May
18 is National HIV Vaccine Awareness Day
SUMMARY
Wednesday marks the 14th annual observance of National
HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, calling attention to advances
in vaccine research. |
This
week the U.S. federal government recognizes National HIV Vaccine
Awareness Day. While the field has seen some hints of progress
in recent years, there is still no consistently efficacious
HIV vaccine. Nevertheless, while many experts have turned
their attention to other biomedical prevention methods and
even a cure for HIV, some remain hopeful that an effective
vaccine is an obtainable goal.
Below is the text of a statement from National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director Anthony Fauci
recognizing the day.
Visit the following web sites for more information:
National
HIV Vaccine Awareness Day - May 18, 2011
Statement
of Anthony S. Fauci, MD Director, National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health
Thirty years since the first report of the disease we now
know as AIDS, scientists supported by the National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National
Institutes of Health, continue advancing toward our goal of
a vaccine to prevent HIV infection. I am optimistic that we
will succeed.
We have scientific evidence that a safe and effective HIV
vaccine is possible. In 2009, a clinical
trial in Thailand involving 16,000 people demonstrated
for the first time that a vaccine could safely prevent HIV
infection in a modest proportion of study participants. Many
of the best minds in HIV vaccine science are examining blood
samples and data from the Thai trial to learn how the vaccine
candidate prevented HIV infections and to consider how it
could be modified to be more effective.
To speed the pace at which promising HIV vaccine candidates
become viable for evaluation in large clinical trials, NIAID
is exploring the use of innovative or adaptive
clinical trial designs that let scientists quickly modify
ongoing trials in response to data acquired during the study.
Such flexibility in trial design will allow the research community
to maximize efficiencies in studying vaccine candidates.
Clinical trials of HIV vaccines depend on the participation
of thousands of volunteers as well as community educators,
health care workers and scientists. I am extremely grateful
to the many people who devote their time and energy to these
essential clinical studies.
Every HIV vaccine candidate is created in the laboratory.
Some NIAID-supported laboratory scientists are charting a
new course by designing HIV vaccine candidates based on knowledge
of the protein structure of the surface spikes that HIV uses
to attach to and infect human cells. These spikes have sites
that are vulnerable to powerful
antibodies, which block laboratory infection of human
cells by more than 90 percent of tested HIV strains from around
the globe. Now the scientists are mapping a strategy to create
a vaccine that can stimulate a healthy person to make such
broadly neutralizing antibodies.
To guide HIV vaccine design, other NIAID-supported scientists
are building on evidence that in most individuals, only a
small number of HIV particles -- often just one -- are responsible
for establishing a sexually transmitted HIV infection. These
researchers are identifying the unique qualities of these
infection-causing forms of the virus to help other scientists
design vaccines that target the specific HIV variants that
penetrate the body's defenses.
No matter how effective a preventive HIV vaccine is, however,
we will need to evaluate and administer it in combination
with other biomedical and behavioral HIV prevention tools.
No single HIV prevention strategy will control and ultimately
end the HIV/AIDS pandemic. That is why it is important for
NIAID to continue supporting promising research on vaginal
and rectal
microbicides, pre-exposure
prophylaxis (PrEP) and expanded HIV testing with linkage
to care. That is also why public health workers will continue
to advocate and implement scientifically proven HIV prevention
strategies such as condom use, medically supervised adult
male circumcision, harm-reduction strategies for injection
drug users and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission
of HIV.
On this extraordinarily challenging journey to develop a preventive
HIV vaccine, taking a moment today to reflect on our progress
gives us all renewed hope that our goal is achievable.
NIAID conducts and supports research -- at NIH, throughout
the United States, and worldwide -- to study the causes of
infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better
means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses.
News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials
are available on the NIAID website at www.niaid.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's
medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers
and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and
supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research,
and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for
both common and rare diseases. For more information about
NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
5/17/11
Source
NIAID.
National HIV Vaccine Awareness Day May 18, 2011. Press release.
May 11, 2011.
