Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
Since the emergence of this novel virus in the early 1980’s, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has become the number 1 viral infection causing disease and death worldwide. It is currently estimated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that about 35 million people are living with HIV and each year over 1 million people die from AIDS-related disease.
The development of a range of effective anti-retroviral drugs has transformed HIV infection from a death sentence to a manageable disease in the western world, with life expectancy close to normal. However these drugs:
- do not eradicate infection, but need to be taken for life
- are expensive and so not readily available in resource poor settings such as sub-Saharan Africa and south east Asia, worst hit by the global pandemic
- can have side-effects that make it difficult for patients to adhere to the prescribed daily dosing
- result in the virus mutating to side-step the drug; drug resistant variants of HIV are an increasing problem
In this situation, the development of an effective vaccine that prevented people becoming infected with HIV would have a major impact on this disease. However, developing a vaccine that can persist in the blood for many years is a tremendous challenge that has thwarted scientific endeavour so far.
Work in this area is covered by: