Aids groups call to galvanise efforts for HIV vaccine

Vienna: Scientists searching for the Holy Grail of a vaccine against the incurable Aids virus say recent encouraging steps should now galvanise efforts to use limited funds in smarter ways to drive the field forward.

International Aids vaccine advocates said recent studies showing first evidence of vaccine-induced protection in humans and evidence that drugs designed to treat Aids can also be used for prevention were signs of a "renaissance" in the search.

"This is a pivotal moment in HIV vaccine research," said Alan Bernstein, executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise. "The last five years have been the richest period in HIV vaccine research since the epidemic began. The question... now is how do we build on these scientific advances?"

Bernstein, whose group published a report on the "road to prevention" ahead of a major international conference on Aids which started in Vienna yesterday, said cross-border and cross-discipline collaboration among scientists was crucial.

Squeezing funds

And at a time when a global economic recession is squeezing funding for the Aids battle, trying to attract new minds and ideas would be as important as trying to bring in new money.

There are around 20 drugs on the market to treat HIV and prevention measures have been deployed to try to stop its spread, but no vaccine exists against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes Aids. Since the Aids pandemic started in the early 1980s, almost 60 million people have been infected with HIV, many of them in Africa, and it has killed 25 million.

In September 2009, scientists reported their biggest success yet with an experimental vaccine that showed a modest effect and appeared to slow the rate of infection by about 30 per cent in Thai volunteers.

And earlier this month, US researchers found antibodies that can protect against a wide range of Aids viruses and said they may be able to use them to design a vaccine.