HIV/AIDS Vaccine Likely Will Not Be Available Soon

An HIV/AIDSvaccine likely will not be available in the short term, Jean-FrancoisDelfraissy, director of France'sNational Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis, said on Tuesday in Dakar, Senegal,Xinhuanet reports.

Accordingto Xinhuanet, Delfraissy, who is "one of the pioneers of thefight against AIDS in France," said that the "development of apreventive or therapeutic vaccine against HIV has still a long way to go and iscertainly one of the most difficult challenges facing the world's scientificcommunity today."

Delfraissy said that although more than 80 Phase I and Phase II vaccine trialshave been conducted "without much success being recorded," research"must continue to develop new therapeutic strategies."

He addedthat the trials should be conducted "in accordance with good clinicalpractices, dialogue and partnership with the civil society and thepharmaceutical industry." According to Delfraissy, researchers "mustcontinue to move forward in [their] search for a better understanding of immunemechanisms, improve available vaccine candidates, assess their tolerance andimmunogenicity using clinical trials" (Xinhuanet, 5/28).

Reprintedwith permission from kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, search the archives, and sign upfor email delivery at kaisernetwork.org/email . The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Reportis published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. KaiserFamily Foundation.