Developing A Hiv Vaccine A Public Health Priority

Winnie Yeung SPH 381 Writing Assignment: Letter to the Editor Response to Opinions and Scientific Errors in Dr. Not A. Scientist’s Developing a HIV Vaccine: a public health priority Every year, there are more and more people living with HIV. While the number of new cases has decreased, the overall prevalence has increased. In 2014, 36.9 million people were living with HIV. However, in 2001 the number was lower, at 29.8 million [1]. These numbers have caused me to agree with Dr. Not A Scientist need to invest more funds toward developing a HIV vaccine. Although I agree with Dr. Not A Scientist’s position in the Op-ed, there were many scientific errors found that should be addressed. Developing a vaccine for other viruses is different than†¦show more content†¦Rotaviruses belong to the family of Reoviradae and replicates in the cytoplasm with RNA polymerase instead of in the nucleus like HIV [4]. Developments of vaccines depend on the how viruses replicate, so it is important to differentiate types of viruses and how they replicate. Due to how HIV replicates with reverse transcriptase, many errors result during replication of the genome. The diversity of the HIV genome can cause difficulties when developing a HIV vaccine. Dr. Not A Scientist indicated problems resulting from the body’s inability to develop antibodies during natural HIV infection. This inability would also mean that an HIV vaccine wouldn’t be able to produce HIV-specific antibodies. However, Dr. Not A Scientist is incorrect because HIV-specific antibodies develop within approximately 1 week of infection. Still one problem arises from the high mutation rate: the ability of antibodies to bind to HIV antigens. Antibodies are antigen specific and fit like a lock and key. When the HIV genome makes errors during replication on mutates, surface proteins can change causing HIV-specific antibodies to no longer be able to bind [5]. HIV infects cells from the immune system by binding to CD4 receptors on the host cells’ surface. CD4 positive cells release cytokines to activate the production of antibodies and cytotoxic T cells [1]. After CD4 cells enter the host cell, HIV-infected and non-infected cells can die in a number of ways [6]. If CD4 cells die, then the