Ebola Vaccine vs HIV Vaccine

[CanadianToAmerica]

Hey guys, Maybe someone with a better understanding of the high end science can help explain this one to me.

I'm in Canada and lately all the time in the news we hear about how Canada is developing a vaccine for this virus.  I have also heard that the United States of America is working on a vaccine as well using the same or different methods.

How can we have a vaccine for this so quickly and yet 30+ years we're still just making marginal upgrades to antiviral therapy (Atripila to Complera to Stribild to Triumeq).

Shouldn't the researchers be trying these new methodologies just to see what happens.  Maybe we'll get some timothy brown type results or something.

Something just seems weird about the whole thing.

[Markmt]

Hey guys, Maybe someone with a better understanding of the high end science can help explain this one to me.

I'm in Canada and lately all the time in the news we hear about how Canada is developing a vaccine for this virus.  I have also heard that the United States of America is working on a vaccine as well using the same or different methods.

How can we have a vaccine for this so quickly and yet 30+ years we're still just making marginal upgrades to antiviral therapy (Atripila to Complera to Stribild to Triumeq).

Shouldn't the researchers be trying these new methodologies just to see what happens.  Maybe we'll get some timothy brown type results or something.

Something just seems weird about the whole thing.

Hello CanadianToAmerica. I very much share the same sentiment, especially the speed by which these Vaccines are tested and approved visa vi to any HIV Vaccine who we constantly hear, that any new breakthrough or further studies, would take AT LEAST 10 years before being approved, and that is if we are lucky enough and all goes well on human beings.

I am no expert but have been around long enough to anticipate what your answers are going to be, that HIV is a very smart virus, it mutates, it hides, it deceives the scientific community time and time again and has been out smarting scientists for the last 30 years and we should be grateful for the Mega expensive chemical cocktails we have to take religiously for our whole lives to stay alive     

[absopozilutely]

Mark is correct the biggest reason why I'd assume, is because HIV has the ability to mutate, hide, etc. Ebola stays the same, and doesn't have reservoirs. Keep faith, one day the technology and the right scientist will find the right solution.

[Dan0]

There are quite a few less controls on testing and development in Africa than in Ohio or Tennessee. What can be fast-tracked oversees by the same Pharmacuticals is painfully slow in the US.

[leatherman]

What can be fast-tracked oversees by the same Pharmacuticals is painfully slow in the US.

FDA clinical trials have already been sped up thanks to HIV activists way back in the 80s. So something to consider is exactly how "fast" do you want your meds approved? Personally, I'll give the scientists some time. I'd hate to take a med for a chronic disease to find out in 3 yrs that the med was more harmful than the disease or wouldn't work any longer. Thankfully scientists have developed some really good meds in the meantime and waiting around today for a cure is certainly dramatically different than waiting around in 1990 for a cure.

"Ebola is 7-gene (RNA) ‘infectious particle (filovirus),’ so streamlined it isn’t
even a cell, isn’t even alive, can reduce a human body to a puddle, inner barriers
dissolving into nothingness, within days. How does Ebola virus, so much simpler
than influenza, simpler than HIV retrovirus, do it?”- Ricki Lewis, Ph.D., Genetics Science Writer

Ebola is not a retrovirus and should be easier to cure or vaccinate against. Besides very few viruses have been cured so far in mankind's history. Not having a vaccine or cure for HIV is not all that surprising when one takes a historical look at the treatment of diseases. We've only eradicated smallpox and rinderpest, while we can successfully vaccinate/treat a few other things like tetanus, polio, and rabies. Then when you consider the complicating issues of HIV resistance/mutation and latent, hidden reservoirs of virus, well, then you see how amazing it is that they have developed the meds we have that work so well today.

I would also dispute that they have had 30+ years. The first medication that showed any positive effect against HIV was AZT. HIV was determined to be the retrovirus around 1983-85. Tests with AZT began in 1985 and in 1987 (there's some fast-tracking for ya! LOL) was approved for human use. It's been 27 yrs since this first "cancer" med was re-purposed to be an anti-HIV med. Ebola has been known since 1976 or so, nearly 10 yrs longer than HIV, with no vaccine or cure developed yet.

Shouldn't the researchers be trying these new methodologies just to see what happens.

maybe you should read some more in this forum (ie Research). There actually ARE a lot of interesting methods/treatments that scientists are working on and there's a lot of information out there about this research. Just because it isn't front page news doesn't mean researchers aren't trying and inventing new methodologies. There's nothing weird at all about what's going on. What's going on is simply how science works - it takes time, resources, and a lot of very smart people.

[jivemiguel1]

Wow! There's so much knowledge about Ebola now. How does anybody know, if it isn't hiding, like HIV? After all this shit about Ebola, "Who can trust what the CDC says" or the federal government says. I'm coming up on thirty years, with HIV, I trust no one.

[Jeff G]

Wow! There's so much knowledge about Ebola now. How does anybody know, if it isn't hiding, like HIV? After all this shit about Ebola, "Who can trust what the CDC says" or the federal government says. I'm coming up on thirty years, with HIV, I trust no one.

The cdc has been very accurate and concise about Ebola .

[Almost2late]

How can we have a vaccine for this so quickly and yet 30+ years we're still just making marginal upgrades to antiviral therapy (Atripila to Complera to Stribild to Triumeq).

Sorry, but I don't see these these meds as just "marginal upgrades"... Tivicay/truvada are magic pills ... I get more negative effects from a vitamin.

[zach]

ebola has been around a long time, only new in the media