Effective vaccine for AIDS is still a dream

Сreation of an effective vaccine for human AIDS will také years or even decades, said David Ho, one of the leading experts in this field, scientist at Rokefeller University, New York in his interview to journalists in Hong Kong.

In the middle of 1990-s David Ho suggested fighting AIDS with special „protein cockteils“. This led to a breakthrough in treatment for this disease. In 1996 David Ho was announced by „Time“ magazin The Men of the Year for research in this field.

According to the expert, today dozens of scientific teams from all over the world are working at developement of a vaccine for AIDS, however all of them are far from achieving their goal.

Generally, all these researches go through the first or the second clinical stage. The conclusion of the third clinical stage after which industrial production of the vaccine is possible, will také years or decades, said Ho.

As well the scientist said that AIDS virus is one of the most dangerous ones humanity ever faced. It is very strong and the body can fight it only one percent of cases. What is more, there is a great probability of so called „super infection“ which implies that human body is attacked by two strains of the virus simultaneously.

The vaccine which is being developed by researches at Rokefeller University has already gone through the first clinical stage. The beginning of the second stage is scheduled on the fall of this year.

According to Ho, 21 million people have died of AIDS over the last 26 years.

David Ho arrived in Hong Kong to participate in Molecular Medicine and Biopharma in China conference organized by Hong Kong University, medical department of Harward University and Nature magazine.