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Science has been chasing the Holy Grail for a total cure for HIV, linked with the fatal AIDS which has affected 35 million people throughout the world since its first sighting 4 decades ago, affecting 38 million until today.
The tricky part of the continuously transforming nature of the virus has made it almost impossible to come up with a real vaccine.
I’ll go first 😃 my name is Zakithi and I’m doing my PhD in Medicine (Virology). My research focuses on HIV cure. I love being in lab performing experiments. I am passionate about science and young people. Fun fact about myself is that I’m still afraid of the dark 😂🤦🏽♀️ pic.twitter.com/EZQiS3NwkE
— BlackGirlScientist (@Zakkie_M) June 16, 2020
Cure for HIV/AIDS: HIV and COVID-19 Vaccine Hunt
Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has again put science in similar burdensome researches. Many scientists working on the research for cure for HIV/AIDS have been diverted to work on the vaccine for the novel coronavirus.
Cure for HIV/AIDS: Expert Comments
Paul Volberding, MD, director of the AIDS Research Institute at UCSF in San Francisco told Contagion® “We are in a holding pattern,” “We all need to be optimistic. I don’t see much happening [with HIV research] until we get the COVID-19 [vaccine].”
This statement was backed by James Whitney, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a principal investigator at the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
He told Contagion “One thing that has clearly happened, at least in the short term, is that the COVID situation has had a devastating impact on biomedical research,” “It’s been an absolute hard stop for everyone.”
At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, highly infected area hospitals in the US report swamping facilities and decreasing supplies.
Very interesting perspective!
When discussing #HIVCURE some scientists use crazy long-term timescales:
my particular bugbear – a “cure one day”. But 770,000 people died of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses in 2018.A cure is overdue – so 🤞🏻FDA move this along! @CureHIVNOW @raelwyne
— Brian W (@IntrepidBrian) June 13, 2020
The HIV cure and its vaccine trials have achieved various degrees of success.
Whitney said, “The most promising are vaccines using broadly neutralizing antibodies,”
The important thing is that the bNAbs have the ability to act on a broad variety of HIV strains, due to the constant development of the virus. Only a small percentage of people having HIV can produce bNAbs, hoping that the vaccine would stimulate the bNAb creation in people, notwithstanding their ability.
