As things stand now “for every two patients who begin receiving treatment for HIV, five people are newly infected.” What this means is that HIV cannot be controlled through treatment alone. Instead, it is necessary to prevent the infection from occurring through appropriate means.
One theoretical approach to do this is by getting people to practice safe sex. In practice, however, this has not been found successful as indicated by the increasing incidence of the infection.
It is in this context that finding a vaccine for HIV becomes important. If a vaccine could immunize people against HIV, the prospect of controlling its incidence becomes more realistic.
The biennial International Aids Conference from July 18 to July 23, 2010 in Vienna will review the current state of the war against HIV, which we are presently losing. Despite massive infusion of resources into HIV research, the number of HIV patients continues increasing.
A vaccine that is not only effective but also safe is the best defense in this war. And the hopeful news is that there are some exciting developments on this front. A vaccine regimen consisting of a canary-pox-vector prime plus a protein-subunit boost in the RV144 is on trial in Thailand. New vaccine approaches for improved control over Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) is advancing to clinical trials. Novel approaches to HIV vaccine design are also being explored.
Read a perspective on this issue at
New England Journal of Medicine.
Tags: biotechnology, hiv vaccine
