Addressing women's issues crucial in fight against AIDS.

2004 AUG 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The global fight against HIV will fail without serious progress in addressing the plight of women in the developing world, including ways they can protect themselves from infection without their partners knowing, advocates say.

Nearly half of all people living with HIV now are women, and their infection rates in many regions are climbing much faster than men's, expert say.

In southern Africa, where the problem has been around the longest, teenage girls are 5 times more likely to become infected than teenage boys. In the Caribbean, which has also had long experience with HIV, 70% of new infections are in women. The virus is also spreading faster among women than men in countries more recently affected, such as Russia.

As the epidemics around the world continue to unfold, the disparity will continue to grow unless radical steps are taken, experts say.

Health specialists, scientists and community activists gathered at the largest-ever international AIDS conference focused their attention on the impact that humankind's worst scourge is having on women. Across the world, 17 million women are infected.

With vaccines considered a long way off and with many cultures denying women the power and confidence to demand that partners wear condoms, regarded as the key prevention tool, scientists are addressing ways women can protect themselves.

The biggest buzz among researchers at the conference is surrounding anti-AIDS vaginal products, known as microbicides.