March 25, 2008

AIDS Healthcare Foundation Leaders Support Reducing Vaccine Research

In order to control the spread of HIV/AIDS, funding must be spent on strategies that have been proven effective—such as prevention, routine testing and universal access to treatment—instead of on vaccine research, write two AIDS experts in a Baltimore Sun editorial (baltimoresun.com, 3/23).

Dr. Homayoon Khanlou and Michael Weinstein, chief of medicine and president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation respectively, pointed to recent vaccine trial failures, such as a Merck trial which may have increased participants’ risk of contracting HIV, as reasons why funding should not be focused on developing an AIDS vaccine.

“Despite this record of failure, the U.S. budget for HIV vaccine research continues to increase…[and] funding for HIV/AIDS care in the U.S. has flat-lined,” they write. “And around the world, millions are dying for lack of access to a 5-cent condom, a $15 HIV test or antiretroviral therapy costing as little as 50 cents a day.”

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