Australian Development Gateway

The Australian Development Gateway (ADG) strives to support members of the development community in their efforts to reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development in the Asia Pacific region. The site has been created with participation from members of government, private, academia and non-government organisations. User feedback mechanisms have been incorporated to guide future directions of the site. The site is optimised for low bandwidth access to enable the widest participation throughout the Asia Pacific region.

Skip to content

ADG channels:

Information by sector: HIV/AIDS

Sub navigation

ADG TOOLBOX

Debates & new prevention technologies

Microbicides, women and AIDS (pdf 113kb)

Women are twice more likely than men to contract HIV from a single act of unprotected sex, but they remain dependent on male cooperation to protect themselves from infection.

This background paper looks at microbicides as a method to allow women to independently protect themselves from HIV. Microbicides are compounds that can be applied inside the vagina or rectum to protect against sexually transmitted infections including HIV.

This paper outlines current initiatives underway globally to further develop this method of prevention whilst highlighting the need for political will and investment to enable microbicide research and development to expand quickly to enable the promise of microbicides to be realised.

 

Footer: