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Development of Therapeutic, Prevention Vaccines in Progress: HIV Co- Discoverer

Posted on: Friday, 9 December 2005, 09:00 CST

Development of therapeutic, prevention vaccines in progress: HIV co-discoverer

ABUJA, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Robert Gallo, the co-discoverer of HIV, said on Thursday that the development of an effective therapeutic and prevention vaccines for HIV/AIDS is in progress.

Gallo, founder and director of the Institute of Human Virology, told a news conference at the ongoing International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Abuja that a vaccine to cure the AIDS was yet to be discovered 21 years after the discovery of the virus.

"The sciences' greatest hope is to put an end to the AIDS pandemic," he said.

Gallo said that efforts to develop vaccines had resulted in a lot of competition among drugs manufacturers, with the US government committing enormous resources to it.

Gallo debunked a report in Britain that a man had been cured of HIV/AIDS, saying that this needed to be scientifically proved.

"To do this you have to wait until the person dies and get the virus out of him to examine them," he said.

Gallo said although his institute had not achieved a breakthrough in the cure for HIV/AIDS, a lot had been done over the years to save lives.

"I hope you are not making light of the advances we have made between not having a therapy and now that the virus can be treated, " he said.

Gallo was accompanied by the chairman of the Institute, Catherine Kennedy, niece of late former US president John F. Kennedy and some other professors.

Gallo, who met with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Wednesday, is expected to visit "Gallo House," a virology facility in the central Nigeria city of Jos that is named in his honor on Saturday.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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