This week’s announcement by pharmaceutical company Vaxgen of a potential vaccine against the HI-virus must be treated with caution.
The announcement from the United States company came on the first day of the 14th International Aids Conference in Barcelona. According to Vaxgen, if all goes well, they may be in a position to market the drug within five years.
We welcome any development towards an effective vaccine. But it is important to recognise that this announcement is weighed down by some fundamental caveats.
Monday’s news is less a revelation of new information than an optimistic notice of information that may emerge in a year’s time.
It is very tempting to grab at any straws in this terrible pandemic, but we must bear in mind that false hope can sometimes do more harm than good. This is not so much news of an effective vaccine, more an indication of possible further developments.
The vaccine in question is designed for use against the strain of the HI-virus most commonly found in the US and South-East Asia.
However, it would not help those populations currently most affected and most at risk. The pandemic remains concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, where prevalence among some populations is now as much as 40%.
The human tragedy is further compounded by the economic strain such levels of disease can place upon some of the world’s poorest countries.
This trial vaccine has the potential to be a significant development for parts of the world. But it will not, even in the best possible future, be of use to the vast majority of those who are most in need.
Well-resourced countries such as the US and the United Kingdom must do all they can to support developing countries in building infrastructures so that when a vaccine is available it can reach those who need it most.
The best news from Africa in recent years has come from countries such as Uganda and Zambia. Both of these nations have been hit hard by HIV but, through sheer political will and a commitment to education programmes, they have turned their epidemics around.
Five years is a long time in an epidemic like HIV and, though we hope for the best, all we can be sure of is that now prevention and education remain the best weapons in the fight against HIV.
Martin Kirk is campaigns director at the Terrence Higgins Trust, a UK-based HIV/Aids charity