Belinda Beresford
A leading United States researcher on HIV/Aids has formally complained about “gross misrepresentation” in the coverage of his research in the African National Congress’s online magazine, ANC Today.
Dr Jeffrey D Klausner, who is also one of the top HIV/Aids officials for the City of San Francisco, wrote a letter to ANC Today criticising an article citing his research on advertisements being used to sell anti-retroviral drugs in the US.
He accused ANC Today of misrepresenting concerns about the style of advertising as questions over the efficacy of the drugs.
Klausner’s study found that such “sexy” adverts “and overly optimistic messages were leading some people to engage in riskier sexual activity”. As a result the Federal Drug Administration told manufacturers to change the tenor of their adverts, dropping the images of sexy men involved in athletic activities such as mountain climbing
Klausner wrote: “I was dismayed and shocked to read your article of 18-24 May 2001 reporting that based on my data from San Francisco, the United States Federal Drug Administration [FDA] had warned pharmaceutical manufacturers to change their advertising on the effectiveness of HIV medication.
“The FDA continues to approve and support the use of HIV medications to treat HIV disease. Any reporting that leads readers to believe otherwise is a gross misrepresentation of the truth and a disservice to medical science.”
South Africa does not allow advertising directly to the public for prescription drugs a situation that also prevailed in the US until 1997.
Klausner has yet to receive a response to his letter, dated and sent on August 21. An ANC representative said that ANC Today’s editorial board would consider such a letter. The board includes staff from the president’s office, the secretary general’s office, the ANC’s department of political education and researchers.
Several other scientists and doctors have raised concerns about the reporting in ANC Today, specifically of HIV issues relating to treatment and drug trials. One in particular, on the trial of a potential microbicide, was described as “scientific pornography” by one of South Africa’s top Aids researchers.
Nonoxynol-9 has been used in condoms since the 1970s and had been under intensive investigation worldwide as the most likely candidate as a microbicide or chemical condom to prevent the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Last year the results of a multiple country trial of the use of nonoxynol-9 by sex workers found that compared to a placebo the compound may actually increase the risk of catching HIV by causing vaginal lesions. The findings are being followed up.
The ANC Today article quoted extensively from studies that had found that use of nonoxynol-9 caused vaginal lesions but did not quote from papers that queried the results.
The article also charged that UNAIDS started the latest trial in 1996 knowing that nonoxynol-9 could increase the risk of HIV infection. It mentioned that a principal trial investigator was Dr Salim Abdool Karim before continuing: “At the same time as he was leading investigations into the efficacy of a chemical compound that was known to be extremely harmful, Dr Karim was head of Aids Research at our Medical Research Council.
Sources in the Department of Health say that nonoxynol-9 has been in use for more than 20 years, and that its use as a microbicide has been tested in several other countries. Karim said he had no comment on the story.