1. Recent advances include promising vaccine, microbicide and treatment research.

2. Researchers have developed a topically-applied molecular microbicide capable of preventing HIV transmission.

3. It is important for the microbicide field to understand why cellulose sulfate was associated with a higher risk of HIV infection than the placebo product.

4. There have also been breakthroughs in microbicide gels to block HIV infection.

5. Previous attempts to make vaginal microbicide gels that block the passage of HIV have involved long-chain molecules called carrageenans, thickening agents found in seaweed.

6. Microbicide trials in the past have all failed to show any protection against HIV.

7. The last two decades of strikeouts in microbicide prevention studies could have put this particular strategy into question.

8. For years,(http://) scientists have tried to develop a topical microbicide to stop HIV transmission.

9. What's important is that this is the first trial that was looking at the effectiveness of a microbicide using an anti-retroviral.

10. The study showed those women who frequently used condoms and/or spermicide in the past as well as those women who did not have one single partner were more likely to use the microbicide, if available.

11. "The simple truth is: one size does not fit all, " says Salim Abdool Karim, epidemiologist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and a leader of the successful microbicide trial.

12. Nevertheless, the success rate might pack some surprises for the microbicide community.

13. Hypothetically, such drugs could be incorporated into a topical microbicide that would thwart sexually transmitted chlamydiae.

14. In what some are calling a historic day in HIV prevention, a microbicide gel has been found to help prevent HIV transmission.