Research on HIV prevention gel put black lives at risk
THE media have been abuzz with news of the miracle HIV prevention gel. Our Cabinet has described it as "ground-breaking news".
In fact, talk is that the government is going to take every possible step to make sure the gel is available to women. The "breakthrough" is sold to the public as empowering to women because women can apply the gel without having to consult their sexual partners.
There are shocking ethical questions the study raises and I'm told that the medical science fraternity and people who are concerned with ethics have not raised their voices.
For starters, the study was conducted in the most depressed areas. Women who participated in the study can be said to be a "vulnerable group". This means issues of consent become very tricky.
Did the women know the full implications of subjecting themselves to the study? Why was the study not conducted in urban areas with white middle- class women?
Just imagine this, the study had to find almost a thousand black vulnerable women who are HIV-negative and then wait for a "statistical significant" number of them to become HIV-positive in order to draw conclusions.
This callousness and disrespect for black lives is shocking.
The method employed by the study was to recruit the participants and divide them into two groups.
One group was given a "blank" gel. In other words, they were not potentially protected, but didn't know. The other group was given the gel with antiretrovirals.
The key issue here is that none of the women knew who was protected and who wasn't. This might mean they then altered their sexual practices and thereby exposed themselves to the HI virus. One doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to know that human behaviour is unpredictable and people will go for easy solutions.
But people can also be duped. When the study was finished it was shown that a shocking 60percent of the women were now HIV-positive. However, the study was declared a great success.
The question is, what happened to the women who became HIV-positive?
It seems that it's either these women were used as lab rats and discarded, and this was on the basis of the assumption that they were going to be HIV-positive anyway. So the 40percent that is said to have been "protected" are saved!
No one asked a simple question - if these women were recruited from high-risk HIV areas, how did they stay negative for as long as they did? Would this not have been a more ethical study than subjecting people to such risks?
Medical science genocide is allowed against the weak historically, but when the weak are blacks then it doesn't really matter.
The idea of a gel that prevents transmission of HIV operates in the same logic of circumcision as HIV prevention methods. These methods are encouraged among blacks.
This is because it is assumed that blacks cannot control themselves, so we make them cut pieces of their flesh and insert gels in their bodies instead of education, prevention, treatment and real empowerment. Blacks are treated as one would treat an animal.
tpaz
You wanted them to test on whites? Hiv virus was made in a lab for the black man.Report Abuse
Noknoky
I think they need to take the second leg of tests to the white only area like Orania so that their reports can be accepted in all communities. Lets see if people in Orania or in Houghton will consent to this.......Report Abuse
Mushkin
tpaz, I am not suprised by your comment; some of us who happen to work in the lab with 'viruses' have always known that HIV has been produced from a lab to target the African nation. It's really nothing new to us infact nothing will ever destroy us 'blacks' !!Report Abuse
BikoLives
For as long as black communities are stil ravaged by poverty that breeds helplesness in people these type of mumbo jumbo exploitative solutions are still going to take place. Whether it is this Gel, African Potato, Anti-retroviral drugs or uBhejane they all are not permanent solutions! Instead of channelling our energy in fighting the real cause of all these social ills whether be HIV or death of infants in hospitals it all goes down to Poverty! If we can spend billions in building white elephents to impress the world then I do not see why there is a chain saw needed in channeling the same funds where it will matter most! Then again conspius consumption seems to be the order of the day perpetuated and promoted by our government! May the Almighty bless Africa with true leaders!Report Abuse
Mutadismutandis
I just do not understand how a gel can prevent or reduce the exposure to HIV infection? How stupid can we be to allow people to use science to perpetuate lies? We must not believe everytrhing becuase it was scietifically proven. Especially when the methods employed for research are scant, insubstantial and indelineate. This is inadmissable and obnoxious.Report Abuse
member
It is very sad what we have to go through as black pupil, why not do the test on mice?Report Abuse
Lerabela
The ANC government is allowing this to happen under its watch, they are the ones applauding when they hear about this so called "breakthrough". We also have to ask what conditions (again under the "black" ANC leadership) have led to these women agreeing to be lab rats, presumably money was used as an incentive, with the risk of contracting an incurable disease!Report Abuse
Galithan
It really hurts so bad when one read about these issues .what i certainly don't understand why is this pandamic affect lots of black people .why is that so ? if the population is so unbearable why can't they come with a better sollution than this HIV ? in the world it's clear that all the countries now are making billions of rands through this .just look at how much money has been waisted on ARVs? and now they say people should start taking them when the Viral load is 350 but before it was 250 why is that ? they want to get more people in the treatment so that they can make more billions for themselves .It is clear that this was made to destroy Blacks ! i certainly believe that this HIV was fabricated delebarately!!!!!!!and now look at what TB is doing ? you tell me !Report Abuse
Liston2Ds
It is hard for me to understand how individuals elected to govern the country fail to see this clear case of Genocite.It is well documented that AIDS was created to reduce the world's population, especially Africans - for resources/commodities reasons, whilst bolstering the wealth of the elite at the same time.
AIDS is here, and I don't expect SA leaders to find its cure (it would be great if they do though), but I expect them to see this simple scientifically backed mission of exposing a certain ethnic group to this deadly disease.
The discovery of the gel is good BUT it doesn't have to come with a clear disrespect of the black race.
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