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New Anti-HIV Gel!
I've written about VivaGel before and I'm very excited about it.
Basically, it's a gel whose active ingredient prevents the transmission of all 4 strains of high-risk HPV that Gardasil & Cervarix do, plus another 2 strains not covered by the vaccines AND it seems to protect against HIV and Herpes! In clinical studies, human vaginal cells were treated with the active ingredient, then introduced to HSV and HIV 1, 3, 12, and 24 hours after being treated. It showed 100% antiviral activity up to 12 hours, and for 12 and 24 hours it showed 90% antiviral activity in more than half the women tested. It ALSO shows contraceptive properties in animals.
Well, VivaGel has now concluded its initial human testing studies and has been found to be safe for human use. http://www.starpharma.com/vivagel.asp. VivaGel has been awarded US$20.3 million from the US-based National Institutes of Health to develop its HIV indication. The NIH also made an additional award to develop its HSV-2 (genital herpes) indication.
VivaGel was granted Fast Track status by the US FDA in 2006 as a product for prevention of HIV infection. This designation will accelerate the clinical and regulatory development path. Their microbicide program has received further support in other areas including a US$5.4 million grant from the NIH to develop combination microbicides in collaboration with ReProtect Inc.
The human papillomavirus (HPV) will become the third disease area under investigation for VivaGel® following encouraging pre-clinical data.
Oh, and they are looking at marketing it both as a topical microbe (i.e. a lubricant and/or vaginal insert) AND as a condom coating to replace Nonoxynol 9 (N-9), which has spermicidal properties. Because of its detergent nature, N-9 has been shown to increase the risk of infection with HIV and other viruses such as HSV-2, which is why I won't use it. The company researching and manufacturing VivaGel has signed agreements with two leading condom companies to develop VivaGel as a condom coating. For regulatory reasons, the approval process for VivaGel® in this application may offer a faster route to market than the stand-alone gel.
So be on the lookout in a couple of years for products with VivaGel!
Basically, it's a gel whose active ingredient prevents the transmission of all 4 strains of high-risk HPV that Gardasil & Cervarix do, plus another 2 strains not covered by the vaccines AND it seems to protect against HIV and Herpes! In clinical studies, human vaginal cells were treated with the active ingredient, then introduced to HSV and HIV 1, 3, 12, and 24 hours after being treated. It showed 100% antiviral activity up to 12 hours, and for 12 and 24 hours it showed 90% antiviral activity in more than half the women tested. It ALSO shows contraceptive properties in animals.
Well, VivaGel has now concluded its initial human testing studies and has been found to be safe for human use. http://www.starpharma.com/vivagel.asp. VivaGel has been awarded US$20.3 million from the US-based National Institutes of Health to develop its HIV indication. The NIH also made an additional award to develop its HSV-2 (genital herpes) indication.
VivaGel was granted Fast Track status by the US FDA in 2006 as a product for prevention of HIV infection. This designation will accelerate the clinical and regulatory development path. Their microbicide program has received further support in other areas including a US$5.4 million grant from the NIH to develop combination microbicides in collaboration with ReProtect Inc.
The human papillomavirus (HPV) will become the third disease area under investigation for VivaGel® following encouraging pre-clinical data.
Oh, and they are looking at marketing it both as a topical microbe (i.e. a lubricant and/or vaginal insert) AND as a condom coating to replace Nonoxynol 9 (N-9), which has spermicidal properties. Because of its detergent nature, N-9 has been shown to increase the risk of infection with HIV and other viruses such as HSV-2, which is why I won't use it. The company researching and manufacturing VivaGel has signed agreements with two leading condom companies to develop VivaGel as a condom coating. For regulatory reasons, the approval process for VivaGel® in this application may offer a faster route to market than the stand-alone gel.
So be on the lookout in a couple of years for products with VivaGel!
no subject
You may remember a while ago I mentioned I was exposed to HPV due to incomplete disclosure by a sexual partner. When getting my test today, the OB/GYN told me that you can NOT get HPV from oral sex. I.....I am SURE that this information is wrong. She also said that there is no way to know what strand of HPV you have and that you cannot get tested for that, though I believe this to be wrong as well. If your strand cannot be identified, how is that one will now whether or not the strand you have is one of the "high risk" strands vs the "low risk" strands? I imagine that the HPV-identification test would be a DNA test, and thus likely expensive, but it CAN be done, can't it?
Anyway, I'm going to look all this stuff up online and at the library but I thought I would ask you since you seem to know some stuff.
Thanks in advance!
no subject
You can also absolutely tell which strain you have, although usually the test you'll get only tells you if it's "high risk" or not. I do not have the information right at hand about how this is so, but you can identify whether you have a high risk strain without identifying which strain specifically.
It may be that all high risk strains have the same kind of marker and all low risk strains have other markers, so the test can find that marker but doesn't get a detailed enough image to identify the specific strain, I don't know. It's possible that the testing procedures that determine the specific strain are expensive and available only to research scientists who are studying HPV, and your average doctor cannot order that test done for her patients.
Your ob/gyn is behind the information. I've linked to several articles in the past under my STI tag about getting HPV from oral sex, so you can start there and print out those articles and bring them in. I believe, however, that you are more likely to get HPV orally by performing oral sex, than to get HPV vaginally by someone who has it orally.
It's been all over the news lately as researchers have discovered that HPV is the second leading cause of head and neck cancers, behind only smoking (which is dropping dramatically due to less smokers, not because oral HPV is rising).
A doctor might say that a test doesn't exist if he or she doesn't have the resources to provide it and thinks it's unnecessary (which, knowing the exact strain is kinda unnecessary once you know whether it's high risk or not), but for your doctor to be unaware of contracting HPV by oral sex, she has truly fallen down on the job. If I were in this position, I'd show up with the articles and then explain to her that this was the reason I was leaving her as a patient, preferably in the waiting room where other patients could hear.
no subject
Not only did she tell me you can't get HPV from oral sex, when I told her she was wrong she argued with me about it. She also went on for quite a bit about how oral sex was significantly less risky than penetrative sex in general.
Shes not my personal gynocologist, she works for a health clinic around here. It's really frightening to me that she is giving such inaccurate info. I knew she was wrong, I knew I had read lots of info about how she was wrong, but how many people go to her and DON'T know? How many people show up, test positive for this or that, and she she either down plays or straight up denies the risk for infection, so these people then go off and live their lives according to this information?
no subject
Between uniformed health care professionals and abstinence only, it's a miracle the STD rate is as low as it is!
no subject