Inter Press Service - December 19, 1999
Marwaan Macan-Markar

Last week, researchers at a South Korean university claimed to have made a break through on one front - developing the world`s first DNA vaccine that protects against HIV infection and generates antibodies to the virus. According to reports in Seoul, the vaccine included a "Pol Gene," which has the capacity of activating virus fighting cells.

"Once introduced into the body, the vaccine helps build a factory of antibodies in the cell," revealed Sung Young-chul, leader of the Korean research team at Pohang University of Science and Technology.

Researchers in Kenya, on the other hand, will get an opportunity in the first few months of the new millennium to conduct trials for a vaccine on Kenyans at "negligible risk of HIV and then in people at high risk."

This vaccine initiative began in 1990 soon after researchers from the University of Nairobi noted that some commercial sex workers in their country were resistant to HIV infection.

Working in collaboration with counterparts from Oxford University, England, researchers from the University of Nairobi`s Department of Medical Microbiology focused their resources to "understand the immunology of the HIV resistant prostitutes in Majengo," said Dr. Omu Anzala, a senior member of the Kenyan team.

Reasearchers in other developing countries are keeping pace with these intitatives to find an anti-AIDS/HIV vaccine.

Chinese scientists, for example, have identified research and development of AIDS vaccines for the strains of HIV most prevalent among its people, while in South Africa, scientists from three institutions are working toward conducting the first phase of clinical trials in early 2001.

Researchers in Thailand and Brazil also have been pursuing new tests to develop an AIDS vaccine.

According to Seth Berkey, president of International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), a US-based scientific organisation, such efforts will help demystify the fact that vaccines tend to be developed in the North using the resources of the South only to be sold back to the South at exorbitant prices.

"Developing countries should not be forced to wait 10 to 15 years for an AIDS vaccine to trickle down to them," says Berkey, whose organisation is associated with both the Kenyan and South African vaccine initiative.

There is another factor: AIDS vaccine research conducted in the developed world till now has been limited to a HIV strain prevalent in the United States, Britain and France, which is different to the HIV strains prevalent in the AIDS-infected countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

"In southern Africa the C-clad virus is prevalent while in America and Europe, clades B and A are prevalent. So it is very important for us to develop our own vaccine," says Joanne Stein, a health activist in South Africa.

Since it was detected more than 20 years ago, AIDS has led top the deaths of more than 16 million men, women and children. Furthermore, the 33.6 million people presently living with HIV are expected to succumb to various AIDS-related complications in the next two decades.

Its toll has been staggering in African countries - in 1998, 200,000 people were killed in wars and conflicts throughout the continent while AIDS killed 2.2 million others.

UNAIDS, the UN agency dealing with the disease, warns that "The worst is yet to come."

The only remedy, says Jose Esparza, a UNAIDS specialist, is for African countries to develop their own vaccines.

To promote such initiatives, UNAIDS has begun developing an African Vaccine Strategy to ensure that "appropriate HIV vaccines are developed for those in greatest need."

Last month, such vaccine initiatives received public endorsement from a number of African mayors and municipal leaders who had gathered in the United States for an IAVI-organised conference on HIV/AIDS. Mayors from Ivory Coast, Tanzania, Swaziland, and Zambia were united about the "need for a solution as soon as possible."

"Without a vaccine, HIV will continue to ravage Africa," said a Ugandan delegate, who has been living with HIV for 14 years.

Commonwealth Health Ministers also reflected similar urgency at a mid-November gathering in South Africa. In their declaration for a Global State of Emergency on HIV/AIDS, they expressed a need for more commitment "to developing an effective vaccine, in light of the impending disaster facing many countries."

Such faith in vaccines can be understood given its history in curbing other epidemics that have devestated communities in various parts of the world, says the IAVI.

The global smallpox epidemic, for example, was eradicated in 1977 due to an effective vaccine. Polio, too, has been controlled due to a vaccine. The same is true for yellow fever and Hepatitis-B but the question remains: when will an AIDS vaccine be ready?

According to Dr. Luc Montagnier, who helped discover the HIV virus, it could be "30 years away." Berkley talks along similar lines: "Vaccine development will take many years," he told the gathering of African mayors.

Kenyan and British researchers, however, feel confident that "a safe and effective AIDS vaccine can be expected by 2007." Achieving that goal hangs on two factors - "scientific breakthroughs and sustained financial support." (END/IPS/mm/mk/99)
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