HIV vaccine
hideAn HIV vaccine is a hypothetical vaccine against HIV, the etiological agent of AIDS. As there is no known cure for AIDS, the search for a vaccine has become part of the struggle against the disease.
The urgency of the search for a vaccine against HIV stems from the AIDS-related death toll of over 25 million people since 1981. Indeed, in 2002, AIDS became the primary cause of mortality due to an infectious agent in Africa.
Alternative medical treatments to a vaccine do exist. Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has been highly beneficial to many HIV-infected individuals since its introduction in 1996 when the protease inhibitor-based HAART initially became available. HAART allows the stabilization of the patient’s symptoms and viremia, but they do not cure the patient of HIV, nor of the symptoms of AIDS. And, importantly, HAART does nothing to prevent the spread of HIV through people with undiagnosed HIV infections. Safer sex measures have also proven insufficient to halt the spread of AIDS in the worst affected countries, despite some success in reducing infection rates.
Therefore, an HIV vaccine is generally considered as the most likely, and perhaps the only way by which the AIDS pandemic can be halted. However, after over 20 years of research, HIV-1 remains a difficult target for a vaccine.
The human body can defend itself against HIV, as work with monoclonal antibodies (MAb) has proven. That certain individuals can be asymptomatic for decades after infection is encouraging.
For more information about HIV vaccine, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with hiv vaccine
New findings suggest strategy to help generate HIV-neutralizing antibodies
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Nov 19, 2009 |
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New discoveries about anti-HIV antibodies may bring researchers a step closer to creating an effective HIV vaccine, according to a new paper co-authored by scientists at the Vaccine Research Center of the National Institute ...
HIV vaccine failure probably caused by virus used, says new research
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Nov 16, 2009 |
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The recent failure of an HIV vaccine was probably caused by the immune system reacting to the virus 'shell' used to transmit the therapy around the body, according to research published today in the Proceedings of the Na ...
3 Questions: Jeffrey Harris on why we still don't have an HIV vaccine
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Nov 04, 2009 |
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While many vaccines used around the world today are produced for profit by commercial firms, the private sector accounts for a tiny fraction of the funding for an HIV vaccine: 4 percent in 2008, down from ...
Economist argues that public-private partnerships are a must in creating an HIV vaccine
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Nov 04, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- MIT economist Jeffrey Harris argues that while the scientific obstacles to creating an HIV vaccine are great, the lack of commercial incentive poses a major problem.
AIDS: Are the wilderness years over for vaccine research?
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Oct 21, 2009 |
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Scientists looking for a vaccine against the AIDS virus can be forgiven for wondering at times whether they made the right career decision.
Full results show AIDS vaccine is of modest help
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Oct 20, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Fresh results from the world's first successful test of an experimental AIDS vaccine confirm that it is only marginally effective and suggest that its protection against HIV infection may wane over time.
Volunteers key to success of Thai vaccine trials
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Sep 28, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Nearly 16,000 Thais ignored the false rumors that they were being infected by the AIDS virus, and overcame their fears of becoming social outcasts to participate in the first HIV vaccine trials to ...
A world first: Vaccine helps prevent HIV infection
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Sep 24, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- In an encouraging development, an investigational vaccine regimen has been shown to be well-tolerated and to have a modest effect in preventing HIV infection in a clinical trial involving ...
Researchers induce HIV-neutralizing antibodies that recognize HIV-1 envelope protein, lipids
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Sep 01, 2009 |
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For the first time, researchers have experimentally induced antibodies that neutralize HIV-1 and simultaneously recognize both HIV-1 envelope protein and lipids. The results were reported by U.S. Military HIV Research Program ...
Scientists gain insight into HIV vaccine failure
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Jul 20, 2009 |
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A team of researchers from The Wistar Institute and the University of Pennsylvania reports new evidence refuting a popular hypothesis about the highly publicized failure in 2007 of the Merck STEP HIV vaccine study that cast ...
New contraceptive device is designed to prevent sexual transmission of HIV
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
May 19, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (6) |
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Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College have published results showing that a new contraceptive device may also effectively block the transmission of the HIV virus. Findings show that the device prevents infection ...
Novel vaccine approach offers hope in fight against HIV
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
May 17, 2009 |
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A research team may have broken the stubborn impasse that has frustrated the invention of an effective HIV vaccine, by using an approach that bypasses the usual path followed by vaccine developers. By using ...
A natural approach for HIV vaccine
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Mar 15, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- For 25 years, researchers have tried and failed to develop an HIV vaccine, primarily by focusing on a small number of engineered "super antibodies" to fend off the virus before it takes hold. So far, these ...
Researchers progress toward AIDS vaccine
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Mar 12, 2009 |
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Rutgers AIDS researchers Gail Ferstandig Arnold and Eddy Arnold may have turned a corner in their search for a HIV vaccine. In a paper just published in the Journal of Virology, the husband and wife duo and ...
Scientists Find Rare, Potent Antibody to HIV-1
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Feb 23, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have for the first time isolated an important antibody in human serum that could potentially play a key role in the design of an AIDS vaccine. The research appears ...
