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| The Moscow Institute of Immunology has developed
Russia’s first vaccine against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the Kommersant
daily reports. After a trial in which the vaccine was tested on animals,
scientists are ready to try it on humans — prostitutes, gay men, and drug
users — most vulnerable to the deadly virus in Russia.
“We need to find about two thousand prostitutes, drug users, and homosexuals that haven’t contracted the AIDS virus,” Alexander Ilyichev, a professor at another institute that took part in the project, was quoted by the newspaper as saying. They will be told that each has a one in five chance of contracting the disease, after which he hopes they will agree to the test. “If the usual 20 percent develop the disease [in three years], then the vaccine is useless,” Ilyichev was quoted as saying. “If it’s 2 — 3 percent — then we can start developing the vaccine commercially.” A number of volunteers has been gathered in St. Petersburg, where scientists are providing the risk group with free products and health care. Three types of vaccines were developed by three institutes, and they will all be tested on humans. The Russian Academy of Medical Sciences remains skeptical, meanwhile. “There are a lot of vaccines against HIV in the world,” Kommersant quoted the academy’s president, Valentin Pokrovsky, as saying. “But none of them offers up any hope.” Moreover, he said that in order for the trial to be effective, it has to include tens of thousands of volunteers, not just a couple of thousand prostitutes and drug users. HIV is continuing to spread throughout Russia — with nearly 265,000 infected as of early 2004. 23 million people all over the world have died from the virus after it was discovered in the early 1980’s. |
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