An HIV/AIDS vaccine likely will not be available in the short term, Jean-Francois Delfraissy, director of France's National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis, said on Tuesday in Dakar, Senegal, Xinhuanet reports. According to Xinhuanet, Delfraissy, who is "one of the pioneers of the fight against AIDS in France," said that the "development of a preventive or therapeutic vaccine against HIV has still a long way to go and is certainly one of the most difficult challenges facing the world's scientific community today."

Delfraissy said that although more than 80 Phase I and Phase II vaccine trials have been conducted "without much success being recorded," research "must continue to develop new therapeutic strategies." He added that the trials should be conducted "in accordance with good clinical practices, dialogue and partnership with the civil society and the pharmaceutical industry." According to Delfraissy, researchers "must continue to move forward in [their] search for a better understanding of immune mechanisms, improve available vaccine candidates, assess their tolerance and immunogenicity using clinical trials" (Xinhuanet, 5/28).

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