What are the implications for an AIDS vaccine?
The development of an AIDS vaccine is affected by the range of virus subtypes as well as by the wide variety of human populations who need protection and who differ, for example, in their genetic make-up and their routes of exposure to HIV. In particular, the occurance of superinfection indicates that an immune response triggered by a vaccine to prevent infection by one strain of HIV may not protect against all other strains. The effectiveness of a vaccine is likely to vary in different populations unless some innovative method is developed which guards against many virus strains. Inevitably, different types of candidate vaccines will have to be tested against various viral strains in multiple vaccine trials, conducted in both high-income and developing countries. To learn more about efforts to develop a vaccine for AIDS, visit the website of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. This page was written by Rob Noble, November 2004.
