Project Focuses on Virus’ Effects on Women
Because AIDS began as a disease of gay men, doctors were slow to recognize its connection to vaginal infections and uterine cancers. Although knowledge about the disease has improved, there are still many questions about how it develops in women.
Recognizing the need to answer those questions, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development will provide $3.5 million annually for five years to fund research on how AIDS is spread to--and by--teenage and adult women.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Aug. 13, 2001 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Monday August 13, 2001 Home Edition Health Part S Page 3 View Desk 1 inches; 22 words Type of Material: Correction
Monitor--An item last Monday about the effects of AIDS in women should have said that AIDS was first observed in the United States in 1981 as a disease of gay men.
The research, called the Women’s HIV Pathogenesis Program, will focus on the effect of gender and reproductive hormones on HIV and how AIDS medications are metabolized by women’s bodies; whether women’s genital tract infections affect the transmission of HIV; and the relationship between conditions inside the genital tract and HIV infections.
