“Contraceptive Used in Africa May Double Risk of HIV” by Pam Belluck
Amber Kocher
A recent report has shown that an extremely popular contraceptive hormone shot for women in Africa doubles the risk of HIV infections. It also has shown that when this shot is given to HIV positive women, their partners also have a higher risk of becoming infected then women who don’t use it. This study has caused some alarm for health authorities because this shot is the most common form of contraceptive for sub-Saharan Africa, and it’s the most affordable and easily distributed. This study was only done on African women, but scientists believe the effects would be the same for all women using the contraception. There has been a lot of alarm raised because the concern for HIV transmission is so much greater in Africa (from heterosexual transmission) than anywhere else in the world. The shot’s brand name is Depo-Provera and it’s distributed by the Pfizer company. They would not comment on the recent report, but the study has caused the World Health Organization to convene sometime in January. They will be deciding on whether the study has strong enough evidence and scientific findings to alert the public and to advise women against using this form of contraceptive.
This report has raised some serious issues for international health authorities because this shot was the easiest and most affordable method for helping women with contraception. This shot was the answer to an already existing social problem. The article talks about how this was the way to prevent hundreds of thousands of African women from unwanted pregnancy, complications and injuries resulting from complications and unavailable medical help. Now, this report is showing that while it is helping with one problem, it’s causing an already serious and dangerous issue to escalate. HIV transmission and AIDS in Africa is already something that needs to be controlled and hopefully one day it can be cured, and it will be nonexistent. But until that day comes, using a product that doesn’t protect against it, but increases your chances by 2 times more likely is not a small problem. This generic contraceptive, while extremely popular in Africa, it isn’t as popular in other countries. Even though it’s not as common, it is still used by many other women all around the globe. Hopefully these results will either be confirmed or denied in January by the World Health Organization and an affirmative plan of action will result.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/health/04hiv.html?_r=1
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