Posts
from


Microbicide fails in clinical trials; highly resistant HIV found in Seattle gay men



Bill Weintraub

Bill Weintraub

Microbicide fails in clinical trials; highly resistant HIV found in Seattle gay men

2-2-2007

Let's start with an article from the SF Chronicle first:

Test of HIV-blocking gel abruptly halted

Microbicide users appeared to have higher infection rates

Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Two major studies of a vaginal gel being tested as a substance to block HIV transmission were halted Wednesday after early results from one of them appeared to show that the women who used it had higher infection rates than those who were given a placebo.

The decision to halt the costly trials in Africa and India is a major setback on the path to finding an effective topical lotion or gel, known as a microbicide, to protect women from HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

An independent safety monitoring panel took a routine early peek on Friday at data from a study that had enrolled 1,333 women in Benin, South Africa, Uganda and India -- one-third the number researchers eventually intended to include in their experiment.

The results were "unexpected and disappointing,'' said Dr. Lut Van Damme of the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Va., the principal investigator in the study.

Monitors found that 35 women had already become HIV-positive since enrollment began in July 2005, and the majority of them were getting the actual microbicide, cellulose sulfate, instead of an inert placebo gel.

The microbicide that was meant to reduce HIV infection actually appeared to promote it. The news eerily echoed the past.

Almost seven years ago, Van Damme herself stunned scientists and activists at the 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, when she announced that women in a major study using the contraceptive gel nonoxynol-9 had a 52 percent higher HIV infection rate than those given a placebo.

That finding torpedoed early hopes that an already-approved contraceptive might also work as a microbicide, and no likely substitute has emerged since.

...

[emphases mine]

Bill Weintraub:

What this article doesn't say, for whatever reason -- maybe it's just that cultural amnesia which seems to afflict anyone and everyone writing about HIV -- is that early in the epidemic nonoxynol-9 was incorporated into an anal lube called "ForePlay."

"ForePlay" was the brainchild of a chemist named Bruce Voeller, a guy who in the 1970s had been kicked out of the Gay Activists' Alliance and then, with the backing of a rich publisher -- David Goodstein of the Advocate -- had seized control of the National Gay Task Force.

Both Voeller and Goodstein subsequently died of AIDS.

But while they were alive they got into a lot of mischief -- Goodstein for example fired most of the Gay Liberationists who'd created the Advocate --

and Voeller really pushed ForePlay -- with nonoxynol-9.

And it was very popular.

Most everybody had a tub of it sitting by their bedside.

The tubs had those little pump tops.

So you know, the guy would pump some out into his hand, and then stick it up his butt -- liberally -- wipe his hand on the sheet -- and then get fucked.

And of course since the anus is not self-lubricating, while he was getting fucked more ForePlay would have to be added to his ass.

Pump pump pump.

Those big tubs, which were quite pricey, didn't last very long.

So the question has to be how many guys got infected because large and very expensive quantities of nonoxynol-9 which they'd been told might protect them -- actually irritated and damaged the delicate and very thin mucosal lining of their anus.

And the answer is -- we'll never know.

But take a look at this report from the NY Times:

Tests of Drug to Block H.I.V. Infection Are Halted Over Safety

By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN

Published: February 1, 2007

Efforts to develop a topical microbicide to prevent H.I.V. infection during sex suffered a surprising setback yesterday when researchers announced that they had stopped two full-scale trials for safety reasons.

The trials, in Africa and India, involved a chemical, cellulose sulfate or Ushercell, and were the second failure of a potential microbicide in a full-scale trial in recent years. In one of the latest trials, a standard check by an independent scientific committee found an increased risk of H.I.V. infection among women who used cellulose sulfate compared with those who used a placebo gel.

In 2000, a large full-scale trial showed that the only other microbicide candidate, nonoxynol-9, was unsafe when it had been expected to be effective. Subjects in that trial developed a higher incidence of H.I.V. infection, presumably through ulcers caused by chemical irritation.

Yesterday, AIDS researchers at the World Health Organization, the United Nations AIDS program and other organizations expressed hope that at least one of three other potential microbicides undergoing full-scale testing would prove to be safe and effective.

...

In the absence of an AIDS vaccine, specialists say development of a microbicide is a public health priority, mainly to protect the many women in poor countries whose partners refuse to use condoms. Such protection could take the form of a gel, cream, film, tablet or sponge that could be inserted into the vagina or rectum.

...

[emphases mine]

Bill Weintraub:

So: nonoxynol-9 created "a higher incidence of H.I.V. infection, presumably through ulcers caused by chemical irritation."

"Ulcers caused by chemical irritation" -- isn't that just ducky?

But hey -- no one's deterred -- onwards and upwards with the search for "a gel, cream, film, tablet or sponge that could be inserted into the vagina or rectum."

Well, you know, I don't want to speak for women, but in my view if you're a guy and you have to insert "a gel, cream, film, tablet or sponge" into your rectum to do something -- YOU SHOULDN'T BE DOING IT.

You shouldn't be inserting anything in your rectum.

Or anus.

As we point out in an anus is not a vagina, the anus constitutes a "delicate, exit-only mechanism" which is easily damaged when penetrated.

By ANYTHING.

So we shouldn't be surprised that putting a spermicidal chemical up your butt -- causes ulcers and leads to disease and death.

Now, as the Times so patiently explained, the search for a microbicidal gel is being done in the name of gender equity.

Or perhaps, and to be more honest, gender INequity.

That is to say, the theory is that women who are at the mercy of men who won't use condoms, can at least use this gel.

That's all well and good, but in Uganda they EMPOWERED both women and men to stop being promiscuous, and by so doing they disrupted the networks of concurrent sexual partners which were fueling the epidemic.

