Subject: This website discusses the possible use of killed-HIV vaccines for prevention of AIDS. The proposed approach would be modeled after classical killed-virus vaccines now used for polio, rabies, influenza, and many other human and animal diseases. Many hundreds of millions of doses administered in recent decades have proven that killed-virus vaccines are effective and exquisitely safe. But very little research has been done on killed-HIV vaccines; and little, if any, is now underway.
Main idea: Classical killed-virus vaccine methods should be tested promptly; they may be able to inhibit HIV transmission, slow progression to AIDS, reduce suffering, save lives, and ultimately interrupt the HIV/AIDS pandemic sooner than anyone can invent a better method– perhaps decades sooner.
Possible objections: We are only too well aware that not everyone will agree with this proposal. The most commonly-stated objections, and our responses, are discussed elsewhere on this website. Details aside, the overwhelming majority of those engaged in AIDS vaccine research has explicitly or implicitly embraced the assumption that HIV/AIDS will require something better than a classical killed-virus vaccine. That may be a good guess, but it also may be wrong. It is based on poorly-understood biology and on largely theoretical arguments. It has never been tested experimentally. And it ignores the key fact that classical killed-virus vaccines have delivered clinically useful outcomes for animal diseases caused by retrovirus related to HIV. No one has proven, or even tested, whether the killed-virus approach will work for HIV. The only way to find out is to make the vaccines and test them.
Conclusion: Killed-HIV vaccines should be the subject of prompt, diligent, systematic investigation for HIV/AIDS— even if almost every AIDS researcher would prefer something better. It would be great to have something better. But that aspiration should not be the adversary of an equally diligent effort to extract all available benefit from the classical vaccine methods already here. “The perfect should not be the enemy of the possible.”
Disclaimer: The biology of HIV infection and of the subsequent human immune response is complex and incompletely understood. So no one at all– not even those considered the greatest experts– is yet in a position to make meaningful predictions about how well AIDS will be prevented by a particular vaccine or by a general vaccine concept. Therefore– here comes our disclaimer– we can not and do not pretend to know how well killed-HIV vaccines can be made to work for HIV/AIDS. But we do know how to find out. It would require no significant new insights or conceptual breakthroughs. It would cost a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of the ongoing pandemic. And if we tackle the problem with adequate resources and due urgency, we could know the answer in five or six years– or sooner. So we ought to find out without further delay. It could change the course of history!
Please Comment and Criticize! We invite your comments and criticism– all the more so if you have had real-world experience, and practical success, in viral vaccine development. We have discussed this subject with HIV researchers at the forefront of efforts to find better methods. We have listened carefully, and have tried to take into account any and all stated objections to killed-virus vaccines. But if you think we have overlooked something important, or if you see a flaw in our argument, the sooner we hear of it the better. So, if you have a comment or criticism, by all means let us know. We will make a diligent effort to acknowledge and address all reasonable concerns. Bring it on!!!
Thank you!
Dear Dorman,
I wish the world had individuals like you in every research institution where HIV/AIDS research is being done in the world. Lots of thoughts have been crossing my mind querying, Why the killed HIV vaccine has never taken any steps among the different HIV vaccine trials. I am of a great support and optimism that the Killed HIV vaccine would be the only way to save our world from the devastating HIV pandemic. But is there away to puss forwords for the killed HIV vaccine funding and ligalization? Personnel I would advocate to pioneer the novel vaccine such for HIV using the Killed HIV vaccine.
MSc. Immunology and Clinical Microbiology student
Makerere University
Kampala-Uganda