Mr Okotn Vincent, a HIV Research Officer, says it may take up to 20 years to get a HIV vaccine due to changes in the virus and the long process and challenges involved in the discovery a vaccine .
Vincent, a research officer with Kenya Medical Research (KEMRI) who said this while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Nairobi on Sunday, described HIV as a virus, whose infection patterns varied from one person to another.
He said that the procedures for producing a vaccine involved clinic trials which always took a long time.
Vincent stressed that the initial phase of the vaccine development could take up to two years, while the second phase would probably take five years and the third phase another five years.
“In the Phase One, what you do is to ensure the safety of your vaccine and in Phase Two, you have to ascertain the efficacy of your vaccine in reducing or preventing infections in people who are previously not infected.
“As the study population grows in number, your Phase Two will probably involve about 10,000 persons, while in Phase Three trial, we look at more than 100,000 persons. It is probably a five-year programme that could stretch out to about 10 years.
“What we are looking out now is probably the timing of Phase Three trial and we should be able to use it within the population, anything between 12 to 20 years. That is why we always project that in terms of getting an efficacious HIV vaccine, it may take up to 20 years,” he said.
Vincent said that the implication of this reality was that the world would continue to grapple with the health consequences of HIV and AIDS until a vaccine was discovered.
The research officer said that efforts to record a breakthrough had always been frustrated in areas where one or two participants within the trial process still carried the virus.
Prof. Omu Anzala, the Programme Director Kenya AIDS Vaccination Initiative, Department of Micro-Biology, University of Nairobi, also said that the complexity involved in getting an efficacious HIV vaccine was responsible for the delay in getting a vaccine.
Anzala said that in the last 30 years, there were just three vaccines that were able to reach the stage of Phase Three trials, out of the over 30? vaccines subjected to trials under Phase One worldwide.
He stressed that the way the virus mutated in an individual was one of the reasons responsible for the delay.
Anzala explained that the virus was designed in a way that the body could not completely get rid of the infection.
“Instead of the immune system getting rid of the infection and be ahead, it is always left behind because of the consistent changes in the virus,” he said.
Anzala, however, conceded that the people’s knowledge of the nature of the virus had increased tremendously, adding that such knowledge was now aiding the development of an efficacious HIV vaccine.
“It is just a matter of time. The disease reflects a new phenomenon, as HIV is a virus that does not behave like other viruses. That’s why have yet to develop a potent vaccine,” he said.
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