Proposed Trial of a Live Attenuated AIDS Vaccine in Humans

UNAIDS PRESS RELEASE
UNICEF * UNDP * UNFPA
UNESCO e WHO * WORLD BANK
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
Geneva, 25 September 1997
PROPOSED TRIAL OF A LIVE ATTENUATED
AIDS VACCINE IN HUMANS
The announcement that volunteers in the United States are proposing to test an AIDS vaccine on
themselves is a bold and courageous move highlighting the urgent need for the development of
new ways to prevent the spread of HIV, the human immuno-deficiency virus, which causes AIDS.
However, UNAIDS points out that there are serious safety concerns.
The live attenuated vaccine which members of the Chicago-based International Association of
Physicians in AIDS Care (IAPAC) are volunteering to test has been experimentally successful in
protecting monkeys from the monkey form of AIDS. However, it is potentially dangerous. Unlike
other current candidate AIDS vaccines, there is no guarantee that it will not give them AIDS. The
volunteers, by taking the vaccine, may have to live for the rest of their lives with HIV in their
bodies, even if it is an attenuated version of the virus. As carriers, they could also transmit the
virus to others if the usual recommended safe sex practices are not followed successfully.
UNAIDS expresses concern about the dangers of introducing a recombinant virus into the
environment in this way.
Unlike other current candidate vaccines, this is a live HIV in which certain genes associated with
virulence have been eliminated. One danger is that the attenuated virus strain could revert to
virulence and become capable of causing AIDS.
With 8,500 new HIV infections every day worldwide, the need for an AIDS vaccine cannot be
overstated. While IAPAC's announcement sends a powerful message to the world, UNAIDS
believes that more research is needed before a live virus vaccine is tested in larger scale trials.
The decision to initiate the proposed IAPAC small-scale trial should be based on a careful
analysis of the scientific data and of the potential risks and benefits. The decision to intitiate
human testing of any live attenuated HIV will have to be taken at some point and when it is, those
taking part in the trial must be fully informed and all necessary scientific and regulatory safeguards
must be in place.
For more information, please contact Gareth Jones, UNAIDS, Geneva, (+41 22) 791.3387 or
Dominique de Santis, UNAIDS, Geneva, (+41 22) 791.4765 or Lisa Jacobs, Ogilvy, Adams and
Rinehart, New York, (+1 212) 880.5325. You may also visit the UNAIDS Home Page on the
Internet for more information about the programme (http://www.unaids.org)

5571095.0356.025
20, avenue Appia * CH-1211 Geneva 27 * Switzerland * Tel: [phone] * Fax: [phone] * e-mail: [email protected]

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