HIV Vaccine development requires urgent funding, scientists

Scientists have intensified efforts to develop the HIV vaccine, having been boosted by research findings that led to the production of the Covid-19 vaccines in record time.

This was revealed by Ninsiima Emily, a laboratory scientist, and a public health specialist, in the UVRI-IAVI-HIV Vaccine program, during a science cafe on the HIV vaccine.

There are phases in vaccine development which include; the Exploratory, Preclinical, Clinical development, Approval, Pharmacovigilance, and Uganda is at the Preclinical stage where different experiments are conducted on cells, tissues, and animals at this level.

This decides the efficacy of the vaccine, how to administer the vaccine, the patient’s effective dosage, and how effectively it contributes to an immune reaction.

These experiments are conducted to guarantee that testing the vaccine in humans is genuinely safe and to check that it cannot cause significant harm to patients, according to, Ninsiima.

 However, producing the vaccine has been a challenge because of the complexity of the behavior of the HIV Virus which has numerous strains compared to other Viruses.

“Most of the studies have shown no efficacy and in terms of vaccine development we have not reached far” adding,” We are doing HIV preventive trials at IAVI, for example, the long-acting Cabotegravir tablets and with this, you get an injection and we are trying to see how effective it is,” said Ninsiima.

Currently, the call to the public to volunteer has been successful, and before they participate, Ninsiima said they have a process called informed consent to understand the risks, benefits, and side effects and that they have a right to withdraw.

A lot of community engagements have been going on around areas of Lake Victoria and islands including community awareness.

Kenneth Mwhonge, an HIV prevention advocate noted that science shows that the virus cannot be defeated minus having a vaccine. “We saw with Covid19 leveraging on the research science and information to produce a vaccine in record time which gave us hope that it can be produced in record time adding that government needs to invest in the vaccine research”.

Historically science has shown that even with a cure, diseases remain but where vaccines have been present, many diseases have been defeated completely, partly because with a cure, people do not adhere to medicines to complete doses, the reason why HIV vaccine initiatives ought to be adhered to and funded.