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PROGRAM A Conversation with Khatija Ahmed, Principal Investigator, Carraguard® Phase 3 Clinical Trial, Setshaba Research Centre, Soshanguve, Pretoria [Note: Since this conversation took place, the results of the Phase 3 clinical trial of Carraguard have been announced. (news release)] Dr. Khatija Ahmed knows better than most the power of education for women. Sipping tea at her research center outside of Pretoria, she said, “Women have walked out of here more educated, more empowered, and more responsible than they were before, and that is gratifying . . . whatever the final results of the trial might be.” She is referring to the Phase 3 clinical trial of Carraguard, a potential microbicide. the results of the trial are expected in early 2008. Microbicides are being developed as a female-initiated method for preventing the transmission of HIV, and possibly other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), when used during sex. Ahmed has invested five years of her life to HIV-prevention research, eventually becoming principal investigator of the Setshaba site of the Carraguard trial. Born in Kliptown, just outside of Johannesburg, she is a South African success story. Ahmed and her three siblings were raised by their mother, a native South African who ended her education after primary school, and their father, who immigrated from India when he was a young boy and was prevented from completing his secondary education by financial restraints. Together her parents managed a retail business in Kliptown for over 30 years. These were the apartheid years; when Ahmed was six years old, her family was forced to move to Lenasia, a designated “Indian Area.” Her parents struggled to raise their children, who helped out at the store during weekends and school holidays. Ahmed and her siblings attended an “Indian School” in Lenasia until matriculation. Because apartheid prevented her from attending the nearby University of the Witwatersrand, Ahmed began her college education at an Indian university in Durban. In 1980 she completed her bachelor of science degree at the University of Westville in Durban and in 1985 earned her MBChB degree at the University of Natal Medical School. Ahmed met her husband, Dr. R. Carrim, in medical school, and they married in 1987. He is a consultant physician at the 1 Military Hospital in Pretoria, specializing in gastroenterology. The couple have settled in Pretoria, initially in the Indian suburb Laudium, and now in Erasmia. They have three children: one daughter studying at university, another in eleventh grade, and a son in seventh grade. During the first ten years of their marriage, Ahmed had a private practice in Laudium and worked part-time as a medical officer at Kalafong Hospital. In 1997 she enrolled at the Medical University of Southern Africa (MEDUNSA) to study toward her postgraduate degree in clinical microbiology. She graduated in 2000 with a master’s degree in medical microbiology from MEDUNSA and as a Fellow of the College of Pathology of South Africa. “I always wanted to study medicine as a child,” said Ahmed. “I had majored in microbiology as an undergraduate and found it fascinating. The first case of HIV/AIDS in South Africa was reported in 1982, when I was in medical school. “My interest in public health, and HIV specifically, grew when I started working in the tuberculosis unit of Ga-Rankuwa Hospital. Because of the close association between TB and HIV, I was struck every day by the impact the disease had on South Africa. I could see so clearly how this epidemic was devastating my country. I knew this is where I wanted to dedicate my energies.” Seeing other health care professionals leave for more money and better conditions, Ahmed says she never even considered joining the brain drain. “I love South Africa. I am African by birth, and I belong in Africa. African soil has raised me.” While working toward her degree, an opportunity arose at the Department of Microbiological Pathology at what was then MEDUNSA and now the Medunsa campus of the University of Limpopo. “Professor Anwar Hoosen was managing the Medunsa site of the Phase 2 trial of the microbicide candidate Carraguard, and asked me to join him.” Three years later, the Population Council asked Ahmed to head up the Phase 3 Carraguard study at the site. “And from that, there was no stopping me,” said Ahmed. Ahmed says she is working to empower women. She wants to play a role in decreasing new HIV infections by helping to find effective HIV-prevention methods. “We want to find a product that is easy to use, accessible to those who need it, is safe, and, of course, protects against HIV.” Managing a large clinical trial comes with countless rewards and challenges. “Research is an unknown concept here,” explains Ahmed. “We had to overcome cultural and social barriers to enroll women in the trial, to educate the communities in an acceptable manner, and to ensure our work [offered] maximum benefit to the participants and to the people who live in this area. “So, regardless of the trial results, I know that we have made a difference in the lives of these people . . . and that we are contributing important knowledge to the field of HIV prevention.” Ahmed salutes the strong team of people she works with at the research center. “Their dedication, enthusiasm, and commitment are beyond description. As South Africans, we are constantly affected by HIV. Although we know that many people are infected by their partners every day in this community, when a woman in our trial was diagnosed as HIV-positive, everyone here was truly distraught. The empathy is tremendous. There is a true sense of caring, of comradeship. I believe that spirit will help us beat this pandemic. I need to be a part of that.” Carraguard® is the Population Council's US trademark for pharmaceutical preparations, namely microbicides, for use in preventing infection. See Also
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