Reply #33: I hate to sound like a pessimist [View All]

but I don't think there ever will be a workable "AIDS vaccine." Here's why.

To be a "Person With AIDS," one must carry two things:

* one of at least 30 "indicator diseases"--Kaposi's sarcoma, tuberculosis, yeast infections in women, there's a bunch of 'em.

- AND -

* antibodies to HIV.

When you vaccinate someone, you give them a little dose of the disease--not enough to make them mortally ill, but just enough to wake up their immune system and get it to produce antibodies against said disease. If you get a tetanus shot, you wind up with tetanus antibodies in your bloodstream.

If we create this "AIDS vaccine," which properly should be called an "HIV vaccine," the person receiving said vaccination will become the proud recipient of antibodies to HIV...which are one of the two components of AIDS! Therefore, how's this vaccine going to help?