As the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to exact its punishing toll, the need to intensify our efforts to find an effective vaccine is greater than ever. There is a broad consensus that the best way to accelerate the development of an AIDS vaccine is by conducting multiple vaccine trials simultaneously in industrialized and developing countries.
A serious HIV-vaccine effort will require additional funding to promote the development of new vaccines for testing and to strengthen sites in developing countries where candidate vaccines will be tested and ultimately deployed. If the international community realizes that an HIV vaccine is one of the best examples of what we term "a global public good", and assumes responsibility to support its development with an urgent sense of commitment, only then will the quest for an AIDS vaccine be closer to fruition.
Unquestionably, no more important goal exists in medical research today than the development of an AIDS vaccine. Last year, AIDS, caused by H.I.V., was the infectious disease that killed the most people around the world, and the epidemic is not abating.
Can we make an AIDS vaccine? One might think that, because we have produced vaccines against most human viral infections, of course we can make one against AIDS. But H.I.V. is a new story. History is a poor guide when it comes to this killer. The task of making an AIDS vaccine is evident: Such a vaccine must stimulate the immune system to produce both antibodies and C.TL.s, preferably ones that are more effective than those created naturally when someone is infected with H.I.V That is a tall order.
The Merck vaccine failure is a "deep disappointment and a scientific setback for the AIDS vaccine field," the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition said. However, the nonprofit group added that "while this is a disappointment, it is in no way the end of the search for an AIDS vaccine."
In 1963 he founded the Jonas Salk Institute for Biological Studies, a center devoted solely for medical and scientific research. His last years were devoted to finding a vaccine against AIDS. Dr. Jonas Salk died on June 23, 1995. He was 80 years old.