A ril 2000 Out in the Mountains 25

  

Study Attempting to Track HIV Transmission Among Women

 

Bv HEATHER PEAKE

esearchers at the

Centers for Disease

Control and Yale
University have launched a
three—year study of HIV/AIDS
transmission between women.

Scientists will conduct inter-
views with women
Francisco, Los Angeles, New
York, Washington DC, and
Baltimore in hopes of clarify-
ing the risks involved in
female—to—female sexual con-
tact.

The confidential interviews
will probe the sexual practices
and possible risky behaviors of
HIV-positive lesbians and
women with female partners,
not all of whom may identify
themselves as lesbians.

When possible, they hope to
interview past partners and
take viral DNA samples; if all
goes well, this will allow them
to map transmissions from one
woman to another.

Earlier samplings have
shown that this may be the
medical equivalent of looking
for a twig in a haystack.

In a 1998 CDC survey of
109,311 women, 2,220 report-
ed at least one female partner,
along with other risk factors.
Of these, 347 reported only

‘female partners, but 98 percent

of this group also had other

Got Questions?

in San T

risk factors, generally IV drug
use. Similarly, in a 1993
University of Texas study of
168 women reporting only
female partners, all of them
had other risk factors.

To date, there have been
only 5 cases where no other

cate gay women about those
risks.

The CDC has urged women
to be aware of their partners’
HIV status, regardless of gen-
der. They have also suggested
that partners not share sex toys,
and that they use condoms or

faster among women than men.

So why don’t they figure
prominently in research and
drug trials? It’s actually part of
a larger “institutional sexism”
in medicine.

Historically, the female
body has been viewed as

Earlier samplings have shown that this may be the
medical equivalent of looking for a twig in a

haystack.

risk factor was found.
“Because of the scarcity of
data, we can’t say with
absolute certainty that female-
to-female sexual transmission
does not occur,” said Dr
Helene Gayle, director of the
National Center for HIV,.AIDS
and TB Prevention, in an inter-
view with WebMD.
Researchers believe such
transmission is theoretically
possible. The virus is present in
vaginal ‘secretions and men-
strual blood, so it could osten-
sibly pass through cuts in the
linings of the mouth or vagina.
Most feel that the risk is
low, but present. If it can be
proven, it will allow public
health officials to better edu-

Look for the answer on

dental dams during oral sex.

Women with HIV have long
been overlooked by medical
science.

This neglect arose in part
because of the way the AIDS
crisis developed. Attention nat-
urally focused on gay men,
then IV drug users, then the
rest of the population. Coupled
with a cultural discomfort with
female sexuality, it’s no won-
der that women were not estab-
lished as a risk group until the
epidemic was well underway.

By then, the virus had
become entrenched. In 1985,
women accounted for 7 percent
of all AIDS cases; in 1998, the
figure stood at 23 percent and
climbing. Now HIV is growing

www.mountainpridemedia.org

-‘J
Mara Vijups, MD
Erin Rhoades, MD

NMC RURAL HEALTH SERVICES
Specializing in Family Practice
Caring for patients of all ages

SWANTON

868-2454

A L B U R G
797-4414

EN 0 S B U R G
933-5831

 

 

unsuited to research because of
hormonal fluctuations or fear
of reproductive damage. The
male is seen as the nonn, with
the assumption that what

works in one gender will work
in the other.

But there’s plenty of anec-
dotal evidence that HIV/AIDS
doesn’t work the same in
women. They seem to become
sicker with a lower viral load
and a higher T—cell count than
men, and their survival time is
much shorter. And despite the
fact that everyone is taking the
same drug protocols, the
decline in mortality has been
nowhere near as sharp for
women.

With only 17 percent of fed-
eral funding going to woman-
targeted research, and even less
to studies of lesbians, it may be
years before scientists can
unravel the different pathways
of HIV in the female popula-
tion. V

Cheryl A. Gibson M.D.
Susan F. Smith M.D.

wourrneicaoicr

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