Lyndsay McCarver is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan. She received a BA in Women’s Studies and focused her coursework on gender and health disparities. In Fall 2013, she was introduced to the module in Dr. Haniff’s class and presented it to The Horizons Network in Detroit, Michigan. In September, she will be spending a year in Sydney, Australia, working and traveling to give her to tools to be a positive change through empowering people to make decisions leading to greater health for themselves and their families. She reflects upon meeting Dr. Quarraisha Abdool Karim, a leading scientist in the struggle against HIV in South Africa and throughout the world.
Science Working for Women
On Thursday we joined Dr. Quarraisha Abdool Karim, the Associate Scientific Director of CAPRISA (Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa), to discuss the research she is conducting on oral and topical PrEP. PrEP is a drug that people who do not have HIV can use in the form of either a pill or a gel that is applied to the vagina to help prevent infection. The medicines contained in PrEP are used to treat HIV, and in this case they prevent the virus from establishing itself in the body after exposure. Dr. Abdool Karim has helped grow the body of evidence that shows PrEP does reduce HIV infections and can be a really useful tool for women who are at risk.
One of the things I appreciated most about Dr. Abdool Karim is that she focuses on tools of prevention for people who are at the highest risk: young women. In Vulindlela, young women have about eight times the infection rates of young men. By the time they reach the end of high school, approximately 25% of girls are HIV+. These numbers clearly indicate that women need more tools they can use to protect themselves so they do not have to solely rely on their male partner to use a condom. Currently, the HIV Module that POA uses includes only abstinence and condomize as ways to avoid transmitting HIV through sex, but hopefully we’ll soon be able to incorporate a wider variety of protection strategies like microbicides, injectable ARVs, or insertable rings thanks to scientists like Dr. Abdool Karim who are committed to serving women. With more options available, women can choose the protection method that works best for them, just as women can now choose from many different types of contraception.
Until then, there’s still a long way to go. Science hasn’t given women’s bodies enough attention, so we still need to know more about the biology of the vagina in order to develop drugs that serve women best. However, the biomedical aspect is just the first step of interventions. As Dr. Abdool Karim emphasized, developing a pill doesn’t mean people will actually take it. So with that extra tool for protection, current social media should be used innovatively to make these new methods attractive for women. It was really exciting to hear from a researcher who really “gets it,” and understands that people’s lives are complicated. For example, it is important for many women to have a method of protection that they do not have to disclose to their partner, as it could be seen as an act of distrust.
Still, all of POA was left with hope. Dr. Quarraisha Abdool Karim’s work is centralized in South Africa and benefits the women who need it most, but the scope of her discoveries extends to women all around the world.
