An American scientist who helped discover the HIV virus 24 years ago is making progress toward producing an AIDS vaccine and hopes to launch a clinical trial in about a year, according to the Reuters news service.
Dr. Robert Gallo, director of the University of Maryland’s Institute for Human Virology, is encouraged by recent animal studies.
“I think we’ve made some advances in making antibodies that will react with the variety of strains of HIV, he told Reuters, referring to the virus that causes AIDS.
Scientists believe a vaccine is the best hope for ending the global AIDS pandemic that has killed 3.1 million people this year.
But defeating the virus has proved more difficult than researchers had expected, Reuters reported.
Gallo is in Israel to accept an award from Bar-llan University. World AIDS day is today.
He said it was still too early to say when a vaccine could be produced for humans.
“We have had some interesting results in the monkeys that show we can make an immune response,” Gallo told Reuters.
But the antibodies produced in his experiments lasted only four months, which is far less than needed for an effective vaccine, the news service said.
Gallo added, “We are making progress with a preventive vaccine, but we are not there yet.”
He discovered the AIDS virus with France’s Luc Montagnier.
Earlier this week Europe’s biggest drug maker GlaxoSmithKline announced a plan to develop an experimental AIDS vaccine with France’s Institut Pasteur, the story said.
According to Reuters, they intend to make the vaccine by fusing genes from HIV on to an existing vaccine for measles.
More than 30 AIDS vaccine trials in humans are ongoing but no one can predict if any will be effective against the virus that has infected nearly five million people this year, according to the story.
Public health experts say preventing the spread of HIV by using condoms, abstinence and needle exchange programs is essential for halting the epidemic.
The number of people living with HIV/AIDS hit a record high of 40.3 million this year, according to the latest figures from the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AID (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization.
