[AIDS vaccines: promises and reality].

Aids particularly affects people in developing countries, for whom the current forms of effective anti-retroviral therapy are both inaccessible and unaffordable. Just like smallpox in the past, the global aids epidemic can only be halted with a vaccine. It is estimated that the first generation aids vaccines will become available in about 10 to 15 years time. There is a sizeable chance that these vaccines will provide a certain degree of protection against aids and the spread of HIV. Yet in the short term, there is little chance of a vaccine which protects against infection from the HIV virus. The most important reason for this is that it has yet to be discovered how a vaccine can elicit antibodies which neutralise primary HIV isolates. The majority, if not all, first generation aids vaccines are expected to protect against aids on the basis of virus-specific T-cell immunity. The Netherlands has a key role in the aids vaccine programmes of the European Union (Eurovac) and is making important contributions to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.