IAVI
Here’s a partner post from our friends at IAVI in honor of World AIDS Vaccine Day:
Twenty years ago, as a resident of San Francisco, I watched the heart-wrenching effects of the AIDS epidemic on that city. I decided to study nursing and get involved in prevention efforts. Ultimately, the work led me to Africa, where for more than a decade, I advocated for extensive prevention education programs and access to treatment.
While living in Africa, I tested positive for HIV. Today, I am on antiretroviral treatment and doing very well, and I hope that one day every HIV-positive person in the world will have access to the treatment he or she needs. My diagnosis did not change my unwavering commitment to HIV prevention. But I moved to AIDS vaccine research when current prevention methods failed me. I simply don’t want others to go through what I have gone through. Nearly 7,400 people are infected with HIV every day. For every two people who start treatment, five more are newly infected.
Today is World AIDS Vaccine Day – 13 years to the day when former U.S. President Bill Clinton stated, “Only a truly effective, preventive HIV vaccine can limit and eventually eliminate the threat of AIDS.” Some of the world’s top scientists have been working for decades to design such a vaccine—but it was not until this past year that we knew it was a definite possibility.
Results from a vaccine trial in Thailand—a joint project of the Thai and U.S. governments—showed for the first time that it is possible to reduce the rate of HIV infection in humans through vaccination. Scientists at the organization I work for – the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) – were part of another major advance in the quest for a widely effective AIDS vaccine. They discovered two powerful new antibodies to HIV and also found the site on the virus to which they attach. This site provides researchers a promising new model for vaccine design.
These discoveries and the Thai trial results are thrilling—and I feel confident that we’ll be able to develop an AIDS vaccine. But what really drives me is the altruism that I came across during my 12 years in Africa and that I still hear today. I remember talking to a volunteer who had just found out that he was living with HIV. He had signed up for a study of early immunological markers in HIV infection, a project that could benefit vaccine development. When I asked him why he was doing this, he simply said, “I have seen too many people die, and this is all I can do. I want to be able to tell my children that I did something.”
If you would like to find out what you can do, visit IAVI’s website at www.iavi.org. I really appreciate the dedication of ONE members to fighting global poverty and disease, and I hope you will join us at IAVI in the effort to deliver a major blow to both by delivering an AIDS vaccine!
-Andrea von Lieven is a Clinical Program Manager at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). She is based in Berlin.
Check out this great update from Holly Wong, Vice President for Public Policy at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative:
For almost thirty years, the idea of an AIDS vaccine has been sustained by a combination of hope and tireless research. Now, recent scientific developments have reenergized the AIDS vaccine field– including the results of a recently completed AIDS vaccine trial in Thailand proving an AIDS vaccine is possible and the discovery of new powerful antibodies capable of neutralizing the HIV virus.
Although we don’t know when we will have an effective AIDS vaccine ready for licensure, it’s important to start thinking about how a future AIDS vaccine can be incorporated into the fight against AIDS and what the impact might be on the pandemic.
To better understand the game-changing effects of an AIDS vaccine, we at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) worked with the Futures Institute to develop a mathematical model to forecast the potential impact of a future AIDS vaccine with different levels of efficacy and population coverage.
We then worked with partners in highly-impacted countries with representative epidemics – Kenya, Uganda and Brazil – to apply the model. We also applied the model to the global pandemic. And, we have just started a new project in China.
The findings to date show the tremendous impact AIDS vaccines could have in those hard-hit countries, and, by examining various vaccination strategies, give policymakers a better understanding of how to use a future AIDS vaccine.
For example, according to the model, an AIDS vaccine that is only 50% effective and given to 30% of the global population between 2016 and 2030 would avert 5.6 million (or 24%) of global infections, even if all other existing HIV prevention and treatment strategies were universally availa ble. An AIDS vaccine could avert an even larger number of HIV infections if universal access goals are not met, and a more effective vaccine could have an even bigger impact on top of that.
That’s at least 5.6 million people in this world who wouldn’t need to be put on AIDS treatments for the rest of their lives, and who wouldn’t need to worry about passing the virus on to others.
You can read brief papers on our impact modeling projects by clicking on the following links:
There are two main challenges to developing an AIDS vaccine. The first is scientific. IAVI and affiliated researchers, along with others from around the world, are relentlessly focused on building on the recent advances. The second challenge is sustaining financial and political support for AIDS vaccine development. To meet that challenge, we need the help of advocates and activists to engage funders and policymakers to keep the AIDS vaccine mission vital.
