This Doctor Invented The HIV Blood Test. Now He Has A Vaccine That May Beat The Virus

This Doctor Invented The HIV Blood Test. Now He Has A Vaccine That May Beat The Virus

The new vaccine has been 15 years in the making.
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 13 hours ago

Ryan Grenoble News Editor, The Huffington Post



 
In 1984, Dr. Robert Gallo co-discovered HIV as the cause of AIDS, then went on to pioneer the blood test that detects the virus.
Now, 31 years later, his team at the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Institute of Human Virology is beginning human trials this month on a potentially revolutionary HIV vaccine.
While many other vaccines target specific strains of HIV, the treatment that the institute has developed takes a different approach. It attempts to block the virus before it can invade the body's T-cells (a central component of the body's immune system) and mutate, at which point it becomes invisible to the body's immune system and much harder to treat. Should it prove successful, this vaccine would offer protection against a large class of viruses collectively known as "HIV-1."
 Gail Burton/Associated PressDr. Robert Gallo may have found a vaccine that can beat HIV.