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AIDS vaccine volunteers press their case
September 25, 1997
Web posted at: 10:10 p.m. EDT (2210 GMT)BETHESDA, Maryland (CNN) -- Health care workers who have volunteered to be injected with an experimental AIDS vaccine met Thursday with experts at the National Institutes of Health in their campaign to get approval for the controversial clinical trial.
The vaccine contains a live, though weakened, strain of HIV, prompting concerns about an experiment in which healthy people would be injected with the virus that could cause AIDS. But those pushing for the trial say it would be the most effective way to advance vaccine research.
"There are going to be risks in a human trial," says Gordon Nary of the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care, which is coordinating the volunteer effort. "We don't know what the risks are. We can make some assumptions of what they are in looking at animal data.
"But we could be experimenting with animals for the next five, 10, 15 or 20 years, which sometimes is the focus of pure science."
CNN'S Al Hinmann Reports
Dr. Charles Farthing, director of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and one of the volunteers, said IAPAC hoped to present a trial plan to the Food and Drug Administration by mid-November.
Jose Zuniga, deputy director of IAPAC, said 300 people -- doctors, nurses and ordinary citizens -- have volunteered since the group called for health care professionals to take part. Zuniga is among the volunteers.
The vaccine was developed by Dr. Ronald Desrosiers of Harvard Medical School, who has had promising results with chimpanzees.
Most effective vaccines either use a weakened version of the infectious agent or a close relative. Examples include the vaccines against measles, mumps and, most successful of all, smallpox.
But HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, presents a special case because it mutates into different strains quickly and because it attacks the immune system, which is what a vaccine is supposed to stimulate.
"The safety issues are so compelling that you have to be extra special careful before you even think about deciding about going into humans," said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the NIH.
Farthing said he believes the Desrosiers vaccine is the best hope for averting more HIV infections because it strips the virus of the genetic information known to cause the most mutations.
Farthing said many people in less developed countries where AIDS is rampant would choose the risks of the live AIDS vaccine over no available drug therapy. New drugs that have proven effective against HIV in the industrialized world, such as protease inhibitors, are scarce in Africa and Asia.
Medical Correspondent Al Hinman and Reuters contributed to this report.
Transcripts:
- 'Early Edition': Fifty volunteers will be injected with the AIDS virus
- 'Morning News': Volunteers willing to risk their lives for an AIDS cure
- 'Newsday': 50 volunteers to be injected with HIV in search for vaccine
- 'CNN Today': Researchers believe the risks are small in AIDS vaccine testing
- 'Early Prime': Volunteers willing to risk their lives for an AIDS vaccine
Related stories:
- Dozens volunteer for live HIV injections - September 22, 1997
- AIDS activists willing to risk their lives for chance at cure - September 22, 1997
- New AIDS cases drop for the first time in U.S. - September 18, 1997
- HIV infections surge among U.S. women - September 16, 1997
Related sites:
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- IAPAC Main Page
- National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
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