VOA标准英语2013--HIV Trial Yields Disappointing Results

 

HIV Trial Yields Disappointing Results

A large-scale HIV prevention trial among African women has yielded disappointing results. But the outcome may be more the fault of behavior than the prevention methods used in the study.

The trial is known as VOICE. The results were announced at the 20th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta, Georgia.

Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, a non-profit HIV/AIDS advocacy group, said the study centered on PrEP, or preexposure prophylaxis.

“Voice is actually a clinical trial that has been running for the last several years. It actually stands for Vaginal and Oral Interventions¹ to Control the Epidemic². It was a very elegantly designed study that was looking at three different possible options to help women in Africa prevent HIV infection and funded by the National Institutes of Health in the U.S.; and conducted with over 5,000 women in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Uganda.”

The prevention methods used in the trial were a daily oral dose of tenofovir, a daily oral dose of a combination pill known as Truvada and a daily one-percent vaginal tenofovir gel. In previous studies, these methods were shown to provide some protection. However, in Voice, the results were disappointing.

“They were disappointing and pivotal studies are not just ones that tell us the answers we want. A pivotal study is one to help give us answers to the questions we have. And this study showed that none of the three study products provided additional protection. They were safe, but not effective,” said Warren.

Warren said, however, the products only have a chance of being effective if they’re used as prescribed.

“Perhaps the most important finding was that although women came back to the clinic every month and were dedicated³ to the trial, the majority of these women didn’t actually take the product in the end. And it really tells us a great deal that even though bio-medically these interventions work, they only work if they’re used. Ad the behavior is actually even more important than the bio-medicine. Voice confirms for us that these studies are actually more behavioral studies even than bio-medical studies,” he said.

Taking one pill a day or using a vaginal gel once a day appears to be very easy and convenient. But Warren said that the African women in the study did not respond.

“One of the things with HIV is that although obviously it’s a terrible disease, you don’t see it at immediate⁴ times when you’re about to have sex. You’re thinking about sex. You’re thinking about pleasure. You’re thinking about a relationship. You may not be thinking about the virus itself. And one of the things, I think, this trial is telling us, too, is that while women may be at risk of HIV, they may not perceive themselves on a daily basis to be at risk,” he said.

Warren said one of the things African women are very concerned about is contraception. Future research, therefore, could involve combining birth control pills with an antiretroviral drug. He said that the VOICE study tells researchers they must listen to what women have to say and give them something they’ll use.

1 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网

2 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

3 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

4 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。