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UW researchers work on AIDS vaccine

MADISON (WKOW) -- Tuesday is World AIDS Day. It's the day we think about the people who have died from the disease, as well as the 33 million people living with HIV and AIDS.

The level of awareness and treatments concerning AIDS has changed dramatically since the early 1980's. The future holds more promise.

For Madison resident Tim Lapp, his daily routine includes 28 pills to control symptoms of AIDS and all treatment-related side-effects.

Lapp insists, it's a life worth living.

"I have to say when I speak to classes, some of the things have been very positive," he notes. "It's forced me to get my house in order. It's force me to look at things different."

Shortly after doctors diagnoses Lapp with the disease in the 1990's, they told him he only had two years left to live. It's obviously not the case. "I am probably the healthiest, I've been in the last 15 to 20 years."

The drug cocktails, however, are taking their toll. Recent side effects include high cholesterol and related heart catheterizations.

A University of Wisconsin lab, however, could help create a future where such pills are no longer needed.

In October, Dr. Jonah Sacha won an exploratory grant of $100,000 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a novel AIDS vaccine.

"It's one of the few things you do where you feel you can make a difference," Sacha said, noting that researchers on his team often work 60 to 90 hours a week at the UW-Madison AIDS Vaccine Research Laboratory.

The vaccine would target human cells infected with HIV by finding certain markers. In theory, it could then locate those cells and destroy them before the virus spreads.

First trials would start on primates. Sacha said the best hope for the vaccine to hit the market is in five years, though he's realistic.

"The first vaccine, the smallpox vaccine, took hundreds of years to develop," said Sacha, "and we shouldn't lose sign of that. I think it's really going to take a decade before we really have anything that's going to knock HIV down completely."

Lapp doesn't expect a cure in his lifetime. He also wonders if the current drugs are giving today's youth a false sense of security about AIDS. He notes that the highest rates of infection today are occurring in people between the age of 18 and 25.

"I think it goes back to the old one... 'That I'm young and nothing can hurt me, I can be reckless for a while,' " said Lapp. "Well, you can, but you're going to have this the rest of your life."

In Wisconsin, there are about 6,800 living with HIV and AIDS.

A different AIDS vaccine, not affiliated with UW, was tested in Thailand. Last September, scientists said it reduced HIV infections by 30-percent.

Online reporting by Carl Agnelly.

Follow Carl Agnelly on Twitter @agnelly_WKOW