The Future of HIV Prevention: Prospects for an Effective Anti-HIV Microbicide

As the devastation of the HIV-AIDS epidemic continues, women are increasinglybearing the greatest impact, particularly in developing countries[1]. In many of these countries, nearly 60% of people living with HIVAIDSare women [2], and in several African countries, women 15 to 24 yearsof age are more than three times more likely to be infected than men thesame age [3]. In South Africa, one in four women is infected by 22 yearsof age [4]. Globally, more than 17.5 million women are now living withHIV-AIDS [5], and there are an estimated 13.2 million infected women insub-Saharan Africa [6].Although effective prevention technologies and strategies do alreadyexist, these are clearly insufficient to address the problems of the epidemic,especially in developing countries. The ‘‘ABC’’ approach (Abstinence, Befaithful, and use Condoms) has been used with some success in a numberof African countries [5,7]. However, in a survey among young women in