KPBS reports on researchers’ efforts to develop novel methods to protect women from HIV infection that have been examined at the International Microbicides Conference (M2010) in Pittsburgh this week. In sub-Saharan Africa, one of the region’s hardest hit by HIV/AIDS, “six out of ten adults living with the virus are women,” KPBS writes. The piece names several factors that increase women’s vulnerability to HIV transmission in the region and the need “for protection [against HIV] that women can use discreetly,” such as microbicides.

The article details several promising microbicides in development, such as vaginal rings, films and tablets, and includes comments by Ian McGowan, co-principal investigator of the Microbicides Trial Network, and Joseph Romano, the chief of product development for the International Partnership for Microbicides (Goldberg, 5/25).