Dear All — Researchers Jared Baeten and Renee Heffron with the UW’s International Clinical Research Center have an observational study of 3,800 couples in Africa published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases that shows women using hormonal contraception –such as a birth control pill or a shot like Depo-Provera – are at double the risk of acquiring HIV, and HIV-infected women who use hormonal contraception have twice the risk of transmitting the virus to their HIV-uninfected male partners.
Major news outlets- BBC, NPR, New York Times, CBS, NBC, Humanosphere, L.A. Times, The Guardian, Voice of America, and others – are reporting on the findings.
Here’s an excerpt from the New York Times story posted last night (Oct. 3) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/health/04hiv.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=p ambelluck> “Contraceptive Used in Africa May Double Risk of H.I.V.” on the health implications in Africa where injectable hormones are very popular:
“The best contraception today is injectable hormonal contraception because you don’t need a doctor, it’s long-lasting, it enables women to control timing and spacing of birth without a lot of fuss and travel,” said Isobel Coleman, director of the women and foreign policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations. “If it is now proven that these contraceptions are helping spread the AIDS epidemic, we have a major health crisis on our hands.”
##### The International Clinical Research Center, part of the UW Department of Global Health, is conducting multiple clinical trials in Africa related to the prevention of HIV and is expanding the University of Washington’s capacity to conduct pre-eminent biomedical prevention and research in infectious disease prevention.
Bobbi Nodell
Communications Manager
University of Washington Dept. of Global Health
206.271.1429 l bnodell@uw.edu l www.globalhealth.washington.edu
Follow us on Twitter at #uwghrc
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