About 18,000 delegates at the 21st International Aids Conference discussed these top issues:

MICROBIOMEBAD bacteria in the vagina could be interfering with Tenofovir vaginal gel used in trials to prevent HIV, essentially eating it up . Scientists are trying to determine why some women have bad bacteria in their vagina. This was described as "a very important insight" into why eight of nine trials of vaginal gels have failed.THE PROMISETHE Promise is a "very important" trial announced at the conference to see if women who start on antiretrovirals when pregnant to prevent transmitting the virus would stay on the drugs for life. The study showed "spectacular" results in reducing mother-to-child transmission, but after breast-feeding, a "substantial number" of women stopped taking the drugs. It's hard to keep people who feel healthy on ARVs.story_article_left1LATENT RESERVOIRTHE latent reservoir is a factor shared by Ebola, Zika and HIV. This refers to where the virus hides, invisible to tests and the immune system. It allows people "cured" of Ebola to pass it on through semen. Conference chairChris Beyrer called it the biggest barrier to a cure. HIV expert Debbie Persaud said the most promising area in the search for a cure was early elimination of the viral latent reservoir. Doctors try to do this by treating infants who are positive within hours.SEARCHTHE Search study in Kenya and Uganda showed how hard it was to get men to a clinic to test for HIV. Many say they have high blood pressure as it has no stigma attached . Men tend to miss getting treatment because they don't get pregnant and rarely need to visit a clinic. Beyrer said clinics were the last place a hip 25-year-old man wanted to be .SEX WORKERSTHEY don't want to be called prostitutes or makgosha and want sex work to be decriminalised so they can operate without harassment from police and clients. Their red umbrella symbol was used all week at protests where the workers, foreign and local, danced and chanted "Sex work is work".THE RINGNEW data presented at the conference shows vaginal rings that contain ARVs and are replaced once a month may reduce the risk of contracting HIV 75% of the time if used correctly. This is higher than scientists first thought. But in initial trials, some women took the ring out immediately after they left the clinic ...