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After investigating
traditional contraceptive techniques, an eminent Australian-based
scientist has proved that lemon juice diluted five to one
with water kills HIV and sperm within seconds.
Roger Short's findings
will be made public in a scientific paper read at The Ninth
International Symposium on Spermatology at the University
of the Western Cape next week.
Symposium convener
Professor Gerhard van der Horst is excited by the discovery
of a cheap, universally available, non-technical way to block
HIV transmission, and describes Short's paper as "a milestone".
A woman whose husband
insists on "nyama to nyama" can protect herself
against HIV transmission with a small sponge and watered-down
lemon juice, perhaps leaving him none the wiser. Men may also
anoint themselves with the acidic juice to prevent transmission.
The abstract of
the paper says: "Historically, lemon juice on a sponge,
or half a lemon placed over the cervix, was widely used as
an effective contraceptive. We have shown that 20% lemon juice
(final concentration) in human semen irreversibly immobilises
100% of sperm in less than 30 seconds. A similar concentration
also rapidly inactivates HIV. Thus intra-vaginal lemon juice
might provide a cheap, readily available and extremely effective
way of stopping the sexual transmission of HIV, whilst also
providing contraception."
The paper refers
to additional strategies, including circumcision for men,
which more than halves the risk of HIV infection. The virus
appears to enter the penis via specific HIV-receptive Langerhans
cells on the inner surface of the foreskin. The vagina has
its own Langerhans cells that are also the main entry point
for HIV in women.
Thickening the
vaginal epithelium by estrogen administration could provide
cheap, safe and effective HIV protection for women, but drug
firms are not interested, says Short.
Based at the University
of Melbourne, Short is also professor-at-large at Cornell
University in the United States, and a visiting fellow of
Green College, Oxford. His career began in England at Cambridge
in 1956. He was co-editor and principal author of the eight-volume
Reproduction in Mammals published by Cambridge University
Press from 1972 onward, which was translated into six languages.
The lemon juice
breakthrough is not the first scientific bombshell he has
lobbed. He was part of the Cambridge University team that
crossed a camel with a llama in Dubai. He also co-authored
a physiological study presenting strong evidence that the
elephant was an aquatic mammal in an earlier evolutionary
phase. He has published more than 300 scientific papers and,
with Dr Malcolm Potts, wrote a bestseller aimed at the layman:
Ever Since Adam and Eve: The Evolution of Human Sexuality
(1999).
Short's interest
in the transmission of HIV infection arose naturally from
his research activities of the past 20 years, which focused
on contraception, the evolution of human reproduction and
the causes of the Earth's overpopulation.
All
Africa.Com October 4, 2002
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