When you hear the term HIV what do you think of? Very little people will think of the word vaccine when they hear HIV. But, is a vaccine for HIV somewhere close in the distance? HIV is an extremely complex and different type of virus than any other virus the world has created a vaccine for. Before a vaccine is created, the biology of the virus must be understood. Throughout the world there are nine different subtypes of HIV, which are continuously changing once inside one’s body. So, how on earth are scientists supposed to create a vaccine for a virus that is constantly changing?
In 2009 in Thailand a trial with over 16,000 volunteers was performed in which two different developed vaccines were used together in combination. Amongst the 16,000 the two vaccines together reduced the risk of HIV by 31.2%. That percentage is certainly not high enough to be an effective vaccine but, its a start. Scientists are aiming for a vaccine that reduces the risk of HIV by over 50%. Although the vaccine would only reduce one’s risk by half, it would save many lives in the future. If a vaccine of 50% is introduced, scientists will work to develop a vaccine that is 80%-90% effective which is the case for most vaccines.
The introduction of HIV came in 1983 and has now been around for 31 years. Those 31 years seem life an awfully long time to develop a vaccine for just one virus. However, to put things into perspective, it took us 33 years to develop a vaccine for HPV and 47 years for a vaccine for polio. HIV continues to be an extremely deadly disease but, there is hope that this virus can be beat.
References:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/01/health/are-we-on-the-road-to-an-hiv-vaccine/index.html?hpt=he_c1
This could change the world as we know it. This was an awesome read because this could have an effect on the entire world. Populations where HIV is really common could benefit greatly. I was wondering though I know we are early in the research still but if they do make a breakthrough what would this mean for those that suffer in Africa where HIV is known to have really high counts. I guess we can only hope for now but I found this to be very interesting.
(just an addition from my first comment) http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/12/a-promising-hiv-vaccine-in-south-africa/383350/ – this talks about a new vaccine that will start clinical trials in South Africa starting in January
This is a really cool blog post. With there beings over 34 million people with HIV as of 2010, according to the National Institute for Human Development, 16,000 volunteers seems relatively small. Granted, the larger the volunteers the harder to conduct the study and the larger the volunteers, the more likely the result is correct. With so many people suffering from HIV, would they make the vaccine free to everyone? Especially in Africa, where its reported by Avert.org, that nearly 70 percent of the people with HIV live. How would those people get the vaccine and how long would it take for it to be spread throughout Sub-Saharan Africa? You also brought up the point that they will keep testing and developing vaccines until they are 100 percent effective. If it may be years until it is 100 percent, what will be done with the vaccines that aren’t and who will be the ones, if any to be tested on when the vaccine starts to improve? This is a very cool story and it shows how we are continuing to advance in the field of medicine!
An HIV vaccine would be one of the biggest breakthroughs in medical history. With that being said, and with how deadly and dreadful the disease is, a vaccine that reduced the risk by 10% would be impressive and still very helpful, but 50% is astounding. Like you said, we are relatively early in the research process of vaccines compared to other major diseases and if the medical scientists continue to work and develop these vaccines I think that in the not too distant future there will be a vaccine that works at over 90% and hopefully get that up to 100% and wipe out this disease all together. Cheers for the interesting read and hopefully this won’t even be a topic that needs to be discussed soon.