ENDING AIDS - Try, Try and Try Again
ENDING AIDS - Try, Try and Try Again
All we need to increased political and financial commitment over the coming years. Also we need advocacy program builds on our policy analysis to promote engagement and awareness by political, policy, business, and scientific leaders in support of AIDS vaccines.
Start Searching for an AIDS Vaccine
Scientists and public health officials have long known that a vaccine offers the only long-term hope of conquering AIDS.
The challenges in reaching these underserved populations underscore the importance of making investments in HIV vaccine research and development today. One problem is that AIDS vaccine research has no concentrated political constituency. While people with AIDS are mobilizing worldwide, those who would benefit from a protective vaccine are still healthy and thus feel no similar urgency to press for vaccine development. There are other hurdles. The pharmaceutical industry has been reluctant to undertake the necessary research. The market for vaccines is mainly in poor nations, and vaccines are far less profitable than AIDS treatments, which patients need to take every day. Different parts of the world have different strains of AIDS, and each may require a different vaccine. Building a plant to manufacture the vaccine at the necessary quality standards takes five years. It is crucial that governments and foundations maintain commitment, thereby ensuring that neither lack of money nor bureaucratic lethargy can impede the fastest possible development of an AIDS vaccine.
Why the World Needs an AIDS Vaccine:
Despite the international community’s best efforts- the HIV pandemic continues unabated. In 2006, more than 39 million people were living with HIV worldwide. Over four million people became newly infected with HIV and an estimated 2.8 million lost their lives to AIDS. On average, people require life-saving antiretroviral treatment (ARVs) 7-10 years after becoming infected. While there has been recent progress in increasing access to treatment and prevention programs, HIV continues to outpace the global response with at least 80% of those in clinical need of ARVs worldwide not receiving them. Further, while decline in national HIV prevalence has occurred in for example some sub-Saharan African countries, these trends are not strong or widespread enough to have a major impact on the epidemics.Impact of an AIDS Vaccine includes protecting some vaccinated individuals against HIV infection; reducing the probability that a vaccinated individual who later becomes infected will transmit the infection to others; or slowing the rate of progression to AIDS for those who later become infected with HIV.
IAVI estimates that the potential positive impact of AIDS vaccines would be enormous, especially in the developing world. Even in a relatively conservative scenario, an effective preventive HIV vaccine could prevent almost 30 million of the 150 million new infections projected in the coming decades. A highly effective vaccine could even prevent over 70 million infections in fifteen years.
There is scientific progress underway in the search for an HIV vaccine. Presently, there are more than 30 clinical trials with HIV vaccine candidates worldwide.
With nearly 14,000 people becoming newly infected with HIV each day, accelerating the timetable towards a vaccine must be a global health and development priority of the highest order.
Scientists believe that an HIV vaccine is possible. Virtually everyone’s immune system could keep the virus in check for a number of years, some for over two decades. There is also good evidence that some rare individuals have a natural ability to avoid HIV infection despite repeated exposure to the virus. All We need
Source:IAVI.org
