‘Collaborative Effort’ Needed To Fight HIV, Editorial Says
The "time has come for a collaborative effort" against HIV, and the recent Group of Eight agreement to form an international HIV/AIDS vaccine consortium is a "departure from customary medical research" in which "institutions or individual teams pursu[e] their ideas independently, sometimes competing against one another," a Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News editorial says (Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News, 6/16). G8 leaders from the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia last week at a summit in Sea Island, Ga., announced the formation of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise to speed the development of an HIV/AIDS vaccine and streamline research and development efforts. The plan calls for the establishment of HIV vaccine development centers throughout the world, the expansion of manufacturing capabilities, the creation of standardized measurement systems, the construction of clinics for trials and the creation of rules allowing regulatory authorities in different countries to recognize the results of foreign clinical trials, according to National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 6/14). The agreement to "take a global, political approach to the problem of AIDS is cause for great optimism," the editorial says. However, until a vaccine "can be developed ... prevention is a must," and people at risk "need to be tested and commit to ongoing testing," the editorial concludes (Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News, 6/16).
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