Several readers expressed surprise at the concept explored in last week’s column: that one germ might be useful in fighting another. While the typhus bacterium vs. HIV infection is a relatively crude mechanism, it is one of numerous uses that medical research soon may be making of normally pathogenic (“disease causing”) bacteria. Another possibility coming up: using salmonella bacteria to deliver preventive HIV vaccines.

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) is sponsoring tests on a new kind of preventive vaccine, in which salmonella bacteria (the common food-poisoning germ) have been genetically modified to be harmless and also modified to include portions of HIV’s DNA, which, it is hoped, will elicit an anti-HIV immune response. This may offer several advantages:

• It could be taken orally, and the salmonella would head straight for the gut, aiding in the development of “mucosal immunity” through the intestines to help prevent HIV infection via sexual transmission;

• The salmonella genome can be easily modified with different HIV strains, allowing “customized” vaccines for different parts of the world;

• It would be pretty cheap to produce, but even more important, very cheap to administer in regional vaccination programs, a critical consideration for poor developing countries.

Clinical trials through the Institute of Human Virology (IHV) may start next year in Baltimore and Uganda, comparing the oral salmonella product against an injected vaccine using the same HIV DNA. If successful, this could be a significant step forward, especially in saving third-world countries from HIV devastation.

For more information, go to www.IHV.org or www.IAVI.org.

-Sandy Bartlett, Community Information/Education Coordinator

AIDS Services of Austin

Struggling with grief following the HIV death of a loved one? A new support group is forming this fall. Please call Lois Van Laningham at 469-2119 or Beth Pomeroy at 232-3405 for starting date, time, and other information. The group is free and confidential.

This article appears in September 8 • 2000.

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