AIDS experts have long known that teenage women are more vulnerable to acquiring H.I.V. infection because cells in the cervixes of girls are biologically more susceptible to the virus than those of older women.

Earlier studies of AIDS from the United Nations have shown that the disease has cut life expectancy to 37 to 40 years from 60 to 62 in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

In addressing the broader dimensions of infections among women, Ms. Bellamy said that despite the benefits of globalization, many types of infections were increasingly affecting a disproportionate number of women, compared with men. Nearly half of the world's women live on $2 a day or less, she said. NY Times