A scientist who
helped to discover HIV said he has made progress toward
producing an HIV vaccine and hopes to launch a clinical
trial in about a year. Robert Gallo, the director of
the University of Maryland's Institute for
Human Virology, said results from animal studies are
encouraging. "I think we've made some advances
in making antibodies that will react with the variety
of strains of HIV," he said.
Scientists
believe a vaccine is the best hope for ending the global
AIDS pandemic, which has killed about 3.1 million
people this year. But defeating the virus has proved
more difficult than researchers had expected.
Gallo, in Israel
to accept an award from Bar-Ilan University in advance
of World AIDS Day on Thursday, said it was still too early
to say when a vaccine could be produced for humans.
Researchers believe an effective HIV vaccine is still
many years away.
"We have
had some interesting results in the monkeys that show we can
make an immune response," Gallo said, noting
potential progress on overcoming the problem of
mutation of the virus. But the antibodies produced in
his experiments lasted only up to four months, which is far
less than needed for an effective vaccine.
"We are
making progress with a preventive vaccine, but we are not
there yet," added Gallo, who discovered HIV
with France's Luc Montagnier.
Earlier this week
Europe's biggest drugmaker, GlaxoSmithKline,
announced a plan to develop an experimental HIV
vaccine along with France's Institut Pasteur.
They intend to make the vaccine by fusing genes from
HIV onto an existing vaccine for measles.
More than 30 HIV
vaccine trials in humans are ongoing, but no one can
predict if any will be effective against the virus that has
infected nearly 5 million people in 2005.
Antiretroviral
drugs have prolonged lives of HIV-positive people, but
public-health experts say preventing the spread of virus, by
using condoms, abstinence, and needle exchange
programs, is also essential for halting the epidemic.
The number of
people living with HIV hit a record high of 40.3 million
this year, according to the latest figures from the Joint
United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World
Health Organization. (Reuters)
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