The Race for an HIV Vaccine
- Ruy Ribeiro, LANL
Imagine a world in which children are raising children because their parents have died. Such is the situation in much of Africa today because of the scourge of HIV/AIDS. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is responsible for one of the largest epidemics of modern history. Today 40 million people are infected worldwide and more than 3 million die every year. In the country where I was born, Mozambique, one in six adults is infected. In neighboring Botswana, life expectancy is only 34 years; in 1985 it was 65. Most young adults in these countries die of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), leaving behind a rising number of orphans. Even in the USA, there are more than 1 million people infected with HIV. We urgently need a HIV vaccine, yet, it has remained out of reach after 25 years of research.
AIDS is the late stage of HIV infection, which occurs when the immune system is so weak that it can not fight the many infectious bugs that we are all exposed to daily. When people are sick with HIV, catching common infections, such as pneumonia, can be deadly. The ideal way to combat this epidemic would be to integrate prevention, vaccination and treatment. These are all difficult tasks. Due to HIV virus' modes of transmission (sexual activity and injection drug use), prevention involves changes of behavior that are very difficult to accomplish. Treatment is still very expensive, at least hundreds of dollars per person per year. In some of the poorer countries, a family can not afford more than a few dollars for health care per year. So the best hope for eliminating HIV is a vaccine.
The reason children get vaccinated is because vaccines are one of the best health measures ever developed. In the richer countries, vaccines have almost eliminated childhood diseases; indeed, smallpox has been totally eradicated worldwide! But so far it has proven exceedingly difficult to develop a vaccine for HIV infection. This is because: 1) HIV mutates rapidly, so a vaccine will have to cope with its variability; 2) HIV infects and destroys the immune system, which vaccines are supposed to prime to fight disease; 3) HIV in general is not very susceptible to the effect of antibodies, the basis for the success of many other vaccines. In this Café, we will explore the science of HIV and why it is so important to develop a vaccine for it. Success in developing such a vaccine will represent one of the greatest achievements of medical research in human history.
When I was a teenager, I walked to school everyday. I remember my imagination wandering widely in those 20 minutes. Often I was wondering how things worked. In those days, I was especially interested in astronomy. We had a local astronomy club, and would go out camping to remote places to see the marvels of the Universe. One very cold, damp December night—I was 17—we went out to see the Geminids meteor shower. Out there, in the middle of nowhere, as I lay gazing at the show of lights streaking the dark sky, it came to me: I would go to college to study physics. Achieving that was not easy, since good grades were required for acceptance. But I had a math teacher who pushed us to study hard, and although at the time it seemed all too much, it really helped me get into college.
Read More...
-
Albuquerque
Café
January 23
6:00 - 7:30 PM
New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Room 517
Discovery
Join us to talk with a New Mexico resident infected with HIV
January 30
6:00 - 7:30 PM
New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Room 517
-
Española/Pojoaque
Café
January 13
Northern New Mexico College, Kiva Auditorium
Discovery
Join us to determine your blood type
January 20
2:00 - 3:30 PM
NNMC, General Education Building Room 104
-
Los Alamos
Café
January 24
7:00 - 8:30 PM
Bradbury Science Museum
Discovery
Join us to talk with a New Mexico resident infected with HIV
January 31
7:00 - 8:30 PM
UNM-LA, Lecture Hall in Bldg. 2
-
Santa Fe
Café
January 17
Santa Fe Community College, Room 314
Discovery
Join us for a structured discussion
January 24
6:00 - 7:30
Santa Fe Community College, Room 314
-
Café Presentation
Video
PDF
The Race for an HIV Vaccine
Darwin's Surprise This article from the New Yorker provides an overview of virus's and how virus's, in particular HIV,work in the human body.
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS This website provides an overview of the United Nation's world wide efforts to stop the spread of HIV and support those afflicted with the disease.
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative Read about the latest efforts in developing a vaccine for HIV.
Study Finds Possible Targets for AIDS Drugs This New York Times article describes new research that identifies the specific proteins in differerent types of cells that allow the HIV virus to replicate. By identifying them, the researchers hope to develop drugs to block production of those proteins and deny the virus a means to replicate.