We’ve received lots of inquiries about the potential success of an HIV vaccine in Thailand. CARES echoes the sentiments conveyed by Dr Fenton of the CDC below:
Statement on RV 144 HIV Vaccine Trial from Dr. Kevin Fenton, Director, CDC National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD & TB Prevention, and Dr. Jonathan Mermin, CDC Director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (September 22, 2009)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention welcomes the encouraging results of the RV 144 HIV vaccine trial, the first evidence of efficacy from an HIV vaccine candidate. We join the numerous researchers, advocates, and people affected by HIV around the world in congratulating our colleagues involved in this trial and the thousands of trial participants. Given the continued severity of the epidemic here in the United States and around world, any step forward in developing an HIV vaccine for all populations is welcome news. While there is still work to be done to improve on the levels of efficacy of any vaccine candidate, the results from this trial provide hope that we will one day have an effective and safe vaccine that can help put an end to the epidemic and save millions of lives around the world.
Until that vaccine is developed, current proven HIV prevention tools remain our most effective defense against the HIV epidemic. We must continue to apply, expand, and promote a comprehensive prevention approach – utilizing effective behavioral prevention programs, increasing the availability of condoms and sterile syringes, increasing HIV testing, and continuing the development of emerging biomedical tools. All of these will be essential to curbing the spread of HIV, both now and when the time comes for an effective vaccine. Today’s promising results reinforce our belief that we must not give up on efforts to develop cutting-edge HIV prevention tools, to fight this evolving epidemic on all fronts.
