Microbicides touted as next weapon in war against AIDS

A safe and effective gel to allow women around the world to protect themselves from the AIDS virus may be available by 2010 if current trials involving thousands of women are successful, researchers say.

Gita Ramjee, director of the HIV prevention research unit at South Africa's Medical Research Council, said that microbicides -- or vaginal gels -- offered huge potential for stemming the epidemic especially in societies where men are reluctant to use a condom.

Ramjee that five separate clinical trials, involving 12,000 people in South Africa and thousands in other countries were underway. Results should be ready in the next two years, she said.

"We have waited 25 years to address the epidemic, so 2008 is really not too much longer to wait," she told a press conference on Sunday before the start of an international conference on microbicides.

She said if governments fast-tracked the approval process, the gels might be on the market by 2010 -- although she cautioned this was the earliest anticipated date.

The conference, which is co-sponsored by the WHO, groups more than 1,000 scientists and researchers from around the world.

At the opening session, Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu praised the dedication of those involved in the research.

"One day, we will be able to say -- just as happened with things like TB, malaria, smallpox and leprosy, that the efforts and commitment have been crowned with success," he said.

He cited the example of a mother "who for no reason or fault of her own suffers and she sees her baby and knows the baby has this [AIDS virus] as well," Tutu said.

"On behalf of people such as those, I want to say thank you to you," he said.

HIV is rising more rapidly among women than men in many parts of the world. Half of all adults living with the virus that causes AIDS are female, according to UN figures.

In sub-Saharan Africa, home to more than 25 million of the nearly 40 million infected globally, the figure is nearly 60 percent, with most new infections acquired through heterosexual intercourse.

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has calculated that a microbicide that is 60 percent effective against HIV and used by only 20 percent of women in 73 developing countries over three years could prevent 2.5 million infections.