There is exciting news in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention!
1) A promising new microbicidal gel has shown that women who used it were 39% less likely over all to contract HIV than those who used a placebo. Regular usage even reduced transmission chances by 54%!
2) A study in Malawi showed that offering impoverished girls small amounts of money for regular school attendance reduced AIDS and herpes infection. After a year and a half of the program, girls who received payments were less than half as likely to be infected than girls whose families got no payments. The girls started to have sex later, less often and with fewer partners.
What this says to me is what we have known all along. Empowering women to make their own choices...whether through education or access to health information and resources...is a key to fighting AIDS and poverty.
Here's the article in the New York Times about it.
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