In Spain, more than 3,000 new cases of HIV are diagnosed each year, and more than 1.5 million worldwide. Every year, about 690,000 people die from virus-related diseases, and others have a chance to survive only if they live in developed countries.
Against this background, several Spanish hospitals are unable to find volunteers to participate in clinical trials of the AIDS vaccine.
Forty years after the first officially reported case of AIDS in Los Angeles, there is still no HIV vaccine, but a global study is finalized and is expected to be available in a few months.
Spain is participating in it and for this purpose must recruit 250 volunteers who will be part of the 3,800 tested citizens of eight countries. Homosexual men between the ages of 18 and 60 are invited to take part in a study conducted in various hospitals in Madrid, Barcelona, Cordoba and Valencia.
“Mosaic” is the name of a study that can end in approval
“The problem is that everyone who shows up thinks they’re infected with the HIV virus, and it’s hard to convince them that it won’t happen,” said Vicente Estrada of the San Carlos Hospital in Madrid.
“Mosaic” is the name of a study that could end with the approval of the world’s first AIDS vaccine. It was developed by Johnson & Johnson and consisted of four doses over 12 months.
More than 37 million people are currently infected worldwide, and more than 33 million have already died. In Spain, according to the Ministry of Health, between 140,000 and 170,000 people live with the virus, of which almost one in five is undiagnosed.