Forty-six years later and with AIDS having killed millions of people, a one of the doctors who co-engineered HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has come out to claim that he has discovered the vaccine.
Dr Robert Gallo, who also pioneered the blood test to detect it, this week described his breakthrough vaccine as “just another protein” but different than anything that has been tried before.
He and his team are beginning human trials on a potentially revolutionary HIV vaccine this month, at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Institute of Human Virology.
The team has been working on the vaccine for the past 15 years and have already tested it on monkeys.
At an event in Baltimore, Dr Gallo said: ‘The results in monkeys are interesting, but they’re not perfect if we keep just using monkeys, we’re never going anywhere. We need for humans to respond.’
There are about 35 million people living with HIV/AIDS around the world, according to the World Health Organization. About 1.5 million people died from the virus in 2013 alone.
Gallo’s announcement is exciting! But let’s not put the cart before the horse.
Before the vaccine gets clearance from the FDA and becomes a welcomed reality for patients, it has to successfully pass a range of human trials. And that will take several years to complete. (agencies)
Leave a comment