KENYA: Scientists continue long-running study of HIV-resistant sex workers in Kenyan slum

Record ID: 361238

  • Title: KENYA: Scientists continue long-running study of HIV-resistant sex workers in Kenyan slum
  • Date: 30th November 2007
  • Summary: (AD1) NAIROBI, KENYA (FILE) (REUTERS) STREET SCENE VARIOUS OF A PROSTITUTE LEAVING HER HOUSE IN MAJENGO
  • Embargoed: 15th December 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA4YFOLG7T6Y76I3GJOMKPITI9Z
  • Story Text: This clinic in Nairobi's Majengo slums, plays an important role in the lives of many people in this area since medical treatment in Nairobi's ultra-modern hospitals is too expensive for most residents. Majengo is also special because some of its patients, like Agnes, have become the focus of a long-running international study.
    Agnes is a commercial sex worker and she has been coming to this clinic for over twenty years: "I was a domestic worker but I would not get paid, I continued to work but still was never paid. Then some men wanted me to take on in the role of a wife, so I left that job," she says.
    Over 2,000 other commercial sex workers here have been involved in a research project being carried out by scientists from the University of Nairobi, the University of Manitoba and World Health Organisation (WHO). The researchers started off in 1983 by studying sexually transmitted diseases (STDS) in the group, before shifting focus to HIV in 1985. They discovered that about 50 of the women consistently resisted HIV infection.

    "There's something going on in these women that causes resistance but if their cells are taken out and put in a test tube, their cells can be infected with HIV. So their cells aren't intrinsically resistant, there's something that's going on in their bodies that's creating the resistance," said Dr. Larry Gelmon, the group's chief researcher.
    The researchers also think that the level of exposure the women have to the HIV virus also plays a role in their ability to resist infection.

    "The resistance is not permanent, so maybe the frequent exposure to the HIV virus makes them the way they are, what we would call the resistance. But once they are not practising as much then the resistance goes," said Jane Mwangi, the Majengo clinic's chief nurse.
    The scientists say the only way for the women to maintain their negative status is to stop their profession, find a HIV-negative partner or keep up the exposure levels.
    Researchers say there is now a concerted effort among the prostitutes to use condoms.
    52-year-old Leonilida is HIV positive and also comes to the clinic. She got married at 18-years-old and has four children. She became a sex worker after her husband abandoned her. She's given up prostitution and now sells vegetables to earn a living. She has been involved in the study since 1985.

    "I have learned many lessons in life and also how to live positively with HIV and with all that I have learned, I even counsel my peers," said Leonilida.
    Fewer deaths have been recorded among the focus group due to the use of anti-retroviral drugs, now available for free to HIV-positive patients.
    Doctors say the death rate used to range above 20 a year but that number has been halved due to the drugs.
    Efforts to find a vaccine have so far proved futile. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the world's hardest-hit region with more than 25 million people living with HIV/AIDS.
    Gelmon says the Nairobi study is one of the few at the forefront of studying HIV because it has been around for so long and has concentrated on this one area.
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