Page 6 - Science in Africa

uarraisha Abdool Karim is a Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim
South African
epidemiologist who has had
a profound impact on HIV-
prevention science, policy
Qand programmes through
her ground-breaking AIDS
research, her advocacy and leadership,
focused particularly on women in Africa.
One of her major achievements has been
her landmark study that demonstrated that
tenofovir gel prevents both HIV and
Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 (HSV-2)
infection in women.
The finding has been heralded as one of
the most significant scientific
breakthroughs in the fight against Aids by
the World Health Organisation, UNAIDS
and several leading international research
organisations.
This contribution to Aids prevention
emerged as a culmination of her
epidemiological, clinical and basic
research undertaken over more
than two decades in South
Africa.
In the late 1980s, she
undertook some of the first
studies to unravel the reasons for
the severity of the Aids epidemic
in southern Africa. Her key finding,
that young women,
particularly teenage girls,
were at highest risk (up
to eight-fold higher than
their male counterparts),
set her on the path to
identify the biological
and behavioural
reasons for
women’s
vulnerability to
HIV.
Since young
women find it
particularly challenging to insist on mutual
monogamy or condom use, especially with
older male partners, Professor Abdool Breaking
Karim focused her research on risk-
reducing technologies for women.
A decade later, she changed her strategy,
based on interesting new data from studies
in monkeys, to trying an Aids treatment
Sciences, she proceeded in 2007 to clinical NEW GROUND
medication as a microbicide to prevent HIV.
Using tenofovir acquired from Gilead
studies of this antiretroviral drug in a
vaginally applied gel formulation. against HIV reached 54% in women who widely recognised by her peers. Her
The ground-breaking CAPRISA 004 trial, used the gel consistently during the study. numerous awards include South Africa’s
which she led as co-principal investigator, Tenofovir gel is the first medical Order of Mapungubwe Bronze by the
involving 889 urban and rural women in technology shown to prevent genital President of South Africa and the Kwame
South Africa, provided proof-of-concept herpes, which is one of the most common Nkrumah Science Award by the AU.
that antiretrovirals can prevent sexually sexually transmitted infections globally. In addition to her research contributions,
acquired HIV infection in women. Her She has also made notable contributions Professor Abdool Karim has extensive
research showed that tenofovir gel, applied that go beyond HIV prevention to addressing policy experience that stems from her term
before and after sex, reduced HIV incidence one of the biggest challenges in Aids as the first national director of the South
by 50% after 12 months of gel use and by treatment in Africa – timing of antiretroviral African National HIV/Aids and STD
39% overall, at the end of the 30-month therapy initiation in TB-HIV co-infected Programme that was established by the
study. patients. Mandela government shortly after the
The protective effect of tenofovir gel Her scientific contributions have been country’s first democratic elections in 1994.

6 SCIENCE IN AFRICA