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Canada is responding to AIDS' vicious assault on women with $105-million in funding for programs to help women and young girls in the developing world.The announcement, on World AIDS Day, was made by International Co-operation Minister Aileen Carroll, who heads the Canadian International Development Agency.

"Gender inequality is fuelling the spread of HIV-AIDS," Ms. Carroll said. "This World AIDS Day, we are asked by every woman and girl in the world, 'Have you heard me today?' I am here to say that we have heard you, and we are acting."

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday that while the disease has hit Africa harder than other parts of the world, it has become "the worst epidemic humanity has ever faced" and is spreading at alarming rates around the world, particularly in East Asia and Eastern Europe.

Canada's funding announcement includes a $15-million contribution over three years to the International Partnership for Microbicides, which is working to develop microbicides to protect women against infection in societies where males object to using condoms.

Microbicides are topical gel or cream products that a woman can use to prevent transmission of HIV during unprotected intercourse. This donation makes Canada the largest national donor to the IPM, a public-private partnership that aims to push research into a product long neglected by the drug industry.

Ms. Carroll also announced $67.4-million over four years in funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Of that figure, $58.4-million will go toward the group's work in the areas of sexual and reproductive health and HIV-AIDS among women and girls. The remainder will be aimed at improving the distribution of reproductive health supplies, such as condoms, which are in short supply in developing countries.

Canada has been contributing about $13-million a year to the UNFPA, so this portion of yesterday's funding announcement is not entirely new.

The remaining funding will be devoted to HIV-AIDS projects promoting gender equality and looking at ways to prevent mother-child transmission of AIDS, particularly in South Africa and Nigeria.

According to Ms. Carroll, women represent 55 per cent of the roughly 24 million adults infected with HIV-AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

"Because of biology and because of economic and social realities," she said, "young women are three times more vulnerable to HIV infection than their male counterparts."