Researchers and activists still at loggerheads over tenofovir trials

Anti-AIDS drugs researchers and AIDS activists have still not resolved their differences over the controversial trials of the antiretroviral (ARV) drug, tenofovir. The Wall Street Journal reported that scientists and activists were brought together by the International AIDS Society in the United States last week, to discuss whether people who become HIV-positive while participating in the clinical trials should be provided with lifelong antiretroviral treatment. Activists are calling for the provision of treatment, clean needles and better HIV-prevention counselling for study volunteers, but researchers warned that lifelong ARVs could be seen as "undue inducement" to participate in trials. Earlier this year Nigeria became the third country, after Cambodia and Cameroon, to suspend the tests, when doubts were raised about local trial procedures. The drug, sold under the brand name, 'Viread', is being tested as a possible prophylactic to prevent people becoming infected with the HI virus.