HEALTH: AIDS ‘Vaccine Heroes’ Highlight Struggles Ahead

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

MEXICO CITY, Jun 6 2001 (IPS) - Paul Wetaka, a soldier from Uganda, and Henk Cazemier, a librarian from the Netherlands, have volunteered to participate in trials to develop a vaccine against AIDS.

The non-profit International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) describes the men, both in their thirties, as “vaccine heroes” for their commitment to undergo frequent clinic visits, constant blood and other tests, and six-monthly injections.

There are thousands more such volunteers worldwide but IAVI hopes that drawing attention to the two will help dramatise the long road still ahead in efforts to develop a vaccine.

The organisation also has launched a ‘Global Call for Action for AIDS Vaccines’ campaign on the Internet in advance of the United Nations Special Session on HIV-AIDS, scheduled for Jun 25-27 in New York.

“There is growing support for the vaccine initiative, but it is not enough. More awareness has to be raised,” says Kay Marshall, communications director at IAVI, which is helping to coordinate AIDS vaccine development efforts worldwide.

“There is still no natural constituency for AIDS vaccines,” she adds. “There aren’t grassroots and community groups saying they need it.”

Yet, according to the World Health Organisation, “A vaccine is the best hope for controlling this epidemic throughout the world.”

Tuesday marked the 20th anniversary of the first reported case of AIDS.

According to UNAIDS, the Joint UN Programme on HIV-AIDS, what was initially identified as a few cases of “unusual immune system failures” among gay men in the United States has, over the past two decades, evolved into a global pandemic infecting and killing men and women, regardless of their sexuality.

During that period, UNAIDS estimates, almost 22 million people have died due to the disease. More than 36 million people are living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

AIDS has become the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 24.5 million adults and children are infected with HIV.

In South and Southeast Asia, some 780,000 adults, most of them men, became infected last year, UNAIDS says.

Almost 1.4 million people are living with HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean, with the highest infection rates among the island nations of the Caribbean.

These grim tallies reflect a failure to heed urgent calls to develop a vaccine, activists say.

In 1997, for example, then US President Bill Clinton urged the medical community to bring a vaccine into production by 2007. Health officials say current funding and efforts fall far short of levels needed to meet that goal.

Marshall, at IAVI, says an estimated 1.1 billion dollars is needed annually for research and development but so far only 350 million dollars has been raised per year. Some countries, including Britain and Canada, have reduced their commitments.

All the same, she says, progress has been made in the scientific and research communities as a result of the 25 to 30 vaccine trails currently under way, most of them in the United States. Some of the US trials have reached ‘Phase Three’, an advanced stage of vaccine development.

Thailand also has announced a Phase Three vaccine field trial, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Such an achievement is significant, says the CDC, since a Phase Three trial is done to determine if a vaccine is effective in protecting against infection or disease and “is an important step in the evaluation process leading to licensure.”

IAVI adds that significant strides also are being made by researchers in China, India, , Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda.

“The vaccine trial in Kenya is another first, for it is attempting to tackle the strain of the virus that is particular to Africa,” says Marshall.

Despite such encouraging signs, the development of successful vaccines will take time, she adds. According to IAVI’s estimates, it will take at least another 10 years for effective AIDS vaccines to be made available in poor countries.