Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press; 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020 - Thursday, September 25, 1997; 5:47 p.m. EDT
But Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said scientists simply do not have the knowledge needed yet to inject a live HIV strain into humans.
"I admire their altruism," said Fauci, whose staff met with the volunteers Thursday. But "it's not going to speed anything up because the bottleneck is not a lack of volunteers. The bottleneck is a lack of scientific knowledge ... that you're not going to get by injecting 50 volunteers."
The International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care announced last weekend that it has 50 volunteers willing to be injected with a live, weakened strain of HIV, the type of vaccine they say has shown the most promise in animal studies.
They want to use an HIV strain developed by Harvard University's Dr. Ronald Desrosiers, who removed four genes from HIV to weaken it. Animal testing yielded mixed results, but volunteer Dr. Charles Farthing of Los Angeles' AIDS Healthcare Foundation said the group will seek Food and Drug Administration approval for a human study "as soon as possible."
Because there are strong new AIDS drugs, "the worst thing that could happen to me is I'd have to take the same drugs as my patients," he added.
Live vaccines are used against other diseases, such as polio, but many scientists fear even a weakened HIV strain could cause AIDS or other complications. Unlike other live vaccines, HIV actually integrates itself into people's genes, so side effects could emerge many years later.
Copyright 1997/The Associated Press. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.
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