Hope for AIDS vaccine?
Just three years after the high-profile failure of an AIDS vaccine trial sent researchers back to the drawing board, optimism is again rising about the prospects of protecting humanity from a disease that ranks among the deadliest in history. Seth Berkley, president and chief executive officer of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), outlined new approaches, new discoveries, and one moderately successful recent vaccine trial that he said paves the way for real progress toward ending a pandemic that in 2008 alone infected an estimated 2.7 million and killed 2 million. Though the spread of antiretroviral treatment to the developing world has improved the prognosis of those getting the drugs, the drugs are still unavailable to many, which means that HIV/AIDS remains a killer for most sufferers, Berkley said. Berkley spoke Tuesday (Nov. 9) at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), where he delivered a Dean’s Distinguished Lecture on the subject. HSPH...