nashville TN are developing a cream that could potentially block the transmission of HIV during sex.The cream could give hope to millions of women who have no way of protecting themselves from HIV transmission.

The vaginal cream, described as a "chemical condom," relies on a sugar found in toothpaste and mouthwash to remove cholesterol the HIV virus needs to spread. The cream is odorless and is designed to be undetectable to a woman's sexual partner."In many parts of the world, women are not in the position to negotiate how sex is practiced," including the use of condoms, Hildreth said. "We have been trying to formulate something transparent to the act of having sex.

Earlier this summer, Dr. James Hildreth traveled to Lusaka, Zambia, to see how women and men reacted to the feel and the smell of the cream. About 1.1 million Zambians, 17 percent of the adult population, were living with HIV in 2005, according to the United Nations. Researchers expected men to reject the cream, but most accepted it. "Even among the most rural of Africans now, the word is starting to get out about what a serious and expansive problem the AIDS pandemic is," Hildreth said.

The research is particularly important to Meharry, one of only four historically black medical institutions in the country, given the disproportionate effect of AIDS on the black U.S. population. Although African-Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 50 percent of AIDS cases in the country. They are particularly concerned about black women, who were diagnosed with AIDS at a rate 23 times higher than that of white women in 2005, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hildreth's cream has already proven effective with monkeys and mice, and he hopes to receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration this fall to begin the first trials on people early next year.

Hildreth readily acknowledges that there is a chance that the cream, also known as a microbicide, could fail. But Hildreth is not seeking to totally stop the disease. He's just trying to find a way to slow it down. Source Gannetts News Service.