A new vaginal ring might be able to prevent HIV transmission in women. That’s AMAZING news!
According to Cosmopolitan, a trial was done in which 2,600 sub-Saharan African women wore a vaginal ring that released the drug dapivirine over a sustained amount of time. The goal of the ring is to help women prevent the contraction of HIV from their sexual partners. Currently, over 35 million people are infected with HIV, and more than half of those people are women—So basically, we really need this.
The study showed that protection wasn’t entirely complete, but there is a lot of potential despite that. The ring’s efficiency had a lot to do with the age of the woman wearing it, and ladies on the younger side has a less positive result that could be attributed to a number of causes. Overall there was only a 27 percent decrease in infection rates, but that’s still a huge step for women’s agency, especially if their partners won’t wear condoms. Even if there’s still a long way to go, this ring is an exciting development.
“I remember talking with some of the participants in Zimbabwe part way through the study, and they would say, ‘This ring is mine’. There was ownership of the ring because she could control it,” Jared Beaten, the co-author of the study, said in an interview with The New York Times. It’s good to have something that’s ours, especially since the ring only costs $5, and can stay in for up to four weeks. Much easier than one-pill-a-day birth control, for example.
Since the trial is now finished, experts are going to be getting together in March to plan out future research for this precious little vaginal ring. We can’t wait to see what happens next!