PIP: It is estimated that 70% of the 3000 women who are infected with HIV each day are 15-24 years old. This pattern of increased prevalence among young women has been noted since a 1986 report that AIDS cases in Zaire were equally divided among men and women, but that the women were an average of 10 years younger than the men, and cases in women peaked at age 20-29. Despite this information, the HIV research and program agenda has failed to address the gender issues that place young women at risk of infection. Societies that do not provide young women with information about reproductive anatomy and sex or with reproductive health services, that allow men to have multiple sex partners, and that condone condom use only for illicit intercourse, leave young girls and women at risk of forced and unprotected sexual intercourse. Studies have also shown that early marriage practices also increase the risk of women becoming infected (usually by their older and more "experienced" husbands). In some parts of Africa, older men seek out virgins in the belief that having sex with a virgin will cure them of sexually transmitted diseases. Poverty also drives women to barter sex for money or goods. In addition to these social and behavioral risk factors, young women appear to have a greater physiological susceptibility to infection than more mature women. Possible factors for this increased risk include the facts that, in younger women, the lining of the vagina is thinner, vaginal mucus may be less profuse, ovulation (which seems to have a protective effect against infection) is infrequent, and a transition zone of cells ringing the cervical opening is more exposed. Thus, biologic, social, and behavioral factors increase the vulnerability of young women. To protect young women, societies will have to change cultural and sexual norms, values, and practices.