A spate of large-scale clinical trials has scientists hopeful about a vaccine to prevent HIV.
Dr. Robert C. GalloMore than 37 million people around the world are living with HIV, and they spread it to about 5,000 others every day, Corey said. There are also about 180,000 transmissions to newborns each year. attacks a specific type of white blood cell the body relies on to fight off infections. If left untreated for several years, a patient’s white blood cell count becomes critically low, leading to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome .
With classic threats like measles or polio, the vast majority of people are already able to suppress the virus and eradicate it from their bodies. In those cases, developing a vaccine is as simple as finding a safe way to mimic a natural infection — perhaps by introducing a modified version that has been stripped of its weaponry.
“If we want to make a durable vaccine, we have to be even more clever than the natural infection. We’ve never had that challenge with any other virus,” said, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “I don’t think it’s going to be impossible. But we need to understand the relationship between the pathogen and the immune system in a way we’ve never had to before.”
Now scientists plan to enroll some 3,800 healthy participants at more than 50 trial sites across North and South America and Europe. All of them will be drawn from groups that are at high risk of contracting HIV, including men who have sex with men and transgender people. They will receive four vaccinations over the course of a year.
As part of the study enrollment process, the researchers will educate volunteers on the benefits of pre-exposure prophylaxis and urge them to take that drug in lieu of joining the study. Only those who say they still want to forgo the treatment will be able to participate.
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