Peter Piot, director general of UNAIDS, told journalists that the gel, a form of disinfectant, offered greater hope in the foreseeable future than a vaccine.

"We're still nowhere," Piot commented on vaccine development. Two human trials of candidate vaccines are currently underway and more research is going on.

"Where we have better hope, and it is at least as important, is a microbicide," he added.

Asked when the product, envisioned as a gel, could appear, Piot said: "In the most optimistic scenario three years or four years."

Piot noted there was an increasing "feminisation" of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with more than half of new infections now occurring in women.

A microbicide would have to be sufficiently strong to kill the HIV virus but also avoid the harshness of disinfectant products, which can cause severe vaginal lesions.

"It has to be a product that is as safe as cosmetics," Piot insisted.

The condoms are valuable to manufacturers because of the lubricant on them. Sari weavers place the condoms on their thread spools and the lubricant on the prophylactics is rubbed off on the thread, making it move faster through their sewing machines, The Economic Times newspaper quoted an Indian industry official as saying.

Sari makers also turn the condom's inside out, place them on their fingers and use the high-quality lubricant to polish gold and silver threads used in the traditional Indian women's outfits.

India manufactures more than 1 billion condoms annually to check population growth and curb the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Monday April 18, 9:16 AM

A state Health Department study has found gay men in New Mexico are not getting regular tests for HIV, meaning many are finding out they have the virus when they become very ill.

Sixty-three percent of New Mexicans diagnosed with AIDS last year were unaware they had HIV, the virus that destroys cells in the immune system and leads to AIDS, according to the department's February study.

Two men with AIDS were already so sick that they died in emergency rooms.

Lily Foster, the department's HIV-AIDS surveillance coordinator and epidemiologist, said the avoidance of tests seems to be a trend.

"It's a shock," she said.

AIDS takes years to develop, and the earlier it is diagnosed, the longer the person's life expectancy.

Some 1,965 New Mexicans are living with HIV-AIDS, considered a low prevalence of the disease.

Nationwide, intravenous drug users make up the largest group of men infected, but the Health Department said that in New Mexico, AIDS hits homosexual men most.

Complacency about the disease, as well as its stigma, keep people from getting tested, Health Department officials have speculated.

Access to HIV testing doesn't seem to be the issue, Foster said. Everyone in New Mexico can get free, anonymous screening through public health offices.

Since 1998, more Hispanic gay men than Anglo gay men have been diagnosed with HIV and AIDS simultaneously, but the Health Department didn't recognize that as a trend until 2003.

"Hispanics are rising in the proportion of cases they contribute to the state," Foster said. "Not only are there more cases, but they're coming in sicker."

The problem is worst among Hispanic gay men between the ages of 30 and 49 who live in Bernalillo County and southern New Mexico.

Now the Health Department is looking at a different approach toward prevention.

"Sometimes the blanket approach of targeting the general population isn't the most effective approach," said Dr. Joan Baumbach, a medical epidemiologist at the department.

An estimated 4 percent of adult males _ 34,000 in New Mexico _ have sex with men.

New Mexico has emphasized all high-risk groups in its efforts to reduce HIV-AIDS. But the Health Department and New Mexico Community Planning and Action Group _ made up of people living with HIV-AIDS, prevention workers and affected communities _ plan to try a more targeted approach focusing on Hispanic gay men.

Health Department workers first must hold study sessions in communities to understand what's going on and why some Hispanic men who have gay sex aren't being tested. That will give prevention workers a better idea how to reach the group.

Teens' Stress Begins Before a Parent with HIV Dies

Wed Apr 13, 2005 02:43 PM ET

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In a six-year study of New York City families with an HIV-positive parent, researchers found that teenagers whose parent died during the study were at greater risk of emotional distress and run-ins with police before their parent's deaths -- but not after.

"This really points to the importance of helping families after HIV diagnosis, not just after a parent's death," Dr. Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus, the lead researcher on the study, told Reuters Health.

She and her colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, report the findings in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

The study involved 272 HIV-positive parents and their teenage children, about half of whom had taken part in a support program designed to help families deal with the stress of living with HIV. In earlier research, Rotheram-Borus and her colleagues had found that the program helped ease both parents' and children's emotional distress, and that teens in the program were less likely than their peers to use drugs, leave school or have behavioral problems.

These latest findings show that families need such support services well before a parent dies, according to Rotheram-Borus. However, she said, while HIV support services in the U.S. are available to individuals, there's a lack of programs for whole families.

Among the more than 400 teenagers the UCLA researchers followed, half lost a parent -- usually their mother, at an average age of 38 -- during the study period. More than a year before their parent's death, these teens were more likely than their peers to have feelings of isolation, fear, anger and depression.

Unexpectedly, however, these problems -- as measured by standard screening tests -- waned in the year after a parent's death, so that the teens' distress was no greater than that of their peers whose parents were still alive.

There was a similar pattern when it came to rates of arrests and convictions for crime, which were higher among bereaved teenagers before their parent died, but not after.

The higher depression rates among teenagers who lost a parent did persist, but even those symptoms faded within a year, Rotheram-Borus said.

Often, she noted, the toughest times for children who survive their parents -- due to any illness -- come during a "life milestone," such as high school graduation or a wedding.

If HIV support services for families become more widespread, the hope, according to Rotheram-Borus, would be to offer "drop-in" programs where family members could seek help at times they feel they need it.

SOURCE: Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, April 2005.