(WOMENSENEWS)–CheersCreams and gels to protect women against the sexual transmission of the AIDS virus may be closer to reaching the market, a scientist told delegates this week at the 15th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand. The products may become instrumental in fighting the rising number of HIV cases among women, especially since there is still no AIDS vaccine.Dr Zeda Rosenberg of the nonprofit group International Partnership for Microbicides predicted that the products, called microbicides, could be on the market in five years if current research trials are successful or up to ten year if they are not.The latest reports show that being young, monogamous or married doesn’t protect women from the AIDS virus, since often it is their husbands who pass on the disease. Women now make up nearly 50 percent of all HIV cases, totaling17 million worldwide. The rates are even higher in sub-Saharan Africa, where they make up nearly 60 percent of all cases, and 75 percent of infected young people are female.Researchers are hopeful that microbicides can lower these figures. Though they are not as effective as condoms, microbicides can protect women if their husbands or partners refuse to use a condom.
Women’s eNews editor in chief Rita Henley Jensen was showered with recognition last weekend. She received awards from her alma mater and Planned Parenthood Federation of America plus she was named one of the 100 amazing women in New York City.
(WOMENSENEWS)–CHEERS:Katie Hnida, the first woman to score points in a major college football game, broke more than two years of silence and told Sports Illustrated magazine this week that she had been raped when she was a member of the University of Colorado team.Her statement has set off a firestorm of reaction and at press time the Colorado football coach has been placed on leave and two additional women have come forward, asserting that they too have been raped.Hnida transferred from Colorado University in 2001, the year she has said she was raped by a team member while watching TV at his house. Hnida also told Sports Illustrated that she was sexually assaulted throughout the time she was on the team’s player list. She added that male players groped her crotch, grabbed inside her shirt, rubbed themselves against her and one threw footballs at her head.The only woman to have played on the Colorado team, Hnida, now 22, gained an honorable mention as an all-county kicker at Littleton Chatfield High. She was an honor-roll student as well as her high school’s home-coming queen. She told Sports Illustrated that “football is what makes me breathe.”Now playing for the University of New Mexico, Hnida was recognized in September as the first woman to score points in her division.
(WOMENSENEWS)–CheersPop music star Christina Aguilera donated $200,000 to the Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh.Aguilera, 23, is from the Pittsburgh suburb of Wexford and visited the shelter Sunday, spending two hours signing autographs and talking to the 18 women and 23 children at the shelter. She also helped wrap Christmas presents for the children.In the hit song, “I’m Okay” Aguilera sings about the abuse she and her mother, Shelly Kearns, suffered at the hands of her father.The song begins: “I believe you know. That it’s clearly time for me to go. Couldn’t take another temper show and that’s the deal. Yeah well I .