Re:Moderna Is About to Begin Trials for HIV Vaccine
by sterlind on Tuesday August 17, 2021 @03:41PM
(#28213974)
apparently HAART sort of ages people's organs, according to patients' testimonials. that's better than dying of AIDS but still not ideal.
also, doesn't your immune system lose like 30% of its T-cells after you seroconvert, but prior to developing AIDS? iirc that's why HIV+ people are considered immunocompromised regardless of viral load.
Re:Moderna Is About to Begin Trials for HIV Vaccine
by est31 on Tuesday August 17, 2021 @03:57PM
(#28214135)
Yeah, HAART is not side effect free, but one has come a long way from the initial retrovirals which had way more severe side effects.
As for the CD4+ T cells, you are right that their numbers decrease before it's called AIDS. In some individuals the counts can successfully recover to "normal" levels. According to studies, it depends on how early you start treatment.
https://www.aidsmap.com/news/dec-2018/cd4-count-recovery-fre...
Right now, the problem is more about actually accessing the people who might have HIV, getting them to test themselves regularly, and then giving them access to HIV medication if they are positive. Often these people are on the fringes of society. A vaccine would be an ideal tool to reach these people than asking them to get tested regularly.
HIV is a way harder virus to develop a vaccine for than SARS-CoV-2. For starters, once you have it, HIV is way more dangerous. Most people with covid don't need medical attention at all, they can deal with it themselves. Meanwhile, someone infected with HIV is basically sentenced to death in a couple of years if they aren't medicated (>90% mortality rate). The current covid pandemic is so severe because covid spreads so much better than HIV does. Our immune system can't really deal with HIV in a way that we survive the encounter. With SARS-CoV-2 you only need to slightly nudge the immune system into the right direction. That's a way easier task.
HIV also has an immensely large mutation rate. The genetic diversity in a single individual is larger than the genetic diversity of one entire yearly influenza outbreak. So you need to come up with defenses that help against a gigantic set of HIV viruses. We still need to vaccinate people yearly with an influenza shot, because we can't create universal influenza vaccines yet. It's an open problem similar to how a HIV vaccine is an open problem.
TLDR: There is already something like warp speed for HIV, but we were mostly lucky that it was so easy to come up with a covid vaccine.