On Wednesday, the Female Health Company announced that the FDA has approved its FC2 Female Condom for use in preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
This FC2 condom has the same design and the same instructions for use as the common FC1 female condom many of us are familiar with. However, the new female condom is made of synthetic rubber rather than polyurethane, making it about 30% less expensive than the original version. Also, the FC2 is manufactured through a less-expensive process than the company’s original version, which should allow health groups to distribute larger quantities to women in Africa and other areas heavily impacted by HIV/AIDS.
With the FDA approval, the lower-cost, new version of the female condom will now be available in the United States.
Following this link will allow you to view a PDF information sheet on the FC2: http://www.femalehealth.com/pdf/FC2%20Information%20Sheet.pdf
And you can learn more about the Female Health Company, and both the FC1 and FC2 female condoms by visiting their website: http://www.femalehealth.com/
Archive for March, 2009
FDA Approves New Female Condom
Medical doctors and HIV researches Mari Kitahata and Jonathan Sterne presented the results of several studies addressing this complex question at the 16th Annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, which was held on February 9, 2009.
Recently updated U.S. guidelines recommend initiating HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) in all asymptomatic HIV positive patients with a CD4 count of less than 350. Kitahata and Stern, in this presentation/interview, review emerging data that indicates that introducing therapy even earlier in HIV disease, at CD4 counts greater than 500, could significantly prolong an individual’s survival.
To read the complete transcript, follow this URL: http://www.thebody.com/content/confs/croi2009/art50496.html
Vermont CARES 