Aids Prevention

MedPage Today examines recent HIV prevention developments, in a 2010 year in review piece, beginning with the announcement at the International AIDS Conference in July that a microbicide gel used by women before and after sex reduced HIV infection by 39 percent.

Reuters reports that the developers of a vaginal microbicide gel containing the antiretroviral tenofovir which has been found to reduce "HIV infections in women by 39 percent," said that during meetings last week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted fast track approval designation to the gel, which expedites the review of drugs by the agency.

A Scientific American series examines how recent scientific advances can guide future efforts to thwart HIV/AIDS and also looks at the epidemic among men who have sex with men (MSM) and injecting drug users (IDUs).

CQ Weekly examines how HIV/AIDS advocates are "[i]Increasingly dissatisfied with [President Barack] Obama's approach, both at home and abroad." According to the article, some advocates say that Obama and congressional Democrats "have failed to show the political will and marshal the necessary resources" to fight HIV/AIDS.

Last month's 18th International AIDS Conference-AIDS 2010 in Vienna, Austria will be remembered as the first since the global economic downturn, the growing recognition of treatment as part of prevention and acknowledgement of the importance of human rights in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS experts said Thursday during a panel discussion in Washington, D.C. A webcast of the event is available now online.

Media outlets continued to reflect on news from the International AIDS Conference-AIDS 2010, which attracted over 19,000 participants from 193 countries to Vienna last week, according to the conference blog.

The New York Times examines a set of questions raised by news out of the International AIDS Conference-AIDS 2010 last week that a microbicide gel containing the antiretroviral (ARV) tenofovir used by women before and after sex helped reduce their risk of HIV infection by 39 percent.

On the final day of the International AIDS Conference-AIDS 2010 Friday, Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria called upon "China, India and other fast-growing economies" to chip in to help close the funding gap in efforts to battle HIV/AIDS, Agence France-Presse reports. "Until now, these countries have been recipients of AIDS funds, not donors," the news service writes.