Rolling Up Their Sleeves to Tackle a Killer Virus

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Rolling Up Their Sleeves to Tackle a Killer Virus

New York Times (12/21/98) P. A26
Richardson, Lynda

Across the United States, volunteers are being inoculated with the candidate HIV vaccine Aidsvax, developed by Vaxgen as part of the first large-scale HIV vaccine tests in the United States. The trial will include 5,000 subjects from the United States and 2,500 subjects from Thailand, many of whom are at high risk for the virus. According to developers, subjects cannot contract the virus from vaccine inoculation; however, they may test positive for HIV because the trial vaccine induces HIV antibody production. Some scientists are not convinced that the candidate vaccine will be of any benefit at all. They also worry that the current trials will deplete the pool of people willing to participate in future vaccine tests. However, the trial represents a movement closer to the creation of an effective vaccine against the virus. Dr. Seth Berkley, president of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, notes that "up until this vaccine was moved forward, no other vaccine was tested for efficacy anywhere else in the world."

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