From DEBRA@oln.comlink.apc.orgTue Sep 12 08:23:21 1995
Date: Sat, 09 Sep 1995 08:26:00 +0100
From: Debra Guzman <DEBRA@oln.comlink.apc.org>
Reply to: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org
To: beijing95-l@netcom.com, beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org
Subject: WCW: Antifertility Vaccines opposed

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## Original in: /HRNET/WOMEN
## author     : hercilia@wcw.apc.org
## date       : 03.09.95

------------------------------------------------------------------------
New antifertility vaccines opposed
By: Maria Elena Hurtado

   A worldwide campaign to stop research into so called
   "antifertility vaccines", which treat pregnancy as if it
   was a disease, is quickly gaining support.

   The campaign, organized by the Women's Global Network on
   Reproductive Rights, focuses on a new class of long term
   contraceptives which cause temporary infertility by
   turning the immune system against the hormone HCG (human
   chorionic gonadotrophin).

   HCG is produced by the woman's body shortly after
   conception. By 'killing' HCG, the body is unable to
   prepare for pregnancy and expels the fertilized egg.

   Five main research teams have been working on
   immunological contraceptives for 20 years. The vaccines
   are expected to provide protection for two years.

   Though they are not yet in the market, the vaccines have
   already been tried in India, Australia, Finland, Sweden,
   Chile, the Dominican Republic and Brazil.

   "When the research started in the 1970s, the aim was to
   produce a contraceptive that, like vaccines, could be
   injected on hundreds of thousands of women at once. It
   was billed as the solution to uncontrolled population
   growth," said Barbara Mintzes of He alth Action
   International at an NGO Forum workshop.

   Now pharmaceutical companies like Organon claim the new
   vaccines will provide more choice for women. But the
   question women are asking is, at what price?

   Critics of the new vaccines point to possible health
   risks, the potential for abuse, the inappropriateness of
   the method and the unethical clinical trials.

   As Mintzes explained, one of the problems of using the
   immune system (the body's mechanism for fighting disease)
   for contraception is that it takes two months to build up
   resistance against the fertilized egg. This means another
   method of birth control w ould have to be used during
   that period.

   There are also questions about their effects on women
   suffering from malnutrition, parasitic infections and
   other illnesses whose body's defenses are already under a
   lot of stress. Nobody also knows whether the new
   contraceptive will interact with the A IDS virus, which
   attacks the immune system, and what will happen to women
   who are HIV positive but do not know it when they get
   injected with the vaccines.

   A further problem is that once injected, they cannot be
   "switched off" even if the woman develops an allergy or
   decides later on she wants a child.

   The long-term contraceptive, Norplant, which is implanted
   under the skin, is a case in point.  Supposedly, Norplant
   can be removed if problems develop but this has not been
   possible in the case of some unlucky users who will have
   to suffer until the effe ct wears off.

   In the largest trial of said vaccine in India, the
   success rate was only of 60% and four babies were born to
   women who took part in the trial without their knowing
   it.

   "We are not against contraceptives; we want women to have
   access to safe contraceptives," says Mintze.

   The clarification was important because Human Life
   International, a pro-life movement, has been spreading
   rumors in Tanzania, Nicaragua and the Phillippines that
   anti-tetanus vaccines are being mixed with this
   contraceptive.

   The rumors are endangering lives: at a recent
   immunization campaign in the Philippines, only a quarter
   of all those expected to have turned up on the last day
   of vaccination, did so.

   If people catch tetanus, it will be the fault of the
   scare mongers and, by implication, of the researchers of
   a birth control method with so much potential for abuse.