ailman School Epidemiology Professor
Salim Abdool Karim had a question: why were young women in Africa at higher risk of acquiring HIV infection than young men? Studies conducted by the Mailman School–affiliated Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (
CAPRISA) showed that women aged 15 to 24 in that country are upward of four times
more likely to be infected with HIV than their male counterparts.
Analyzing data from a clinical trial of a vaginal microbicide, Karim, director of CAPRISA, and his immunology team found that vaginal inflammation accurately predicted which women would get infected with HIV. The finding raised another important question: what was behind the inflammation that was putting women at risk for HIV?
To learn more, Karim called
Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity (
CII). “The question we wanted to address was whether differences in the populations of bacteria, fungi, or other microbes might be driving the inflammation,” says Lipkin. “Implicating microbes in inflammation and HIV risk had the potential to lead to new methods for preventing infection.”
