PROGRAM
Microbicides (continued)

Why Microbicides?

According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), approximately 40 million adults worldwide were living with HIV and AIDS at the end of 2006, including 4.3 million who were newly infected. UNAIDS also reports that 45 million new HIV infections are expected to occur between 2002 and 2010.

The majority of new HIV infections occur through heterosexual intercourse. Women are increasingly affected by HIV and AIDS; by the end of 2006 there were an estimated 17.7 million women worldwide who were HIV-positive, an increase of 1.2 million women in two years.

Infection in women is driven by social, cultural, and economic gender inequalities that limit women's ability to protect themselves from infection. The existing strategies for prevention—abstinence, mutual monogamy among HIV-negative partners, condom use, and treatment of STIs (because the presence of STIs can facilitate HIV transmission)—are simply not feasible for many women.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, women are disproportionately affected by HIV. UNAIDS reports that "young women between 15 and 24 years old are at least three times more likely to be HIV-positive than young men." In some countries, that figure rises to five to six times as likely.

Because of the urgent need for a protective product that women can initiate, and one that does not necessarily prevent pregnancy, the Population Council has focused to date on a vaginal, noncontraceptive microbicide.

The effectiveness of first-generation microbicides is expected to range from 40 to 70 percent. In one study, it was estimated that a 40-percent-effective microbicide would avert 18 percent of infections in a two-year period, while a 60-percent-effective microbicide would prevent 35 percent of infections among people who were unable or unwilling to use condoms.¹

(return to microbicides home page)

Carraguard® is the Population Council's US trademark for pharmaceutical preparations, namely microbicides, for use in preventing infection.

¹ "The potential impact of microbicides in Bagalkot, District, Karnataka, India." June 2004. London: International Family Health, Global Campaign for Microbicides.

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