Promising HIV Vaccine Fails in Drug Trials

By Joseph Green-Bishop Texas Metro News Correspondent

A promising anti-HIV vaccine has failed, according to its manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson, and leading HIV researchers. The vaccine failed after three years of clinical trials designed to find a solution to the infectious disease that was first discovered in 1981. The trial was named Mosaico.

According to the World Health Organization, approximately 40 million people in the world lived with the illness in 2021. More than 600,000 of those who were infected died from diseases brought on by HIV, a World Health Organization report stated.

According to federal government officials, 1.2 million people in the United States were infected with the HIV virus as of October of last year. The government estimated that 13 percent of the infected were unaware that they carried the potentially fatal virus which disproportionately affects people of color.

African Americans were 13 percent of the nation’s population in 2019 but constituted 40 percent of those living with HIV. During that same year, Hispanics were 18 percent of the total population and 25 percent of those who were HIV infected.

Men who have sexual relations with other men represent nearly 70 percent of new HIV infections each year, according to government provided data. They are two percent of the nation’s population, the data reported.

The conclusion of the vaccine trial is “disappointing, but it isn’t the end of the effort toward developing a vaccine,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

There are other strategic ap- proaches, said Dr. Fauci who is recognized as one of the world’s leading HIV researchers.

Dr. Fauci said that the effort to find a HIV vaccine was of crucial importance to the world and its people.

“The ultimate prevention modality of any infection is a vaccine,” he said. “That is the reason why the field is going to continue to pursue very active research.”