Gentle spermicide also inhibits HIV

Abstract

The fastest growing segment of the worldwide population at risk for infection with HIV is sexually active women, the majority of whom are of reproductive age. In the US, 80% of women with HIV infection are of reproductive age, and about one-fifth of infected patients acquired the disease via heterosexual transmission. In some countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, 90% of patients are infected with HIV through heterosexual transmission. These facts make a mechanism-based female-controlled spermicide and microbicide product highly desirable. ^* One potential product was described at the combined 16th World Congress of the International Federation of Fertility Societies and the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine [ San Francisco, US; October 1998 ].