Though scientists have already learnt tremendous amounts about this pandemic and perhaps more drugs to treat AIDS have been developed than all other viral diseases combined, the progress is not enough. The world still is in search of new tools that can prevent people from being infected in the first place. Therefore a vaccine is the best hope for eliminating this disease once and for all.
The concept of World Aids Vaccine Day is rooted in a May 18, 1997 commencement speech at Morgan State University made by then president Bill Clinton. Clinton challenged the world to set new goals in the emerging age of science and technology and develop an AIDS vaccine within the next decade stating, “Only a truly effective, preventive HIVdefine vaccine can limit and eventually eliminate the threat of AIDS.”
AIDS or Acquired immune deficiency syndrome is a set of symptoms and infections resulting from the damage to the human immune system
define caused by the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV. This condition progressively reduces the effectiveness of the immune system and leaves individuals susceptible to opportunistic infections and tumors.
This has been an eventful year in the AIDS vaccine development. The second vaccine candidate to complete efficacy testing, failed. In the wake of this, some skeptics have questioned whether an AIDS vaccine will ever be developed.
Science suggests an AIDS vaccine is possible because nearly every individual who becomes infected with HIV is able to hold the virus in check for several years before progressing to AIDS, some are even able to hold it indefinitely. Scientists are studying the immune responses of these individuals to help them design an effective AIDS vaccine.
Some HIV infected individuals develop antibodies that are capable of neutralizing a broad range of HIV strains. Scientists have identified and mapped the structure of several of these antibodies and are actively trying to design immunogens that can stimulate the production of these antibodies in humans.
Non human primates immunized with a live, but weakened form of a similar equivalent of HIV are protected from infection but, for safety reasons humans cannot be immunized with weakened HIV. Scientists are trying to study the immune responses of these animals in an attempt to replicate these responses in the next generation of AIDS vaccine candidates.
Developing an AIDS vaccine is pioneering science and scientists are hard at work on fresh approaches to AIDS vaccines with many candidates in the pipeline. Stimulation of T-cell immunity and antibody immune response are being targeted. Antibodies would prevent the initial infection and T-cell immunity would mop up all rogue cells that do become infected.
Experts are collaborating worldwide to develop vaccine antigens and are even testing new technologies that could help more effectively in delivering a solution. Several organizations including IAVI have created financial incentives to encourage biotechnology companies to apply their technologies, to AIDS vaccine discovery efforts.
Long term support for the cause needs to be emphasized and the quest for this vaccine will require sustained commitment from the best minds in science, industry and academia, as well as political and financial support from governments and donors from around the world.
With 6,800 new infections a day and 2.1 million AIDS deaths in 2007 alone, the toll from AIDS continues to mount, with no end to the pandemic in sight. And research suggests that even a partially-effective, first-generation vaccine that reaches a fraction of those who need it, could cut the number of new HIV infections dramatically, savings tens of millions of lives.
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