To Vaccinate, or not to vaccinate? That is not the question…in developing countries.

by Tom Moore

Jokes aside, many of us remember reading in the news about the breakout of measles at Disneyland in early 2015. I was working at a primary care clinic in Colorado at the time of the breakout and watching several of our patients rushing in with kids in arm, demanding vaccinations. ‘Why aren’t your kids vaccinated already?’ is all that I wanted to say. I knew the answer already though. Measles is not an imminent threat in the United States (unless you’re going to Disneyland apparently). Measles is a threat to many other parts of the world though. If people understand the dangers of these diseases then perhaps the general consensus would be for vaccinations. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you view it), the general population of the United States and many other developed countries, it’s citizens have the choice to vaccinate or not to vaccinate. However, that is not even a question for many people of developing countries. What is being done about this?

During his lecture, Dr. Chris Woods discussed the efforts being made to give the rest of the world access to vaccines for diseases such as measles and pneumococcal. There are many organizations public and private that are working toward the spread of vaccinations and eradication of disease. This includes research, development, and distribution of vaccines. What are some of these organizations you may ask? Meet GAVI The Vaccine Alliance.

Funded through the Gates foundation and the desire to bring vaccinations to the children of the world, an international immunization organisation was born. If you would like to know what GAVI is involved with or the efforts they have made, you can simply go to their website and they provide everything from the countries they are contributing, the progress reports for each year, and even the goals set for the following years to come.

Recently in March 2015, the CEO of GAVI, Dr. Seth Berkley, spoke at a TED conference and discussed the market realities of vaccinations. Research, development, and distribution of vaccinations are risky financial decisions for pharmaceutical companies and governments. There are even diseases that have limited vaccination research and trial because of undesired financial marketing. For more about Dr. Berkley's TED talk you can click on the link below:

http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_berkley_the_troubling_reason_why_vaccines_are_made_too_late_if_they_re_made_at_all 

Today we often hear the question in developed countries, “To vaccinate or not to vaccinate?” This is not a question that developing countries have the luxury of making, because many people do not have access to vaccines. Fortunately, there are organizations such as GAVI that are making it possible for people in the whole world to have access to vaccines. 

HIV - Not a Monster

by Shengjie Xu

Several months ago I received a phone call from a friend who expressed her panic about having had a dinner with a friend who MAY have a seropositive partner. She was considering stopping contacting her friend because of that. I was shocked.

30 years ago when HIV was first identified among homosexual men, because of ignorance people were scared. It was believed to be a punishment to gay people since it was mostly prevalent among the homosexual community. As we know now the method of transmission is through blood, blood-contaminated body fluids and mucosal contact as the virus can breach through the mucosal membranes. However even though we know about the science behind the nature of the virus, there’s still a big hurdle that prevents the society from accepting HIV seropositive people.

I spent hours try to comfort her, telling her that there’re many unknown factors that will lower the possibility of her being infected by dining with her friend. My arguing point is that physical contact and saliva are not the method where virus gets passed among people. I’m sure my friend knows about all the science, but when there’s a slight chance that she may get contact with “HIV” this word, she couldn’t pick up her mind to think rationally.

There are probably many people that still panic when hearing the word HIV even in a well-developed country. The social stigma and isolation of seropositive people remains a big problem of this battle. We have the resources to prevent and control viral spread, diagnose, and also treat patients for free. We know the science behind this sneaky virus. We know how to prevent and treat it. We even have research studies going on constantly to test for prophylaxis and vaccines. But why panic? The reason I used the title “not a monster” is because when we don’t know about a threatening creature, we call it “monster”. But when we start to know the nature of the unknown species, we start to face it calmly and start to call it “shark” or “lion” or “tiger”. HIV is like it: small amounts of people know the nature of HIV thoroughly and fight against it at the front line fearlessly. But the vast majority still sees HIV as a “monster” and even refuses to get contact with the warriors who risk their life helping the ones in need.

Educating the public should be an ongoing program of this campaign. The focus of the education part was on prevention. As the prevention part has done great jobs in reducing the incidence quite a lot in the past decades, maybe we should start bring our attentions to those underrepresented population who live with HIV in our society.

As Dr. Bartlett pointed out in his lecture about the antiretroviral study HPT 052, the use of antiretroviral therapy can reduce the sexual transmission of HIV-1 in serodiscordant couple by 96%. When the viral load of patient is minimally detectable, the risk of transmission is much reduced. This stunning number indicates that even as a HIV carrier, it is possible to live a normal life not passing the virus to their loved partner. There are also effective pre-exposure prophylaxis and post-exposure prophylaxis available for people who are at high risk of exposing to HIV. Science has also made it possible for HIV seropositive people to have healthy children. With the right treatment, living with HIV is not impossible. As we have good control and treatment methods, we may want to reconsider our unconscious discrimination against HIV+ population because of our ignorance.