More than 30 years into the AIDS epidemic, the silver bullet against HIV still looks depressingly out of reach.
As scientists, activists and health officials prepare for the International AIDS Society's biennial meeting in Mexico City from August 3-8, hopes for progress toward a vaccine have crumbled amid disappointing scientific results and scrapped clinical trials.
Across Africa, where 25 million people are infected with HIV and new infections continue to outpace treatment, researchers and community leaders say the hunt must go on, but concede the setbacks have been demoralizing.
"We cannot treat our way out of this epidemic, that is clear. We still need a vaccine," said Fred Sawe, the medical director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program program in Kericho, Kenya, picked as one of the sites for vaccine trials.
"The community is ready to do its part. It is the scientists who have failed. We have not figured out the right product, and we still don't know what we want the product to do," Sawe said.
Source and picture Reuters by Andrew Quinn
