A group of about 60 women between the ages of 18 and 23 years will take part in a trial treatment that is aimed at lowering HIV risk in an innovative study launched this week, in Umlazi township, south of Durban.
Researchers have joined forces to find out if a common bacteria can protect SA women from HIV.
This study represents a collaboration between investigators from four institutions: the HIV Pathogenesis Programme (HPP) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), the Aurum Institute based in Johannesburg, the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard.
UKZN Prof Thumbi Ndungu, who is also the co-principal investigator, said the treatment is called Lactin-V and is derived from a strain of bacteria known as Lactobacillus that is naturally abundant in women who have low levels of vaginal inflammation which is associated with decreased HIV risk.
“Prior studies in SA have shown that women who have a deficiency of Lactobacillus have higher levels of vaginal inflammation and up to 3-4 fold higher risk of HIV infection.
“There is a pressing need for new HIV prevention and cure strategies that are effective in our setting, but also acceptable and easy to access by young women who are disproportionately affected by HIV,” Ndungu said.
Ndungu said researchers aim to discover whether treatment with Lactin-V can protect women from HIV by altering the composition of the vaginal microbiome to one associated with lower inflammation in the vaginal tract.
“This first-in-Africa trial will enrol 60 healthy young women between 18 and 23 years of age, each receiving 11 doses of Lactin-V over the course of four weeks. Lactin-V has already been tested in 228 women in the US and shown to be safe,” Ndungu said.
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