AIDS Vaccine Still Best Answer, Says Vaccine Initiative President
The chief executive and president of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Seth Berkley, says that despite the recent trial failure of Merck & Co.’s AIDS vaccine, the idea of a preventive vaccine still offers great hope for combating the epidemic. His opinion piece appears in the December 18 edition of The Washington Post. (washingtonpost.com, 12/18).
“The failure of one product does not rule out success on that front,” Berkley writes.
He adds that no major viral epidemic has been successfully conquered without a vaccine: “It took 47 years after the virus responsible for polio was identified before scientists developed a vaccine for the disease. That we are free from iron lungs as well as a range of other infectious scourges is a debt we owe to the persistence and optimism of previous generations. Now it is our turn.”
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