Emily Kelley /Roundup
If someone told you they could offer you something that would give you a 31 percent chance of not getting into a fatal car accident, would you take it?
That’s the issue being posed with the discovery of a seemingly successful human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccine.
The vaccine was created by Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases and Sanofi Pasteur, a human vaccine company.
According to a report done by CNN, more than 16,000 people, in Thailand by the Thai Ministry of Health, participated in the trial that was conducted over three years.
Since the first case in 1981, vaccines have been tested with little to no success.
In 2007, the largest rate of contraction was male-to-male intercourse with 64 percent, followed by heterosexual intercourse with 15 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Joint United Nations Program on AIDS (UNAIDS), 33 million people worldwide were living with HIV at the end of 2007. That same year, some 2.7 million people became newly infected and 2 million died of AIDS, including 270,000 children.
So the fact that this vaccine has a 31 percent prevention rate is exciting and a huge accomplishment on the part of the developers.
However, we should not lose sight of the bigger issue.
This vaccine will only lower your risk of contracting HIV; it will not prevent it entirely, nor cure those who already have the disease.
Just because you receive the vaccine, whenever or if ever it becomes available to the general public, doesn’t mean you can throw caution to the wind.
Everyone should still practice safe sex and still receive annual HIV screenings. It doesn’t matter if you or your partner receive the vaccination it’s still up to you to protect yourself and others.
If people stop relying on safe sex to keep them from getting HIV because of the vaccine, it can actually increase the spread of the virus.
Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases and Sanofi Pasteur should be commended for the breakthrough vaccine. However, it could also lead to a false sense of security.
A vaccine is only a Band-Aid on an already gaping wound. We’re going to need a full first-aid kit in order to heal it completely.
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ekelly.roundupnews@gmail.com
Emily Kelly / Roundup (Gerard Walsh / Roundup)
