Fighting HIV / AIDS

Uganda's tough choice between prevention and treatment

Kampala, Uganda | FLAVIA NASSAKA | Uganda will in 2019 launch two researches aimed at preventing the spread of HIV / AIDS. The first, dubbed 'Deliver', will be based on the HIV drug Dapivirinebeing placed in the vagina and an oral drugTruvadataken daily as a preventive (Pre Exposure Prophylaxis – PrEP) measures against HIV infection.

The research will involve only pregnant women – 750 of them. Of these, 500 will use the vaginal ring. The objective of the vaginal ring and the oral medicine can be both the mother and the unborn child safe.

The second study codenamed MTN -043 will enroll up to 200 breast-feeding mothers to see the same drug and keep it safe and secure. Makerere University – Johns Hopkins University (MUHJU) research collaboration facility Mulagoin Kampala.

They are among the studies discussed at a meeting of world experts on the HIV / AIDS epidemic in Madrid, Spain, to discuss the stresses made, the challenges faced, and the way forward in HIV / AIDS epidemic. The researches were agreed against a background of previous failure. 2030, appeared unachievable.

This time, the experts were optimistic that recent innovations in prevention of HIV infections will enable countries to make reasonable strides.

Today, adaily pill ofTruvada takenas an oral PrEPby a HIV negative individual at risk can provide up to 95% protection once used as directed. Uganda, Kenya and South Africa. Uganda, Kenya and South Africa.

After 2012 many countries started adopting the use of oral PrEPand soon researchers realizing they would use the same approach to prevent them from doing so. That's how the medicated vaginal ring was born.

The sites launched in different countries; including Uganda, to study whether vaginal ring can protect women from infection. Later, in 2016, initial resultsshowing were released.

Since then, researchers have dived not only from different sources of injection, but also from different types of injections, showers, gels and lubes. PrEP and a contraceptive are examples of PrEP and a contraceptive.

The driving forcefor the researchers has been a combination of PrEP's effectiveness and the discovery that people living with the virus can not transmit it to others as they become undetectable. This duo-pronged intervention, it is believed, can bring the HIV / AIDS epidemic to a swift end.

But, there is an ugly fact.

Even as oral PrEP has been around for more than half a decade, only 309,500 people are using it globally and the number of new infections is also not going down.

According to the latest report released by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), 1.8million people got infected in 2017. Almost the same number was recorded in 2016 and 2015. These figures were quite depressing for researchers attending the conference. Many questioned whether they are not doing enough.

A look at the strides made by Uganda helps understand the worry of researchers.

Uganda has been involved in HIV / AIDS when it was vaguely described as 'slim' – a mysterious illness that could claim a life in just a matter of days. Researchers went into laboratories, they established what the new disease actually was, what caused it, and how. Today, they are looking at the vaccine.

Dr. ClementiaNakabiitois one of those researchers who have been involved since the early days. When we put it, a senior researcher based on an open label study of how to evaluate the vaginal ring is likely to perform when women persistently use it. She did not give more details of her findings, but she said, "The results of this study were significantly higher than those of women who were enrolled in the field.