The prostitutes from Nairobi were not a one-time case * Revelations of several dozen people in Uganda who are resistant to the AIDS virus raises hopes for progress in the development of a vaccine for the disease
Rory Carroll and Sarah Bosley
AIDS orphans in Zambia
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Scientists believe that the road to obtaining an effective vaccine against the AIDS disease may be shortened a little, after testing several dozen people in Uganda who seem to be vaccinated against the AIDS virus. The 28 subjects, living near Lake Victoria, were not infected with the AIDS virus even though they had unprotected sexual contact with the carriers of the virus.
This is not the first time that a group of people with resistance to the AIDS virus has been discovered. In Kenya, a study was conducted on a small group of prostitutes in the Nairobi area who were not infected with the virus even though they had sex with a large number of men who were carriers. Following the discovery of this group of women with resistance to the virus, a series of studies was started that led to the development of an experimental vaccine that is considered to be very promising so far.
The study in Uganda increases the interest in the research findings in Kenya, and the researchers hope that the discovery of another group of people who have resistance to the AIDS virus will lead to the development of an effective vaccine for the disease within about ten years. Since the researchers agree that in the foreseeable future it will not be possible to develop a 100% effective vaccine, "we are already debating the degree of effectiveness of the vaccine that should be acceptable to doctors," said Pontiano Kalibo, who headed the research conducted in Uganda. Health authorities in the United States argued that due to the great urgency of developing an AIDS vaccine, an efficacy of 30% should be sufficient.
The identity of the people resistant to the virus remains confidential, but according to researchers they include residents of cities and villages, professionals and farmers. In some of them, the immune response was of a lower intensity than that of their carrier partners, but despite this their immune system attacked the virus in a much more efficient way and prevented them from contracting the disease. The findings suggest that the prevention of infection with the virus may not depend on the strength of the immune response.
The results of the study in Uganda, which will be submitted next month to a scientific journal and is expected to be published later this year, show that humans resistant to the virus are a more common phenomenon than researchers have thought so far. The researchers in Uganda plan to call on the scientific community to focus half of the world's research on finding an AIDS vaccine in these people. This is a big change compared to the situation today.
The research was done by researchers at the Uganda Viral Disease Research Institute in Entebbe, supported by the International AIDS Vaccine Program (IAVI), an organization that works to raise funds for medical research purposes. In February, the Institute in Entebbe began the first phase of trials of a vaccine developed by researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Nairobi. The researchers in the UK and Kenya have already started the second phase of the trials on the vaccine, which focuses on the fight against strain A of the AIDS virus, which is common in East Africa. The volunteers who will participate in the trial in Uganda will receive a different dose of the vaccine.
Conspiracy theories that AIDS is a Western plot against Africa, and that the vaccines are a plot to sterilize the inhabitants of the continent, discouraged many from volunteering for the experiment in Uganda, however 20 people have already volunteered, and the team of researchers in Entebbe is convinced that they will be able to find 30 more volunteers for the first phase of the experiment, hundreds of volunteers for the second phase And thousands of volunteers for the third stage.
On the ground floor of one of the clinics at the Viral Disease Research Institute, a volunteer in his early twenties, whose name cannot be named, grimaced as a needle was stuck in his shoulder. Then he smiled. "Everyone here knows someone who died of AIDS. This situation cannot continue. That's why I'm here."
Near the institute, about a dozen boys who came to participate in a seminar held for potential volunteers expressed doubts about the experiment. Can scientists who receive instructions from the West be trusted? Can the vaccine cause infection with the virus? What is a placebo drug and is it dangerous?
An ethical issue that accompanies the experiment is whether volunteers who become infected with the AIDS virus during the experiment as a result of their sexual behavior will be entitled to receive life-prolonging drugs, which are obtainable in Western countries but are not accessible to African residents.
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Research: AIDS does not develop in certain carriers
19/5/2003
In some patients, the HIV virus never develops into AIDS. According to scientists, a certain genetic mutation that can occur within the virus prevents it from killing the immune cells. However, it is still unclear whether the knowledge of the mutation could help patients suffering from the normal and more dangerous form of HIV. The finding, discovered by scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, focuses on a gene called Vpr. According to them, this gene plays a central role in the ability of the HIV virus to cause cell death in the immune system. Dr Andrew Bedley, who led the study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, said: "There is clearly something going on that helps these patients survive. Previous studies have partially explained this. The mutation of the virus does not kill as efficiently as its normal, wild type."
According to Badley, "Through further research on the role of Vpr we may be able to understand the mechanism by which certain patients do not develop the disease. This information could eventually lead to new treatments."
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