About the Authors

Lynn T. Matthews

ltmatthews@partners.org

Affiliations Massachusetts General Hospital, Division of Infectious Disease, Center for Global Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Division of Infectious Disease, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Sengeziwe Sibeko

Affiliation Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Leila E. Mansoor

Affiliation Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Nonhlanhla Yende-Zuma

Affiliation Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

David R. Bangsberg

Affiliations Massachusetts General Hospital, Division of Infectious Disease, Center for Global Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Mbarara, Uganda

Quarraisha Abdool Karim

Affiliations Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America

Competing Interests

Tenofovir was provided by Gilead Sciences and the gel was manufactured and supplied for the CAPRISA 004 trial by CONRAD. Tenofovir is marketed by Gilead Sciences under the trade name Viread. Professor Abdool Karim notes that the following application for a patent for the study product in this trial should be noted: Application number: PCT/US2011/039505; Effect of tenofovir gel on Herpes Simplex Type I and II infection; Inventors: Salim S. Abdool Karim, Quarraisha Abdool Karim, Ayesha Kharsany, Thomas Cichlar, and James Rooney; Countries: United States of America. There are no further patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: LTM SS LEM NYZ DRB QAK. Performed the experiments: SS LM QAK. Analyzed the data: LTM SS LEM NYZ DRB QAK. Wrote the paper: LTM SS LEM NYZ DRB QAK.