"Secret" HIV Vaccine in use?

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In a class discussion (not a nursing class), someone brought up that there is a "secret" HIV vaccine in use in Africa that the FDA will not approve here. The statement was made that "they" are vaccinating babies so they won't get HIV and that there is also a "cure". All of this information is supposedly maintained is some obscure African government files and websites but the American public is not supposed to know about it. I have found information that there are vaccine trials going in Africa, but nothing has been proven as yet. Has anyone else heard this? I'd like to have good

information to go back with so that misinformation doesn't continue to spread. I did ask the person who made the statement to bring her "proof". As a nursing student, our program has stressed critical thinking. I want to see the valid research and clinical trials (yes, I am one that takes things apart to see how they work!) Thanks!

Specializes in Critical Care.
Not as much as they do off the drugs to help the people with the diseases already.

Think about it. Say they charge $250 for XYZ vaccine. Everyone gets vaccinated and very few get the disease. They only made $250 off each person who got the vaccine.

Now, they charge $250 for a months supply of ABC medicine that controls/helps/treats the disease. They get $250 per month per person for however long the person lives. Say one person lives 10 yrs with the disease and takes the meds. The drug company made $30,000 on that one person. Now had that person gotten the vaccine, they only made $250.

Much much more money to produce the drugs that treat or help the person, than to make it so people don't get the disease and have to take the meds.

Its all about the almighty dollar.

Yes, but your example only works when there's only one drug company. Some other company without a patent on a chronic treatment type drug would love to receive government subsidy while at the same time completely undercut the companies with the treatment drugs by rendering the disease null and void via vaccine.

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Specializes in med/surg, ER.

Thank you one and all. Maybe I'm an optimist, but I felt if there was a way to prevent HIV, it would be BIG news and BIG money for the vaccine. EVERYONE would want the vaccine, it would be part of the childhood series and there would be lots of money to be made. Since this all took place in a Philosophy class, I'm sure you can imagine the discussion. The Prof was as skeptical as I was though. Nice change since the last Philosophy class I had to take had an instructor who spent the entire semester telling us what we thought, what we know and everything about the government is corrupt. Funny, coming from someone who works for a state funded college:)

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Thank you one and all. Maybe I'm an optimist, but I felt if there was a way to prevent HIV, it would be BIG news and BIG money for the vaccine. EVERYONE would want the vaccine, it would be part of the childhood series and there would be lots of money to be made. Since this all took place in a Philosophy class, I'm sure you can imagine the discussion. The Prof was as skeptical as I was though. Nice change since the last Philosophy class I had to take had an instructor who spent the entire semester telling us what we thought, what we know and everything about the government is corrupt. Funny, coming from someone who works for a state funded college:)

For a philosophy class?

I'd bust out "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence". In other words, whomever makes the claim has the burden of proof to demonstrate its veracity.

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Specializes in DOU.
Not as much as they do off the drugs to help the people with the diseases already.

Think about it. Say they charge $250 for XYZ vaccine. Everyone gets vaccinated and very few get the disease. They only made $250 off each person who got the vaccine.

Now, they charge $250 for a months supply of ABC medicine that controls/helps/treats the disease. They get $250 per month per person for however long the person lives. Say one person lives 10 yrs with the disease and takes the meds. The drug company made $30,000 on that one person. Now had that person gotten the vaccine, they only made $250.

Much much more money to produce the drugs that treat or help the person, than to make it so people don't get the disease and have to take the meds.

Its all about the almighty dollar.

I'm not sure your math works out overthe long haul (and I am too lazy to figure it out). The vast majority of people don't get HIV, so the drug companies aren't making ANY money off of them right now. If everyone gets vaccinated, that is a LOT of money, and people are born every day, thus ensuring a continual supply of new patients needing vaccination.

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I'm not sure your math works out overthe long haul (and I am too lazy to figure it out).

The math works. $250 x 12 months=$3000.00 per year

$3000.00 x 10 yrs = $30,000

I was doing my "figuring" on say one person getting the vaccine vs not getting and the drug companies making more money if the person didn't get the vaccine and got the disease.

Yes there are more and more people born everyday, but more and more are being dx's with HIV/AIDS everyday too.

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I have worked with AIDS vaccine research in Africa and can say definitively that there is no "secret" vaccine that prevents or cures HIV. It would take a lot of money and skill to develop, IRB approval to test on humans, and things like that are hardly "secrets."

