Latest HIV Gel Proves Disappointing

For more than a decade, researchers have been trying to develop a product that women could use independently to protect themselves against HIV. The results of a three-year study now show that the latest microbicide is not nearly as promising as researchers hoped.

Carraguard, a gel made from a derivative of seaweed, is the first virus-killing microbicide to make it to the final phase of a large-scale clinical study. Since 2004, more than 6,000 South African women participated in the study.

Though Carraguard worked against HIV in the laboratory, the real-world results were disappointing, according to Robin Maguire of the Population Council, which sponsored the study.

"The study did not show that Carraguard was effective," Maguire says.

Some 134 women converted to HIV positive in the Carraguard group compared with 151 in the placebo group, which Maguire says wasn't statistically significant.

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