"Experts say around 60 gels, known as microbicides, are now in development with about 14 in clinical trials," it added.

"Laboratory trials of the drugs have proved successful, and researchers will tell a conference in London on Sunday that clinical tests will now take place in five African countries."

It said a total of 12,000 women are expected to take part in the three-year trials, which are to be held in South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda and Cameroon.

"If the results are positive, the products could be on the market before the end of the decade," the BBC said.

The BBC quoted on expert as saying that the gels, which were developed through a government-backed study by the Medical Research Council and London's Imperial College, could save up to two and a half million lives in just three years.

Hillary Benn, Britain's minister for international development, told BBC radio that the gels could prove to be especially beneficial for women.

He said the British government had invested 17 million pounds (25.4 million euros/31 million dollars) in the development of the gels, which he said were "really potentially very important".

But Benn cautioned that even if the gels proved successful there remained difficulties in making them affordable and accessible to those that needed them most.

About 40 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS and five million more are infected every year, according to latest World Health Organisation figures. It estimates three million people die of AIDS every year.

OTTAWA (AFP) - Canadian researchers announced the start of clinical trials for a new anti-AIDS/HIV vaccine aimed at replacing so-called drug cocktails.

The trials are being run in cooperation with the Strasbourg (France) based Aventus Pasteur and The Immune Response Corporation, a US company co-founded by Jonas Salk, the discoverer of the polio vaccine.

The government-backed trials will start in April and are scheduled to run for 18 months. It will involve 60 patients from Ottawa and Montreal.

The trials are being conducted by the Canadian Network for Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics (CANVAC).

Canadian Industry Minister Lucienne Robillard told a press conference that the 60 patients "have been on effective therapy and have had no detectable HIV in their blood for at least two years."

According to CANVAC, the hope is that "therapeutic vaccination" against HIV could reduce drug dependence, "thus gaining a reprieve for the important side effects" of drug cocktails.

Aventis Pasteur said it produced 1.4 billion doses of vaccines last year.

The Immune Response Corporation already produces REMUNE, an immune-based therapy designed to boost the body's natural defence mechanisms as a way to slow the progression of HIV.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States approved the first rapid saliva test for the HIV virus that causes AIDS, health officials said on Friday.

The test, made by OraSure Technologies Inc., provides results within 20 minutes with 99 percent accuracy. Other approved rapid HIV tests require blood samples.

Shares of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based OraSure gained $1.55, or 19.02 percent, to close at $9.70 on Nasdaq.

"This oral test provides another important option for people who might be afraid of a blood test," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said.

Officials also said the test, called the OraQuick Rapid HIV-1/2, could help on two fronts, encouraging more people to get tested as well as actually getting them the results.

One-fourth of the roughly 900,000 HIV-infected people in the United States are not aware they have the virus, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

People given standard tests that take a week or two often do not return to get the results. With a rapid test, a patient can get an answer in just one clinic visit. Those who test positive can start treatment quickly and take steps to keep from spreading the virus.

The new saliva test also helps protect health-care workers from becoming infected with HIV because they do not have to handle blood, officials said.

The device could be a valuable tool in fighting the AIDS epidemic in Africa because it is so quick and accurate, Thompson said.

U.S. aid agencies at some point might buy the tests for distribution in Africa, but no plans are yet in place, Thompson said.

The OraSure saliva test is cleared for detecting antibodies to HIV-1, but not for HIV-2, the strain prevalent in parts of Africa. OraSure's 20-minute blood test for HIV is approved for both types.

Only a minority of African patients who test positive for HIV have access to medicines that can suppress the virus.

The Bush administration came under criticism this week from AIDS activists, who accused the government of pushing expensive, brand-name drugs in poor countries over cheaper generics. The administration has said it is concerned that the generics, which often mix several drugs in one pill, may not be safe or completely effective in the long term.

The new test involves wiping a swab along the gums and placing it into a liquid in the testing device. When antibodies to the HIV virus are detected, two reddish-purple lines appear on the device.

Results should be confirmed by a second, more specific test, the Food and Drug Administration said.

At first, the new saliva test will be available only at hospitals and major clinics which are approved to use that type of test. OraSure could apply for a federal waiver to allow more widespread use at health-care facilities.

The saliva tests could eventually be sold without prescription in drug stores, as pregnancy tests are, Thompson said. The test would have to clear several regulatory hurdles first.

Officials would have to consider how patients might react to the results at home, without health-care workers on hand, said Jesse Goodman, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. False positives could be troublesome, he said.

Separately, OraSure said the FDA was requiring additional data before it would clear the company's Uplink Oral Fluid Drug Detection System, a test for cocaine, marijuana and other abused drugs. (Additional reporting by Susan Heavey)

LONDON (Reuters) - The hunt for an effective gel to prevent HIV infection took a key step forward on Monday when Johnson & Johnson donated rights to a promising drug to a non-profit group.

The International Partnership for Microbicides said it had reached a royalty-free agreement with Tibotec, a Belgian subsidiary of the U.S. healthcare giant, to develop a gel containing the drug for use in poor countries.

Known as TMC120, it is designed to be applied vaginally before sex to protect against infection with the virus that causes AIDS.

Peter Piot, head of the United Nations AIDS body, said the deal was a "major milestone" in efforts to produce a so-called microbicide.

Condoms are the best method to prevent HIV infection but not everyone uses them. Microbicides would allow women, who account for half of new HIV infections worldwide, to protect themselves if their partners will not use condoms.

AIDS experts estimate that even a partially effective microbicide could prevent 2.5 million deaths from AIDS over three years. Developing such a product is expected to take 5-10 years.

