HIV, the virus that causes Aids, is now spreading faster in women than in men, according to a leading expert.

Thomas Quinn, Professor of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins Hospital, in Baltimore, Ohio, is calling for a global strategy specifically aimed at fighting the disease in women.

Very few women were affected by HIV when it first emerged, in the early 1980s. In developed countries at that time men accounted for 90 per cent of people living with the virus or suffering from Aids.

But a dramatic change has occurred in the past 20 years. For biological and cultural reasons, women infected through sexual contact are now more likely to become HIV positive than men or injecting drug users.

Writing in the online edition of Science, Professor Quinn said: “Women make up nearly half of the 40 million people worldwide currently infected with HIV, the virus that causes Aids, and in some developing countries women represent the vast majority of those living with HIV/Aids.

“HIV/Aids first targeted gay men and haemophiliacs in the early 1980s, then subsequently spread most quickly among intravenous drug users and heterosexuals. Now, it is having the most profound impact on women.”

Hormonal and developmental factors placed young women exposed to HIV at greater risk of infection than men, he said.

The virus found it easier to penetrate the immature genital area of young women. Birth control hormones and inflammation caused by sexually transmitted disease also made infection more likely.

In sub-Saharan Africa, 60 per cent of people living with HIV were female, and in South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe young women aged 15 to 24 were between three and six times more likely to be infected than men.

Women also made up half the adult population living with the virus in the Caribbean and a third of those in Latin America.

In America, 81 per cent of female HIV infections were caused by heterosexual transmission and 16 per cent by injected drug use.

The picture was different in the developing world, where heterosexual transmission was responsible for almost all infections among women. Mothers passing the virus on to their babies during childbirth contributed further to its spread.

“Women are different when it comes to HIV infection,” Professor Quinn said.

“If medical progress is to continue on how best to prevent and treat the disease, then developing specific strategies that empower women will be key to its success.”

More than 50,000 men and women are living with HIV in Britain, according to the latest available figures.

In 2003, a total of 10,900 heterosexual men and 15,100 heterosexual women in Britain were infected.

A spokeswoman for the Terrence Higgins Trust charity said: “Women and young people are clearly bearing the brunt of the pandemic.

“Any effort that can be brought to bear to reverse that trend ought to be taken, but what’s really needed as well is political leadership.”

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