Subject: Letters to the Editor: Vaccines Offer Hope In Battle Against HIV
Date: Published: 6/24/92 (42 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Letters to the Editor:
    Vaccines Offer Hope
    In Battle Against HIV

    Your May 26 article on HIV vaccines was unduly
 pessimistic.  It is true that the polymorphism of HIV,
 particularly in its envelope proteins, is likely to preclude
 the development of a "perfect" vaccine that would be 100%
 effective in the prevention or treatment of HIV infections.  A
 large body of scientific evidence, however, indicates that
 vaccines currently in development may be useful, even if they
 fall short of this idealized goal.  It is important to
 remember that vaccines, like other drugs, do not have to be
 perfect.  They need only to show enough beneficial effects to
 justify their costs.
    Some immune responses inhibit HIV and may be beneficial to
 individuals who are at risk of exposure to this virus or are
 already infected.  By using a cocktail of proteins or peptides
 from the most common HIV types, it may be possible to
 stimulate immune responses selectively that would be
 effective against many or most HIV isolates.  The approach
 pursued by the Merck/MedImmune/Repligen alliance is
 particularly appealing.  By incorporating selected pieces of
 HIV into the tuberculosis vaccine BCG, it may be possible to
 stimulate strong and long-lasting immune responses to HIV.  A
 recombinant HIV-BCG vaccine might be particularly useful in
 Third World countries.
    A vaccine that protected only 50% of individuals from
 infection, prolonged the lives of infected individuals,
 and/or minimized disease symptoms would not be perfect, but
 it still would be extremely valuable.
    John F. Krowka
    San Francisco

[This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the
 personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the
 hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering
 from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.]