J&J's experimental gel contains a antiretroviral medication known as a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor. NNRTIs are already widely used to treat people infected with HIV.

The product is currently in Phase I clinical testing and J&J has agreed to pay for Phase II tests as well. New medicines need to pass through three stages of clinical testing before being approved by regulators, a process which is expected to cost between $50 million and $100 million.

A total of 60 microbicide products are under development worldwide and 14 are already in clinical trials. But the idea of producing microbicides that block the AIDS virus in the same way as powerful anti-HIV medicines given by mouth is relatively new.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A substantial number of teenagers diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections in emergency rooms may not receive appropriate treatment, according to a new report.

Dr. Kathleen R. Beckmann and colleagues from Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, point out in an article in the Annals of Emergency Medicine that each year about a quarter of the sexually transmitted infections in the U.S. occur in adolescents, and many seek treatment in emergency departments.

To see how well sexually transmitted infections in adolescents were treated in ERs, the researchers examined data covering 1.2 million such visits over a 7-year period. Of 351 patients deemed representative of this group, most (92 percent) were female and the most common specific diagnosis was pelvic inflammatory disease (in 44 percent of cases).

Only 80 percent of patients with any sexually transmitted infection were treated with antibiotics or admitted to the hospital. This was true of 91 percent of patients with pelvic inflammatory disease and 71 percent of patients with other treatable sexually transmitted infections.

Moreover, the researchers note, only 27 percent of the female patients with pelvic inflammatory disease received full treatment as laid out in public health guidelines. Less than half of the female patients with sexually transmitted infections had a pregnancy test, and only 1 such patient was tested for HIV).

Male patients were more likely than female patients to receive treatment for sexually transmitted infections, but Hispanic patients were less likely than non-Hispanic white patients to receive treatment.

"Further work is necessary to explain these disparities and optimize care for adolescents who have sexually transmitted infections and present to emergency departments," the authors conclude. "Most important, efforts should focus on better implementation of existing guidelines."

SOURCE: Annals of Emergency Medicine, March 2004.

By MARTHA IRVINE, AP National Writer

CHICAGO - That tiny bit of print on a condom packet is at the center of a raging debate now that President George W. Bush has asked the Food and Drug Administration to modify the current warning to include information about human papillomavirus, commonly called HPV or genital warts.

On one side are scientists who believe that condoms should be promoted as a crucial line of defense against several STDs and cervical cancer. On the other are groups that advocate waiting for sex until marriage, and who see the dangers of HPV as an argument for their cause.

Justin Kleinman hadn't noticed the condom packet wording until he squinted to read it recently.

"This is completely pointless," the 24-year-old Chicagoan said of the warning telling him that, while condoms can help prevent the spread of some sexually transmitted diseases, there are no guarantees.

"The lack of information getting to the American public regarding this disease is beyond comprehension," said Linda Klepacki, manager of the abstinence policy department at Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based organization.

She and others point to research showing that condoms don't necessarily prevent the spread of HPV, in part because it may be found on parts of the body the latex devices don't cover. Abstinence is the best way to prevent the disease, she argues.

Adding that information to a condom label would be "truth in advertising," said Libby Gray. She's the director of Project Reality, an Illinois-based group that teaches public school students about abstinence — and notes that most students she speaks with have no idea what HPV is.

But scientists who study HPV worry that abstinence groups are dismissing important information to promote their own values.

"I want to be polite. But it appalls me when I see scientific and medical studies being manipulated for a different agenda," said Tom Broker. He's a professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and president of the International Papillomavirus Society, a coalition of experts who study HPV.

The focus, Broker said, should be on the fact that condoms have been shown to reduce the risk of cervical cancer, which is caused by HPV and which can be detected and treated if women get regular PAP smears. (The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a recent report to Congress that included the same conclusion.)

Broker also said research has shown that HPV transmission is less likely when a person does not have other STDs, such as HIV, gonorrhea and chlamydia, which condoms have been shown to combat.

Both he and Dr. Ward Cates, former head of the CDC's STD/HIV prevention group, agreed that teaching abstinence is a key to preventing the spread of disease.

But when someone becomes sexually active, they also believe that "condoms are the best imperfect way we have," said Cates, now president of the family Health Institute of Family Health International, a nonprofit global health organization based in North Carolina.

Officials at the federal FDA concede that boiling down a "very extensive and complicated" body of scientific literature on HPV into a few words on a condom label is no easy task.

"It must be medically accurate and at the same time, be clear and understandable for, like, my 17-year-old when he goes out on Saturday night," said Dr. Dan Schultz, director of the FDA's Office of Device Evaluation. He expects to issue recommendations on an HPV warning by the end of the year.

Some young people, meanwhile, are frustrated that so much attention is being paid to wording on a condom label.

"Honestly, getting people to use a protection at all is the biggest step," said Jessica Keefe, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Michigan. "I know so many smart, well-educated college students who don't use them — even after years of sex ed and university health programs."

Marina Elbert, a 20-year-old junior at Rutgers University, said she's among those who'd be unlikely to read or heed a condom package label.

"I'm a smoker, and I read the warning labels on my cigarettes, but I still smoke," she said. "That's the same mentality that teens might have toward condom labels."

She'd rather get information from her doctor or books, magazines and Web sites. To that end, the makers of such condom brands as Trojan and Durex have posted information on their Web sites about STDs, as has retailer Condomania.com.

Kleinman, the 24-year-old Chicagoan, agrees that's a better tactic than labeling: "If the money can teach one kid in school the dangers of sex — even with a condom — then it will have been put to a lot more good than any fine-print label on a crumpled wrapper on the bed stand."