The University of Rochester Medical Center will continue to play a leading role in the nation’s effort fighting AIDS, with more than $20 million to be directed to Rochester doctors and researchers who are working on new treatments for the disease and on finding a vaccine to prevent it altogether, Federal officials announced today.
The funding comes from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which has selected the University as one of 60 U.S. and international institutions to be funded for the next seven years as HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials Units.
At the University, the program brings under one umbrella two lines of research that have been underway for about 20 years: the search for a new vaccine, and the testing of new treatments. University researchers are international leaders in both areas, thanks largely to the participation of more than 3,000 Rochester-area residents who have taken part in treatment and vaccine studies. The University is the only institution in the nation to be part of both efforts since their inception by the Federal government.
Treatment options for people infected with the HIV virus have increased dramatically since AIDS was first recognized as a disease 26 years ago. Nearly every one of the more than 20 drugs now available to treat AIDS has been tested in Rochester, which is the site of one of the original 11AIDS treatments units established by the National Institutes of Health in 1986. Currently more than 900 patients with HIV are cared for by doctors at the University’s AIDS clinic at Strong Memorial Hospital.
“The development of a number of effective treatment options for patients with HIV really has been quite spectacular, and there are several new medication on the horizon,” said Richard Reichman, M.D., professor of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology, and chief of the Infectious Diseases Division, who heads the University’s AIDS research and treatment efforts. “I’ve had patients walk in, literally at death’s door, who receive treatment and go on to live relatively normal lives for many years.”
Today, many AIDS patients are able to take one pill a day, a huge difference from a time when patients had to juggle more than 30 pills a day.
But the disease continues to take a dramatic toll, with more than 25 million people worldwide who have died from AIDS, and a lifetime of medications and side effects for other patients. That’s why much of the new research is aimed at finding and testing a vaccine to prevent the disease. So far, dozens of potential vaccines have been tested in people, and a few have been tested in large studies, but no vaccine has yet been successful at preventing the disease.
“It’s absolutely critical to develop a vaccine to effectively control this epidemic,” said Reichman. “The number of people who are becoming infected continues to increase dramatically. Many people are under the mistaken impression that the problem has been solved. That’s just not true.”