Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - July 16, 2004
Saritdet Marukatat
Stephen Lewis, the UN special envoy for Aids in Africa, said he wanted to see moves to "force" governments to fight HIV/Aids and finance vaccine research. As the conference enters its final day today, he called for less rhetoric and more action.
A lack of long-term political and financial support from world leaders, and a lack of cooperation among Aids fighters was setting back efforts to put an end to the disease.
"Only an Aids vaccine can end the epidemic," said Seth Berkley, president and founder of IAVI, a New York-based firm developing a vaccine.
"Leadership is critical," he said, adding politicians preferred short-term successes to long-term achievements, which also did not help.
Aids had forced the world into a defensive posture. Scientists had developed anti-retroviral therapies, and ways to stop the virus moving from one country to another, but no vaccines to cure Aids. Meanwhile, 15,000 people are infected by the virus every day.
Last year almost three million patients died of Aids and the world now has almost 38 million people living with HIV, according to UNAids figures.
One hope lies on a United States-financed vaccine trial in Thailand, which works with the Public Health Ministry.
It is experimenting with healthy volunteers in Chon Buri and Rayong by injecting the so-called prime-boost test, a combination of two vaccines - Alvac produced by Aventis Pasteur, the French firm, and AidVAX B/E made by VaxGen in California.
Prasert Thangcharoen, chairman of the sub-committee on HIV/Aids vaccine development at the ministry, said the experiment could yield results in the next few years.
However, some advocates are worried about immediate threats to the stability of research efforts.
Laettia van den Assum, the Netherlands' HIV/Aids ambassador, said support for research and development on Aids vaccines must not be upset by the rotating chairmanship of the 25-member European Union. Aids fighters "must make sure the leader will pass the torch" from one to another, she told the meeting.
Chrispus Kiyonga, former chief of the Global Fund, said the amount of spending on research on Aids vaccines in rich countries was low, because drugs firms believed it offered little short-term profit potential compared with other health products.
Drugs firms in rich countries spent about US$70 billion (2,800 billion baht) on research but most went into improving health products, according to Mr Kiyonga, now a minister without portfolio in Uganda. Most could see little short-term benefit in paying for Aids research. Zackie Achmat, chairman of Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa, said claims that a vaccine could be found in five years gave people false hope, and undermined efforts to promote preventive care.
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