NY Times Opinion Examines HIV Vaccine Research

Seth Berkley, president and chief executive of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, in a New York Times opinion piece examines how the "pessimism" over the recent controversy surrounding the results of an experimental HIV vaccine tested in Thailand "may ultimately thwart other efforts to develop an AIDS vaccine. Even before this controversy erupted, it had been an effort to maintain sufficient support for AIDS vaccine research and development," Berkley writes. "Even if the Thai vaccine regimen turns out, on examination, to have had no real benefit, researchers will still learn from the trial, as they do from every study. ... Years of investment and dogged science are providing leads for solving one of today's most pressing research challenges. Some 7,400 new HIV infections occur daily throughout the world. Clearly we need better methods of preventing the spread of HIV, and no public health intervention is more powerful or cost-effective against infectious disease than a vaccine" (10/18).

Back to other news for October 2009