Staff Reporter – The Zimbabwe Daily
With more than 40 million people living with the Human Immune Virus (HIV) worldwide, the International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) has come up with an ingenious way of curbing the spread of HIV.
Dr. Zeda Rosenberg the founder and chief executive officer of the IPM has been working on a four year project on how women can help in curbing the spread of the virus.
Vagina rings embedded with antiretroviral drugs are expected to assist in limiting the spread of HIV since close to 60 percent of all adults living with HIV are women.
“Vagina rings are the new method of preventing HIV. So the vagina ring stays in the vagina for one month within that time it will be releasing antiretroviral drugs.
Apart from filling the HIV modality gap the vagina ring reduces HIV by 35 percent. It’s a wonderful prevention method although many women are still fearful, it is safe.
Most women who have used the vagina ring said it’s comfortable and doesn’t affect them during sex and their partners were comfortable with it.
However, in terms of taking antiretroviral drugs and using the vagina ring at the same time it’s either one uses the pill or the vagina ring because we haven’t done the research on that.
Moreso, the vagina ring does not affect fertility so people need to take contraceptives however, it doesn’t have any hormonal effects,” said Dr. Rosenberg.
Although the vagina ring is not yet available in many countries due to regulations, Dr. Rosenberg also pointed out that the reduction of HIV can even be higher if it is used appropriately.
