HIV/AIDS Vaccine, Are We Finally Here?
I remember my first health class where I truly paid attention to the material being presented. The material was a glass full of pills. It was called a cocktail. And a man who was dying from AIDS was swallowing each pill, one by one, before my whole class.
It was the first time our class didn't giggle through sex ed. It was the first time I met someone that was dying. He was dying from AIDS. Back in the 90's AIDS was spreading and talk of a cure was just that…talk.
To me AIDS is the disease of my generation. From that day on I knew what it was, how you can contract it and how it will kill you.
Today, as an adult, I am still paying attention to news about the disease. Some of the most exciting research taking place at the Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada (IMRIC) is in AIDS research. Take for example Prof. Ofer Mandelboim, who is collaborating with Dr. Frank Plummer from the University of Manitoba on HIV and AIDS research. The pair travelled to Kenya where through their research they were able to show that Natural Killer cells play an important role in building resistance to infectious diseases like HIV and AIDS.
This week, HIV/AIDS research made headlines once again. The news reported that Canadian researchers at the University of Western Ontario in London may have developed an HIV vaccine. The vaccine received a green light from the FDA for testing on humans. The clinical trials will take place over three years.
The vaccine has taken over a decade to develop. I can't help but wonder if the man with the cocktail is still alive and holding on pill by pill. I want to believe he is and that one day this important research will finally give people like him a cure. And give me another way to remember AIDS, not as a deadly disease, but as a disease that can be cured.
