HIV/AIDS Vaccine

HIV/AIDS Vaccine

Scientists face the following challenges when designing and developing a safe, effective HIV/AIDS vaccine:

• The immune system response to HIV is not well understood.
• There is no ideal animal model to help scientists study the immune system response.
• The many modes of transmission and forms of HIV must be understood and targeted to develop a safe, effective vaccine.
• HIV is constantly mutating.
• HIV slowly works into immune system cells, where it may reside for years before affecting health.

Despite these challenges, the history of vaccine development provides encouragement:

• Several vaccines have been developed in the past without a complete understanding of the immune response (e.g., whooping cough).
• Several vaccines have been developed without the use of an ideal animal model (e.g., measles, mumps, rubella). The less than ideal SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus) monkey model has provided important, relevant information about HIV.
• Vaccines can be combined (e.g., measles, mumps, rubella). The complex immune response to HIV could be targeted by more than one vaccine.
• Scientists developed an effective vaccine for hepatitis B, which is also transmitted in many different ways.
• Scientists have developed vaccines for other slow-acting viruses (e.g., feline leukemia virus, equine infectious anemia virus).
• Vaccines can control viruses even after a person has been infected for years (e.g., measles).