You can find out more about what we do at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative by clicking on this link to visit our website: IAVI. You can also learn more by checking out a recent ONE Q&A with IAVI.
Last week, I was lucky enough to chat with Fran Priddy, a senior director of medical affairs at International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). She filled me in on their organization, and all that the work that they’re up to these days—just in time for our World AIDS Day blog series.
Tell me a bit about IAVI?
Our name stands for International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. We were founded about 13 years ago to help accelerate the development of a preventive AIDS vaccine. I think our mission really describes us well: ensure the development of safe, effective, accessible, preventive HIV vaccines for use throughout the world. We work on every aspect of HIV vaccine development, from work in the lab developing new AIDS vaccine candidates for testing to work with the communities to then test the AIDS vaccine candidates.
What’s a typical day like there?
It really depends on what your role is and where you are based. If you’re a nurse in India, you could be giving a vaccine to a trial participant. If you’re a nurse in South Africa, you could be drawing the blood of a trial participant to see what kind of immune responses the vaccine elicited. In East Africa, a clinician could be administering an HIV test for someone who wants to participate in an epidemiology study. In New York, a scientist could be studying blood samples from HIV positive people to look for clues on how to control the virus.
How do you decide where to test for the vaccine?
We usually look for partners that have a solid background in research—universities, medical labs—and in places where we know the epidemic is severe. There has to be community acceptance and desire to do the research, too. So far, we’ve worked in places from Zambia and South Africa to East Africa to India.
Have you been on the ground to see IAVI’s work in action?
I see our impact the most when I visit our partners who are conducting studies. Each research center has a Community Advisory Board (CAB). It’s made up of people from all parts of the community—people who have HIV and want to protect their families, people who participated in trials before, the clergy, mothers and fathers. They make sure the community has a voice and that their concerns are heard. It’s a great experience because you really get to see how HIV has affected each one of them. It’s a big commitment—but they want this to work and they want the research to advance.
Did anyone’s story really stick with you?
I met one CAB member who was a young woman—probably in her early twenties—and just a regular member of the community. She was HIV-infected and had a family. (more…)
Did you know – despite everything we’ve learned about HIV, the number of new infections each year is close to what it was in the mid-1990s: the total figure today is 2.7 million? Antiretroviral treatment (ART) helps keep HIV at low levels within the body, but ART can have side effects and must be taken every day for a lifetime. What’s more, access to life-saving treatment can be an issue for people living with HIV in developing countries. Thanks to programs like the Global Fund and PEPFAR, treatment is increasingly available, but it still only reaches a third of people who need it to survive.
We must continue to extend current prevention, care and treatment options to as many people as possible to mitigate AIDS here and now, but we must also invest in the future to bring the epidemic to an end. Continued investment in prevention research, to include new tools like vaccines, microbicides and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), will produce net savings in the long term – and save lives.
In fact, only vaccines have historically ended major viral epidemics. They are proven to be cost-effective and practical. There will be an AIDS vaccine in our lifetime, and we must continue the search.
So today, on HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, I urge you to become informed about AIDS vaccine research. We all have a role to play whether it is as advocates, volunteers, health professionals or researchers.
For those of you reading this blog who are already involved – today (and every day) is an opportunity to say thank you!
-Nicole Schiegg, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative–Washington, D.C.
Here’s a little known fact. Hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic, developing countries are also hard at work on new tools to prevent HIV. Those who bear the biggest burden of the AIDS pandemic are doing their part to ensure that we have a vaccine for future generations. HIV Vaccine Awareness Day is an occasion to thank the thousands of volunteers, community members, health professionals, and scientists who are working together to find a safe and effective AIDS vaccine. It is also an opportunity to underscore that supporting science and technology are core elements of good development policy.
Dr. Seth Berkley, IAVI’s President and CEO, blogged yesterday “that the Obama administration should extend its fervor for science to its foreign aid policy, putting science and technology at the heart of U.S. assistance to the developing world.” The full post can be found here.
For those of you in the Washington, DC area today, May 11th please come listen to leading African scientists talk about the novel research they are doing to help advance AIDS vaccine science. The Global Health Council, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) are co hosting a congressional briefing on Capitol Hill at 2 PM in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 419. For more information, please contact: Sara Jane Muratori at smuratori@iavi.org.
If you are not in DC, please checkout Global Health TV. Leading AIDS advocates share their commitment to finding a vaccine: Dr David Kihumuro Apuuli, director-general of the Uganda AIDS Commission and Dr Seth Berkley, IAVI. Additional interviews will be posted leading up to HIV Vaccine Awareness Day.
-Nicole Schiegg, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative – Washington, DC
