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Vaccine Trials Increase AIDS Risk
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Washington spends $500 million a year on AIDS research, but after two decades of trying to develop a vaccine, scientists are going back to the drawing board.
30-Second Summary
AIDS researchers halted what had been considered the two most promising vaccine trials in September, after the chances of AIDS infection increased twofold among volunteers who received the vaccines, the New England Journal of Medicine has reported.
Seven other trials of similar AIDS vaccines “have either been stopped or put off indefinitely,” according to The Washington Post.
Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases said, “We might not ever get a vaccine for HIV.”
The National Institutes of Health has scheduled a meeting to consider the future course of AIDS research, and researchers have widely divergent views.
Ronald C. Desrosiers, a Harvard University geneticist, says the NIH should move away from human vaccine trials and put funding toward more basic research.
Virologist Nathan Wolfe advocates a different approach to world epidemics such as AIDS, catch them early by researching the “low-level interchange of viruses between species,” reports The Economist.
An editorial in The Washington Post also focuses on prevention, but does so by promoting efforts to understand and address the socioeconomic conditions that enable the disease to spread.
Although recent vaccine tests have been disappointing, they may spur new approaches such as seeking out different viral strains that enhance natural immunity.
Scientists struggled to find a polio vaccine in the early 1900s, but after discovering that there were three different strains of polio virus, Dr. Jonas Salk was able to produce a vaccine in 1952.
Seven other trials of similar AIDS vaccines “have either been stopped or put off indefinitely,” according to The Washington Post.
Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases said, “We might not ever get a vaccine for HIV.”
The National Institutes of Health has scheduled a meeting to consider the future course of AIDS research, and researchers have widely divergent views.
Ronald C. Desrosiers, a Harvard University geneticist, says the NIH should move away from human vaccine trials and put funding toward more basic research.
Virologist Nathan Wolfe advocates a different approach to world epidemics such as AIDS, catch them early by researching the “low-level interchange of viruses between species,” reports The Economist.
An editorial in The Washington Post also focuses on prevention, but does so by promoting efforts to understand and address the socioeconomic conditions that enable the disease to spread.
Although recent vaccine tests have been disappointing, they may spur new approaches such as seeking out different viral strains that enhance natural immunity.
Scientists struggled to find a polio vaccine in the early 1900s, but after discovering that there were three different strains of polio virus, Dr. Jonas Salk was able to produce a vaccine in 1952.
Headline Links: Vaccine trials increased possibility of HIV infection
Robert Gallo, co-discoverer of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), told The Washington Post, “This is on the same level of catastrophe as the Challenger disaster," in which a NASA space shuttle exploded in 1986 killing seven. Next week the National Institutes of Health will rethink its approach to AIDS vaccine studies.
Source: The Washington Post (registration required)
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases provides an update on the Phambili study, listing the data and statistics from the findings.
Source: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
The South Africa-based Mail & Guardian Online reported in November 2007 that the “thousands of people who had volunteered to test the experimental AIDs vaccine that may have actually raised their risk of infection” were told by researchers whether they had received the vaccine shot or a placebo, thus “unblinding” the study. The two international trials of the experimental vaccine were stopped in September, after it became clear the vaccine did not prevent infection, the Mail and Guardian reported. The vaccine trials were conducted in the United States, Peru, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Australia and South Africa.
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Analysis: The future of AIDS research
Dim outlook for a vaccine despite two decades of effort
In The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Robert Steinbrook claims that the failures may suggest that a licensed AIDS vaccine is “at least a decade away.” He also cites the grim predictions of Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases: “To be brutally honest with ourselves, we have to leave open the possibility ... that we might not ever get a vaccine for HIV.” The STEP and Phambili studies, partly funded by Merck, had presented the most encouraging possibilities to finding a vaccine until they were stopped last September. Instead, the chances of infection actually increased about twofold among the volunteers who received the vaccine in both of the studies.
Source: The New England Journal of Medicine
Concerns about human trials of AIDs vaccine
Professor Peter Newman of the University of Toronto interviewed Canadians who opted not to participate in the STEP vaccine trials after initially enrolling. “This could change your life. We are not talking about getting little round spots on your hands or something. We are talking about showing up positive,” said one person. Some respondents said they would lose their eligibility for coverage with insurers if they went along with the study. The failure of STEP trials may also make potential participants even more wary of volunteering in the future, notes the CBC.
Source: CBC
Preventing epidemics before they start
Nathan Wolfe, a virologist at the University of California at Los Angeles, is trying to bring more attention to preventing epidemics by creating a Global Viral Forecasting Initiative. By researching the way viruses move from animal to animal, animal to human and then human to human, Wolfe hopes to nip potential pandemics in the bud. Many scientists believe that the AIDs virus in humans came from similar viruses transferred from other primate species. “This branch of medicine will be able to make the most important leap of all—from cure to prevention. And then a catastrophe like AIDS will need never happen again,” reports The Economist.
Source: The Economist
‘An Epidemic No One Wants to Talk About’
Public health experts Robert E. Fullilove, Adaora Adimora and Peter Leone wrote in a March 21 op-ed piece in The Washington Post that “with the exception of HIV infection, STDs remain the elephant in the room when it comes to the national conversation about health and health care.” They argue that health experts tend to ignore that “many STDs, particularly HIV, are concentrated in poor, segregated neighborhoods that are characterized by high rates of incarceration ... Simply put, we will never rid the United States of HIV and other STDs if our only weapon is medical treatment,” they conclude.
Source: The Washington Post
Related Links: New vaccine approaches and Jonas Salk’s quest to prevent polio
Recent AIDS study shows promise
Science Daily reports that a recent South African study has found that “persons infected with a mutated HIV strain, transmitted from those who have the genetic advantages to control the virus, results in improved survival." The study may provide insights into the creation of an AIDS vaccine, Science Daily writes.
Source: Science Daily
Polio and the Salk vaccine
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of the most well known Americans to contract the polio virus, leaving his legs paralyzed. By the 1950s, “lacking a vaccine, parents throughout the country panicked, keeping their children from schools and other public facilities. Why couldn’t a vaccine be found?” writes Bonnie A. Maybury Okonek. Scientists began searching for a vaccine in the early 1900s, but they were unsuccessful because they didn't know there were three strains of the virus. Counterintuitively, people became more susceptible to the virus when sanitation conditions improved, because poor sanitation had previously forced babies to develop immunity to the virus. Dr. Jonas Salk successfully created a vaccine in 1952.
Source: Access Excellence
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