HIV / AIDS: science is fully engaged in prevention

At the international AIDS 2018 conference in Amsterdam, much attention is therefore paid to research aimed at improving prevention methods. The best conceivable in terms of prevention would undoubtedly be an HIV vaccine. But the development of a vaccine is at the same time also the most difficult and, despite the initially encouraging results, it has always failed.

Currently, two vaccines are under development. The development of both is more advanced than ever. On the only vaccine that the NOS has recently published on a major publication in the official medical journal The Lancet, new additional research results have been released today.

South Africa

The publication in The Lancet explains that healthy subjects still had a strong immune response 52 weeks after the vaccine administration. According to researcher Frank Tomaka of Janssen Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of the drug that develops the vaccine, there is still a strong reaction of the patient's immune system after 96 weeks.

In an ongoing study in South Africa next time it is shown whether the vaccine response of their own immune system is also sufficient to protect people from HIV infection.

Choosing South Africa is not surprising. In the country, young women aged 15 to 24 are particularly affected by HIV / AIDS. This group covers one third of all new cases in Africa, and this number is even higher in South Africa. Poverty is an important explanation for this: young women have sex with older men in exchange for food, for example.

PrEP injection

There is already a different study in South Africa. a vaccine, but with a preventive medicine. PrEP, Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, is the prevention of a pill that protects people from HIV.

Young women who participated in this study first took pills, but preferred to take a long-acting injection during the study. want to. Women often have trouble taking their medicine every day. And it's crucial. When women take a pill a day, they have almost a hundred percent protection. If this is not the case, there is practically nothing left of this protection.

More than 500 women participating in the study receive one injection every four weeks, which provides sufficient protection. The study is now conducted with a larger group of women to see if the injections can also provide protection for eight or twelve weeks.