HIV / AIDS vaccine: A hopeless search!

There will be about 60 million AIDS patients die until 2015. Despite efforts from governments, century pandemics will also cause tremendous losses for almost every community.

However, until now, an effective vaccine to prevent HIV infection remains open, making it easy for AIDS to pass the plague of Balck Death in the fourteenth century to become the most feared killer. in human history. By the end of 2007, it was estimated that more than 30 million people died of AIDS, and twice as many victims were infected with HIV .

The source of infection

Genetic analyzes show that the ancestors of HIV came from primates, which have been present for more than a million years ago and are linked to the evolutionary virus in monkeys. However, researchers believe that the possibility of cross-species infection cannot occur until the 1930s, when HIV spreads to people in Central Africa through chimpanzees' contacts and eating. It then transforms into HIV-1, the most widespread form of the virus; and HIV-2, limited to West Africa, have been able to infect humans since the 1960s by eating monkey meat .

Since then, AIDS has spread widely in the US and Africa during the 1970s, but has not been identified. It was not until 1981 when homosexuals and injecting drug users in New York and California were diagnosed with Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumonias that were incurable; 121 people died in the US by the end of 1981 and this number quickly increased to 17,000 in the next 6 years. At that time, American scientists only conjectured this mysterious disease spread by an infectious agent. It was not until 1984 that the agent was identified by two experts, Mont Montier and Pasteur Paris Institute (France) and Professor Robert Gallo at the National Cancer Institute of Washington (USA) and named HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus: virus causing evidence of human immunodeficiency).

Immediately after the shocking appearance of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) in the United States, the disease was also discovered in Europe. However, the victims are not only homosexuals, injecting drug users, but also heterosexual men and women are also affected, especially fast-spreading epidemics with regional alarm rates. Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently in this area, 1 in 5 people are living with HIV. AIDS epidemic is also a threat to populous countries like India and China and many other Asian countries .

Vaccination against HIV / AIDS?

The regeneration cycle of HIV

Up to 90% of HIV-infected patients currently live in developing countries, 60% -70% of which are sub-Saharan. However, this epidemic is also spreading strongly in most parts of the world, from India, China, Russia to the Caribbean island nations. According to incomplete statistics, in urban areas of South Africa, there are about 44% of pregnant women positive for HIV, when similar figures in Botswana are more than 37% .

Health authorities in many countries and territories are currently working hard to prevent the risk of HIV / AIDS spreading, and consider this work to be the focus. However, the ideal vaccine is still to prevent this disease, but this ability is still far away after more than 20 years of searching since the day HIV / AIDS was identified. Partly because HIV is capable of rapid transformation, while a vaccine not only requires the ability to produce antibodies to attack the virus (in the way most types of vaccines work), but also need to be able to stimulate the production of T cells - 'warriors' that protect the body against foreign agents. A series of specialized vaccines have been tested in South Africa, Kenya, the United States and Thailand, while some other controversial vaccines produced from the blood of HIV-infected people are also tested in Nigeria and Thailand . But generally do not give any promising results.

There is still no effective cure for AIDS

Until now, there has been no effective remedy to treat AIDS in addition to a pharmacogenetic group, including those that cause side effects, but only work to slow down the AIDS process. never mind. To treat AIDS, experts often use a combination of 3 or more combinations of different types of pharmacology, as this will help slow down the resistance of HIV. However, the virus is still capable of rapidly evolving to disable most types of drugs, especially when the regimen is not strictly adhered to .

Although these drugs and treatments are available in Western countries, it is the high cost that most AIDS patients cannot afford. International agencies are working hard to find ways to expand access to treatment in developing countries. A number of companies in India and Thailand . have also produced low-cost AIDS-labeled drugs to share somewhat the unfortunate burden for victims of the century pandemic .

The numbers

- 30 million is the number of victims of AIDS deaths so far.

- 60 million is the expected number of AIDS deaths in 2015.

- 75 million people are infected with HIV worldwide.

- 35 million is the number of patients in sub-Saharan region alone, accounting for more than 9% of the population.

- Nearly 10 million South Africans are infected with HIV, the highest in the world.

- More than 7 million people in India are infected with HIV / AIDS, second.

- Nearly 8 billion USD is the amount that the world spent on HIV / AIDS prevention and treatment by 2007.

- About $ 1 billion has been spent to prevent and care for AIDS patients in 2007.

H. DAO (Theo Med )