Why is there no vaccine for aids?
Jess, Potent antiviral drugs, introduced in 1994, have proved to be a temporary reprieve, at best. The virus mutates faster than almost any known to man, giving rise to whole families of related strains, all of which are capable of developing resistance to the best drugs medicine has developed. An Aids vaccine might never be found, claims one of the world’s leading experts on the disease. David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate, said the complexity of the disease means scientists are no closer to a vaccine today than when they discovered the link to HIV more than 25 years ago. Shots in the Dark: The Wayward Search for an AIDS Vaccine, by Jon Cohen, a reporter for the journal Science, offers perhaps the best answer – The book demonstrates convincingly that the nation’s leaders lacked the savvy, courage, political will and compassion to put aside prejudice and act on behalf of public health. Superbly reported, written in clear, accessible language, Shots in the Dark examines not only the polit
