PARIS, Oct 20 2009 (IPS) – The possibility that a vaccine could soon be developed to fight the deadly HIV virus has the scientific community brimming with hope and excitement, but there is also disagreement about how effective it could be in the global war against AIDS.
Michel Sidibé, executive director of the United Nations AIDS agency (UNAIDS), says the surprise announcement in Thailand last month of the first successful experimental test of an AIDS vaccine was a significant milestone despite some noise about how to interpret the data.
Speaking at the annual AIDS vaccine conference here Monday, Sidibé told more than a thousand scientists who had gathered from around the world that they should not lose sight of the big picture.
The efficacy results of the Thai trials, whether this or that percentage, whether just inside or just outside statistical significance, most of all provide the field of AIDS vaccine research a lead to follow, Sidibé said.
Results of the Thai trials, which are being reviewed at the conference, suggest that a two-vaccine combination may reduce the risk of HIV infection by about 31 percent.
The two vaccines involved are ALVAC, made by the French company Sanofi Pasteur, and the previously failed AIDSVAX, initially developed by U.S.-based VaxGen Inc. and now held by Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases, a non- profit health organisation.
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The data is still being analysed, and some scientists believe that the low rate of infection among the 16,400 volunteers in Thailand is not conclusive evidence that the vaccine would be effective in groups that are most at risk of HIV.
But the development is a lead that scientists have never had before, said Col. Nelson Michael of the U.S. Army at a press conference Tuesday. He said the results of the trial, which was sponsored by the U.S. government and the Thai Ministry of Public Health, was a yes we can moment.
The door has been cracked open and we re all collectively going to crash through it, Michael said.
While a vaccine to prevent HIV infection could stem the tide of the 7,400 cases of new infections that occur daily, it would do little to help the 33 million people around the world living with AIDS, some analysts say.
They ve called for more focus on therapeutic vaccines as only about 45 percent of people with AIDS in low and middle-income countries have access to treatment that includes life-saving anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs).
A vaccine is not the only answer, it should be a supplement to the other forms of prevention, said Dr. Supachai Rerks-Ngarm from the Department of Disease Control in the Thai Ministry of Public Health.
We still have a long way to go, said Dr. Alan Bernstein, executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, an alliance of researchers, governments, advocates and sponsors such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and which organises the annual conference. What is important is that we get a vaccine and get it as soon as possible.
Bernstein said research was moving faster than at any time in the past 20 years, and that he was confident a vaccine against HIV/AIDS will be developed within the next five years.
Such a development would particularly help sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for 67 percent of all people living with HIV, and where 72 percent of the two million AIDS deaths in 2007 were reported, according to UNAIDS.
We very much need a vaccine in Africa, said Pontiano Kaleebu, chairman of the African AIDS Vaccine Programme. We need to prevent infections.
Kaleebu told IPS that African governments need to increase the allocation for health to 15 percent of their budget as the United Nations has urged them to do. So far only Botswana has agreed to do this, he said.
This is Africa s problem, and we need to sort it out, Kaleebu said.
The AIDS Vaccine Conference, first held in Paris in 2000, has become an important meeting for the exchange of scientific information on developing a vaccine against HIV. This year it drew unprecedented attention because of the Thai trials and the controversy around them.
I don t see the debate as an either this or that argument, Dr Catherine Hankins, chief scientific adviser at UNAIDS told IPS. Our aim is universal access for treatment, prevention, care and support, so we need to move ahead on all kinds of fronts.
Such fronts include promoting male circumcision, which has been shown to reduce HIV infection by 50 to 60 percent; developing microbicides, including a gel that women could use before sexual intercourse; and educating populations at risk.
A vaccine would be particularly useful for people who cannot take preventive measures for various reasons, Hankins said, such as women unaware that their partners have the HIV virus.
Scientists can be pleased that they re opening up doors, said Hankins. We re going to learn something about what is possible, and that s what s exciting about the vaccine trials. (ENDIPS/EU/WD/HE/SD/AM/SS/09)
