Definition
HIV-1 transmission is both inefficient and heterogeneous, and host factors that prevent and/or facilitate viral acquisition in HIV-uninfected individuals hold the key to better biomedical prevention. This review will highlight some of the factors influencing HIV transmission via the female genital tract.
Background to the Problem
HIV is predominantly transmitted during sexual intercourse (HIV-1 Sexual Transmission), with young women having the highest risk of HIV infection in parts of the world that are severely impacted by the pandemic (Abdool Karim et al. 2011b). Despite the size of the current HIV pandemic, HIV is relatively inefficient at infecting susceptible target cells across the genital mucosa of women, with estimated per-coital transmission rates as low as 1 per 1,000 contacts (Powers et al. 2008). This suggests that natural barriers to HIV infection within the mucosal surfaces of the female genital tract are generally effective. To gain entry via mucosal...
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McKinnon, L.R., Passmore, JA.S. (2018). Identifying Opportunities to Block HIV-1 Transmission in the Female Genital Tract. In: Hope, T.J., Richman, D.D., Stevenson, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of AIDS. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7101-5_138
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