Thailand/US Spearheading AIDS Vaccine Research

Much like Brazil and its persistent crusade to offer reasonably priced antiretroviral drugs to those inflicted with HIV/AIDS, Thailand and the US, despite intense criticism, have partnered together to spearhead highly controversial research that would make available a new AIDS vaccine. Fortunately, they forged ahead with their research and trials as this vaccine seems to be one of the first AIDS vaccines that is actually doing what it is intended to do: protect people from contracting the virus.

Years ago, these vaccine trials spurred criticism from many American scientists who felt there would be no effect from continuing this research. The American government was told that the 100 million dollars it put towards these vaccine trials would merely be going down the toilet. Despite this, researchers and health officials in Thailand continued to work with the aid of U.S. researchers from the National Institutes of Health and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research to conduct a trial that would include over 16,000 voluntary participants. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stated, “It was a tough decision. I am glad we made it.”

Two prior vaccines that had failed in their own trials were meshed together to create the new trial vaccine. They include ALVAC canary pox/HIV vaccine created by Sanofi-Pasteur and AIDSVAX created by VaxGen. The dean of the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health, Donald Burke, noted that because the new trial was using vaccines that had previous failed, it was instantly met with controversy and criticism and, thus, dismissed by several American HIV/AIDS researchers and scientists. He states, “ But given the importance of the AIDS epidemic, the decision was made to go forward regardless of these criticisms. It was a difficult choice, but a courageous choice.”

Burke and fellow researchers used a sample extracted from a young Thai soldier who was infected with HIV in the late 1980s. The trial cost an estimated $105 million and was funded by the U.S. government. In the span of three years and over 16,000 participants, the data showed that the new vaccine reduced the infection rate by over 31%. The Surgeon General of the U.S. Army, Dr. Eric Schoomaker, stated, “To their credit the Thais did a remarkable job on this. They did a remarkable job of recruiting volunteers and conducting this trial almost flawlessly.”

Two decades ago, Thailand was facing sobering statistics. This country of 67 million people with a very prosperous sex industry was facing an epidemic. Researchers predicted that by the year 2000, if nothing was done to change the path Thailand was heading down, over 4 million people would become infected with HIV. The Thai government sprung to action and led a campaign on educating the public about AIDS and AIDS prevention. To combat the rampant unprotected sex taking place in the sex industry, Thai health officials began aggressively promoting the use of condoms. Due to this campaign, the use of condoms in brothels within Bangkok went from 15% in the 90s to 98% in 2000. Punnee Pitisuttithum of the HIV/AIDS research division at Mahidol University in Bangkok states, “We are still strengthening a very strong platform. Before this trial, we had many disappointments but with this result, we see some light at the end of the tunnel.”