Professor Susser's Op-Ed on HIV Prevention Methods for Women Published in Aljazeera America
Professor Ida Susser, Chair of the Anthropology Department, is the author of an op-ed piece entitled "Blame research design for failed HIV study." In the article, which appears on the Aljazeera America website, Professor Susser takes issue with a study known as VOICE, or Vaginal and Oral Interventions to Control the Epidemic, which was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). According to Susser, the study "failed to show any preventive results for women in southern Africa using ARV-based pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) pills or topical microbicide gel...not because the products didn’t work but because they weren’t used." Professor Susser attributed the failure of the study to "research design," adding that "the challenge of this research is more social and behavioral than medical; to succeed, we must better understand which routines and methods work best for women in stressful daily conditions."