HIV, which causes AIDS, is one of the biggest challenges for medical researchers. Every once in a while there is news about a potential HIV vaccine on the horizon and we dream of a future where scientists will finally come up with a cure for this deadly disease. But the news disappears as quickly as its arrival.
In the latest development, a new vaccine — a tetravalent mosaic with four components — shows some promise. These components have been designed to bolster the body’s immunity so they can fight against different strands of the virus.
It had a good record on animals, working on two-thirds of test subjects.
This means that even if it’s not a 100 per cent cure, it is working up to a very promising degree. Now the vaccine by Johnson & Johnson will be tested on 3,800 men from Europe, North America, and South America.
Participants of this human trial are expected to receive six shots of the vaccine over four sessions and the results can come out as early as 2023.
A similar trial on 2,600 women called the Imbokodo study is already on in Africa.
AIDS kills more than a million people globally every year. The proposed vaccine has a long way to go before reaching the general public. Also, the feasibility and effectiveness have to be proven but this newly proposed vaccine is already being seen as a big step in the right direction.