AIDS Funding

AIDS Entrepeneur: Bill Gates is investing $60 million in research to find an anti-HIV cream. It's hard to criticize such a noble gesture and cause, but you have to wonder if spending that money on clean needles for African healthcare providers might save more lives. Especially when you read statements like this:

Helene Gayle, director of HIV, TB and Reproductive Health for the Gates Foundation, said women were at greater risk of HIV infection than men.

Given the low availability of female condoms, it was important to find other way that women can protect themselves, she said.

"The imperative to find something that women can use to protect themselves from HIV is clear and urgent.

"The only technology we have is a male-controlled technology - a condom."

Is that true? That women are at the greater risk of HIV infection? I still don’t see this as often in women as I do other sexually transmitted diseases - say gonorrhea or chlamydia. I couldn’t find any reliable statistics (i.e. not from activist groups) about the sex distribution, though. Anyone who does have that information, I’d appreciate it if you could pass it along.