There were AIDS vaccine trials in Africa, and some trials here as well. There tend to be larger vaccine studies done in Africa because it is easier to see if the vaccine works when the population has a higher burden of the disease. Unfortunately, the last vaccine that seemed so promising did not work. Back to the drawing board.

There are a lot of conceptual hang-ups about how to make a vaccine for a RETROVIRUS. This is what makes HIV different from HPV and other viruses we have vaccines for.

If you want more information, check out the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative: http://www.iavi.org. There is a section on progress and challenges.

~ VivaRN

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Specializes in Pain Management, RN experience was in ER.

As far as a vaccination, there are entirely too many strains of HIV for one vaccination. If a company went through all of the research and implementation to create a drug powerful enough to protect against all strains, I'm positive we'd hear about it. Especially because these companies are largely government funded for the most part. As far as a 'cure' for HIV/AIDS, it is highly unlikely. HIV causes an extremey rapid replication of cells causing entirely too many mutations in its DNA for a drug to battle.

I'm a believer of miracles, but this seems entirely too farfetched! :(

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Specializes in Emergency.

This was an interesting video that I saw some time ago from PBS called "Rx for Survival: Disease Warriors (A Vaccine for AIDS)". Its about several prostitutes from Nairobi who appear to be "immune" to HIV (their body has the ability to fight off the HIV virus), and the development of a vaccine for HIV.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/rxforsurvival/series/video/d_hiv1_dis_aids2_qt_h.html

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Specializes in DOU.
The math works. $250 x 12 months=$3000.00 per year

$3000.00 x 10 yrs = $30,000

I was doing my "figuring" on say one person getting the vaccine vs not getting and the drug companies making more money if the person didn't get the vaccine and got the disease.

Yes there are more and more people born everyday, but more and more are being dx's with HIV/AIDS everyday too.

Okay, you made me break out my calculator. :chuckle

According to wikki, the current US population is 304,394,060. If you multiply that by $250 per vaccine, you get $76,098,515,000.

Add to that the cost of vaccinating the estimated 4 million new births in the US per year, and that adds up to another $1,000,000,000 per year.

Using the $30,000 figure you provided for medication costs for HIV patients (I have no idea of the actual costs, so if you were wrong, then I am too), and assuming these guys are correct about the number of people suffering from HIV, http://www.aids.org/info/how-many-have-hiv-and-aids.html, the drug companies are only making $24,000,000,000 - $27,000,000,000 over the course of 10 years. And I could have sworn the rates of new infections were kind of leveling off, but maybe I am remembering it wrong.

I am still not convinced. ;)

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The first time I was in college (in 1990) I had a biology professor who told his class that there already was a vaccine but it was not being released. He reasoning was that the pharmaceutical companies made so much money of the HIV drugs that they would lose money if there was a vaccine. In his theory the testing was done in Africa also.

These stories have been around for a long time. I really hope they do have a vaccine soon. But I just do not think they would keep it secret if they did.

Just my oppinion.

There are no vaccine's that cure viruses. A virus infects a cell and rewire's it's DNA to replicate the virus. Science has not found a way to kill viruses (HIV, common cold). It's that simple.

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This was an interesting video that I saw some time ago from PBS called "Rx for Survival: Disease Warriors (A Vaccine for AIDS)". Its about several prostitutes from Nairobi who appear to be "immune" to HIV (their body has the ability to fight off the HIV virus), and the development of a vaccine for HIV.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/rxforsurvival/series/video/d_hiv1_dis_aids2_qt_h.html

There are some people who do indeed appear to be immune to AIDS (mostly hemophiliacs) and it appears that their ancestors were immune from bubonic plague because of the same gene.

The best known example of this was the hemophiliac son of Robert and Suzanne Massie, whose dual biography "Journey" was published in the early 1970s, can be found in nearly every used book store, and is the story of life with him. He's now about 60 years old, HIV-positive and AIDS-free. He's an Episcopalian priest, IIRC.

If you think people have difficulty getting health insurance nowadays with pre-existing conditions, read this and be in for a huge surprise. It was even harder then.

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There are no vaccine's that cure viruses. A virus infects a cell and rewire's it's DNA to replicate the virus. Science has not found a way to kill viruses (HIV, common cold). It's that simple.

Actually I posted what my biolgy professor said 18 yrs ago to make the point that these rumours have been going around for a long time. I am sorry I really did not mean to cause a controversy.

Sandy

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