Why is that such a bad idea?

The proponents of that approach -- which relied on the simple tactic of telling the truth about the dangers of HIV and how it's spread --

can point to an unparalled fall in HIV prevalence in their country.

A fall which required no drugs and no devices.

Just behavior change.

These gels are not behavior change, and they're not empowerment.

They're a device -- like a condom; and a drug -- like tenofovir.

And they're the darling of rich Westerners:

"The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Agency for International Development paid $20 million for the two latest studies."

and the darling of UNAIDS.

Not surprising, actually, given that in the real world, the people who will "benefit" first and foremost from a microbicide -- should one ever be found -- will be the affluent gay males of the West, who will utterly pig out on drugs, anal and promiscuity while inserting gels, creams, tablets, and sponges into their rectums.

And will they be any happier than they are now?

NO.

Oh, and did I mention that the "Agency for International Development" which helps fund those studies is the *US* AID?

Those are your tax dollars at work.

If a microbicidal gel is found which makes it "safer" for gay males to do anal -- you will have helped pay for it.

Fact is, we know how to stop AIDS.

We know.

If you're "MSM," don't do anal.

For everybody else:

Don't inject drugs.

Don't be promiscuous.

That's it.

That's all you need know.

The search for a microbicidal gel, which has been undertaken in the name of gender equity, is actually part of a concerted effort to protect behaviors -- namely anal and promiscuity -- which have become emblematic of the Western sexual revolution.

But those behaviors are maladaptive, dysfunctional, and dysphoric.

And a gel will not change that.

In the meantime, thanks to those behaviors, which the gay male leadership REFUSES to address, mutant HIV continues to spread:

Highly-resistant HIV found in King County

04:58 PM PST on Thursday, February 1, 2007

Associated Press

SEATTLE - The Seattle-King County Health Department says tests have confirmed four men have forms of HIV that are highly resistant to drugs.

One was tested in 2005 and the other three last year, but recently researchers identified a link between all four.

The cluster is a concern to health officials because this HIV is difficult to treat.

The public health officer, Dorothy Teeter, says officials are stepping up the monitoring for HIV drug resistance in the Seattle area.

HIV-AIDS program director Doctor Bob Wood says this news is a message to men to practice safe sex.

Health workers are trying to contact the sex partners of the four men to test them for HIV. The department says all four men had a history of methamphetamine use and sex with multiple, mostly anonymous, male sex partners.

Bill Weintraub:

"Doctor Bob Wood says this news is a message to men to practice safe sex."

It's not "safe sex."

It's called "safe-er sex" -- and according to the Buchbinder study, which found virtually no difference between "protected" receptive anal and unprotected receptive anal, it isn't safer.

"Health workers are trying to contact the sex partners of the four men to test them for HIV."

Good luck in finding them -- because:

"The department says all four men had a history of methamphetamine use and sex with multiple, mostly anonymous, male sex partners."

They were ANONYMOUS!

So there's no way to contact them.

Hmmmmmm.

If I were a buttboy living in Seattle, I wouldn't be feeling too "safe" at this moment.

And why keep it calling it "sex?"

It's not sex, it's anal penetration.

The "four men had a history of methamphetamine use and" ANAL PENETRATION "with multiple, mostly anonymous, male sex partners."

If the filthy rich males of the gay community had the courage of Ugandan peasants, they would put up posters which say:

and the epidemic would begin to be brought under control.

But they won't.

Recently officials in Australia -- which has seen a surge in gay male infections -- said, according to the Melbourne press, that they're going to spend an additional $10 million on ads aimed at gay men.

But:

Don Baxter, the executive director of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations, warned against producing a fear-based campaign on HIV, saying its message would simply be rejected by viewers.

"Gay men need to be treated respectfully, the ads should be carefully designed to ensure that fear is not used as a motivation."

What utter twaddle!

No one is disrespected by the truth.

No one.

Anal penetration is an UNnatural and deadly act which has been foisted upon gay males by a heterosexualized and heterosexist society which has no respect for Men, for Masculinity, or for the TRUE LOVE of Man for Man.

Instead, the various AIDS and ANAL establishments are doing all in their power to prop up the very behaviors which have brought so much misery and death to the world.

Bill Weintraub

© All material Copyright 2007 by Bill Weintraub. All rights reserved.


Add a reply to this discussion














AND


Warriors Speak is presented by The Man2Man Alliance, an organization of men into Frot

To learn more about Frot, ck out What's Hot About Frot

Or visit our FAQs page.


Warriors Speak Home

Cockrub Warriors Site Guide

The Man2Man Alliance

Heroic Homosex

Frot Men

Heroes

Frot Club

Personal Stories

| What's Hot About Frot | Hyacinthine Love | THE FIGHT | Kevin! | Cockrub Warriors of Mars | The Avenger | Antagony | TUFF GUYZ | Musings of a BGM into Frot | Warriors Speak | Ask Sensei Patrick | Warrior Fiction | Frot: The Next Sexual Revolution |
| Heroes Site Guide | Toward a New Concept of M2M | What Sex Is |In Search of an Heroic Friend | Masculinity and Spirit |
| Jocks and Cocks | Gilgamesh | The Greeks | Hoplites! | The Warrior Bond | Nude Combat | Phallic, Masculine, Heroic | Reading |
| Heroic Homosex Home | Cockrub Warriors Home | Heroes Home | Story of Bill and Brett Home | Frot Club Home |
| Definitions | FAQs | Join Us | Contact Us | Tell Your Story |

© All material on this site Copyright 2001 - 2010 by Bill Weintraub. All rights reserved.