Prospects for an HIV vaccine

Dani P. Bolognesi
From: Science & Medicine: Volume 1 Number 1: Page 44 (April 1994)

Abstract: Smallpox and yellow fever vaccines were developed before there was a good understanding of immunity. More recently, successful antiviral vaccines including polio vaccines have been designed and tested on the basis of simple correlates of immunity such as neutralizing antibodies. An HIV vaccine is more difficult than most because the virus is antigenically varioable and immunopathogenic. Development of a highly effective HIV vaccine requires a greater depth of understanding of the infection and the virus than has been achieved so far in spite of intensive effort. Nonetheless a rationale for vaccine treals in the absence of definitive knowledge has been established.

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