A few years ago the hospital connected with my university was looking for test subjects for an experimental study of a HIV vaccine. I heard about it because two of my friends had already decided to become guinea pigs. I decided that it was right for me too. I was given two doses of a vaccine in the beginning stages. There weren't many side effects, but I do remember being really fatigued and nauseous after the first dose. After that it has just been regularly scheduled blood draws to see how the vaccine antibodies are working in my system. I have my last appointment in a couple months and I've been reflecting back on the situation.
At first, I felt like I was doing something really great for humanity because there was this hope that AIDS and HIV could be stopped through vaccinations. Trials had already been conducted on other animals and monkeys with some success, so researchers took things to the next level.
Later on, I felt indifferent about it because I realized I was helping a huge pharmaceutical company, Merck, find the HIV vaccine first so that they could make a load of money off of it. Then, I heard a renowned professor at our med school speak about the HIV vaccine and he explained that the vaccine trials were going no where. The antibodies in the vaccines are not providing people with sufficient immunity to be reliable. There are other independent researchers working on a HIV vaccine, but it doesn't look promising from what I've heard.
So now, I feel ok about it since I least I tried to do my part and I got a nice chunk of change for all the blood they took. It just leaves me wondering what more we can do to help find a cure for AIDS. I'm thinking the answer lies in awareness of risky behaviors and monetary donations, but what do you guys think?
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
It's an HIV vaccine, not an AIDS vaccine. AIDS is the result of being infected in the long term with the virus (and, theoretically, you can get it without having been infected with HIV), and vaccines are intended to stop the virus from infecting cells in the first place. So it's not designed to stop the progression of an HIV infection to AIDS, it's intended to prevent the infection.
Sorry, just a little pet peeve of mine.
~C
Check out the latest entry in the Between The Lines column!
Want the highest rated list to change? RATE those blogs, then!
I should say HIV vaccine not AIDS vaccine. I've heard the two terms thrown around interchangably so much that I've neglected to make the distinction, but you're right.
Thanks for your comment and keeping me on my toes.
www.progressiveu.org/blog/americangirlinchina
This is a very narrow belief but my boyfriend watched a special on TV about how they already have cures for most diseases but want you to stay sick so you supply the drug companies with profits and they do not lose you as a customer. I kind of belief this myself. I am not saying it is true but it sounds very logical.
People on the show proved this to be true. I wish I could find it. But again this is just broad speculation. I'm sorry I am a science nerd.
Putting that fact aside, I belief to find a cure they should start doing what they have been doing for breast cancer. So many women have survived it because all the walks they have to support it, all the food they sell that goes to breast cancer research. If they did that with Aids then it could benefit as much.
http://www.progressiveu.org/032913-lupus-uncureable-wait-what
Love comments? I do too!
And yet, so many die from it because they force upon them certain treatments, even though they won't help, and then refuse treatments that might help (or don't offer them, which amounts to basically the same thing).
~C
Check out the latest entry in the Between The Lines column!
Want the highest rated list to change? RATE those blogs, then!
But it really might be possible. I mean, people with HIV sometimes take twenty or more pills at a shot, three times a day, and half of those pills are meds that were developed to counter the side effects of the HIV meds. If HIV is eradicated, they'll lose billions. But please say it ain't so! I would hope that people aren't really that evil.
Ever seen The Constant Gardener? It was about something along these lines.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
It's an awesome movie. The company in the movie was using African patients to test drugs that weren't even helping them. Pharmaceutical companies can be unethical, but I don't want to believe that they are that evil either.
www.progressiveu.org/blog/americangirlinchina
I just have a very hard time believing that because I am sure that somebody with a social conscious would become a whistle blower.
If it were ever proven that a particular drug company was engaging in this type of behavior, a jury and a good trial lawyer would bend them over and have their way with them to the tune of so many billions of dollars that they would be out of business.
I just can't believe that a) the secret could be kept and b) that a company would take the risk of what would happen to them in tort court.
I should hope so!
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
I thought you would find this article interesting if not very hopeful.
Is it time to give up the search for an Aids vaccine?
Maybe the Christians were right? They wanted to spend a lot of this money on prevention which to them means abstinence. In the last 25 years a lot of people have been infected and all those billions of dollars might have done them more good if spent differently.
Thanks for the article link. It was quite informative and did indeed give me some hope. Sounds like researchers are going to step back and refocus before doing anymore trials for a while.
www.progressiveu.org/blog/americangirlinchina
I find it interesting that we read the same article and both got such different messages.
I found it very lacking in hope.
The message I took was that we are not going to see a vaccine anytime soon if ever and that the arsenal of treatments that hold HIV at bay and keep it from developing into full blown AIDS are starting to lose their effectiveness as either the patients or the germs are building resistance to them.
Well, at least they've recognized their failures and some are going to continue on with renewed hope. It's their job to keep trying, so I have a little hope, but not much....
www.progressiveu.org/blog/americangirlinchina