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Researchers predict advent of AIDS vaccine
May 6, 1997
Web posted at: 5:31 p.m. EDT (2131 GMT)From Correspondent Jeff Levine
BETHESDA, Maryland (CNN) -- Top U.S. government AIDS researchers predicted this week that there will be an AIDS vaccine, or possibly several of them.
At a meeting of several hundred researchers at the National Institutes of Health this week, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the NIH said, "I am absolutely convinced that we will have a vaccine that is safe and effective."
Although they can't say when the vaccine will be available, tests for a variety of experimental vaccines are under way.
Journalist Bob Healy is one of those participating in the tests. "Over the years, a lot of people I know, a lot of my friends have been infected, and a lot of them have died," he said, explaining why he volunteered for the study.
There are at least six different approaches to vaccinating people against HIV. They range from using a weakened version of the AIDS virus to taking what scientists call "naked DNA genes" from the virus to see if they will arouse the immune system.
One promising method, referred to as "prime/boost," combines genes and proteins in a two-step process. It is the furthest along in testing.
"It's a little bit of a fishing expedition in the sense we think we know what it is that might be protective," Fauci said, "but we don't know for sure."
In general, scientists have not been very successful in inventing vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases. Isolating an AIDS vaccine is particularly tough, researchers say, since HIV destroys the normally protective immune system.
Although effective treatments for HIV are available, researchers insist the search for a vaccine is crucial.
"Treatments that we have are an imperfect answer," said David Baltimore, the chairman of the NIH Vaccine Commission.
"It's like polio in the iron lung days. People were overjoyed to have the iron lungs, but that was no way to live if you had the opportunity to be protected. So protection is the right response," he said.
Discovering an AIDS vaccine is going to cost money. Currently about 10 percent of the government's $1 billion-plus HIV research budget is spent on vaccines. No one will say when that investment will pay off, but there is growing confidence that someday it will.
Related stories:
- Hundreds attend AIDS candlelight vigil - May 5, 1997
- 'Dangerously flawed' AIDS research criticized - April 22, 1997
- New hope: AIDS deaths drop for first time - February 27, 1997
Related sites:
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- International AIDS Candlelight Memorial
- San Francisco AIDS Foundation
- AIDS Research Information Center
- CDC National AIDS Clearinghouse
- AIDS Net
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