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Speaker urges efforts toward AIDS vaccine
LAURIE MOOT
Issue date: 4/16/08 Section: News
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De Groot, an immunologist from Brown University, spoke Tuesday on why the world should keep searching for an AIDS vaccine.
In 2007, 5 million people were infected with HIV, De Groot said. If a vaccine is not found, that number will increase to 120 million by 2010.
Committed to social justice as well, De Groot leads the fight to find a vaccine for HIV while talking about those it affects.
"We must find a vaccine that is globally relevant and globally accessible," she said.
She highlighted many of the issues that surround the HIV vaccine.
Many of the problems facing scientists deal with the virus itself, De Groot said.
Scientists have not been able to find antibodies small enough to block the entry of the HIV virus into cells, and once inside the body, the virus can mutate at an incredible speed.
"The virus can create versions of itself that can completely escape the body's immune response," De Groot said.
The mutation process can happen at such a rapid rate there could be five to 10 different versions of HIV within one country, she said.
The virus sometimes will remain latent in the body for extended periods of time, allowing strands to go unnoticed.
De Groot touched on the social aspect of the AIDS epidemic. AIDS disproportionately affects people in Africa and Asia, and 95 percent of those with the disease live in developing countries. In developing countries, a condom costs the same as a meal, De Groot said.
"In developing countries, even doctors are afraid of patients with AIDS because they have not seen them live like we in the United States have," De Groot said.
Not all hope is lost. De Groot said if scientists could find the funding, a vaccine could be available in the near future.
"I believe we will have a vaccine," De Groot said. "But we have to decide we want a vaccine. If we do not make that decision, all the work that has been done will never bear fruit."
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