Making HIV Microbicides User Friendly

April 27, 2012

A drop of microbicide gel is photographed as it is squeezed from an applicator at the Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, South Africa. The hospital took part in a large microbicide study called CAPRISA 004.

In 2009, researchers completed a study that showed a microbicide gel could protect women from HIV infection. The gel, known as CAPRISA 004, was nearly 40 percent effective in reducing the risk of infection during sex. The encouraging findings have led to follow-up studies. But just because a microbicide can block HIV, does not mean that women will use it.

Top ranking health officials called the CAPRISA 004 study historic. They said it showed that a microbicide could empower women to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS. It was something they could use without asking a man’s permission. But would women use it outside of a clinical trial?

That’s what a U.S.-funded study called Project LINK is trying to find out. Dr. Kathleen Morrow is leading a team of researchers at The Miriam Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.

“It’s actually the first study to my knowledge to link those physical, chemical and rheological properties and performance characteristics of a gel to the user experience - the actual sensory perceptions and experiences of the person using the product,” she said.

Not all gels are alike

Morrow is a staff psychologist at The Miriam Hospital and associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Warren Alpert medical school at Brown University. Morrow and her team are not studying whether the microbicide actually works. Instead, they want to know how women react to the gels themselves.