Below is a statement from Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise executive director, Dr. Alan Bernstein.  The Enterprise (http://www.hivvaccineenterprise.org) is a global alliance of researchers, funders, policy makers and advocates that includes the African AIDS Vaccine Program, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), the AIDS Vaccine Asian Network, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative, the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology, the Chinese AIDS Vaccine Initiative, the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery (CAVD), the Department for International Development, the European Commission, Europrise, Eurovacc, GlaxoSmithKline, the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), Merck & Co. Inc., the National Agency for AIDS Research (ANRS), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Novartis Vaccines, sanofi pasteur, the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI), the U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP), UNAIDS, USAID, Vaccine Research Center (VRC), Wellcome Trust and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Dr. Bernstein is available to speak with journalists to help put the Thai trial results into perspective and to comment on their significance for the future of HIV vaccine research.  To interview Dr. Bernstein, please contact Mark Aurigemma at (212) 600-1960, (646) 270-9451 or mark@aucomm.net; or Jennifer Brunet at (212) 46i-3693 or jbrunet@vaccineenterprise.org.

“This is a historic day in the 26-year quest to develop an AIDS vaccine.  The results of the Thai Phase III HIV vaccine clinical trial of the “prime-boost” combination of ALVAC-HIV vaccine and AIDSVAC B/E vaccine demonstrate that a safe and effective AIDS vaccine is an achievable goal. This trial is the first demonstration in humans that, with more research, it will be possible to develop a vaccine that is fully protective against HIV.

These results represent the most significant advance in HIV vaccine research to date, and a ray of hope for the more than 2.7 million women, men and children who become newly infected with HIV every year across the globe.  Current prevention efforts can lower HIV risk, but a safe and effective vaccine will be essential to ending this epidemic.

We owe an enormous debt of thanks to the people of Thailand, and especially to the more than 16,000 women and men who selflessly participated in this clinical trial. This significant scientific milestone – the first vaccine study to reduce HIV infections in humans – would not have been reached without their engagement and the efforts of the trial sponsors – Enterprise stakeholders including the U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP), the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and sanofi pasteur – as well as the Thailand Ministry of Public Health and Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases (GSID).

The reduction in HIV infection risk measured in this study, 31.2 percent, was modest, but raises important implications for future research directions. HIV vaccine researchers, funders and advocates must now continue to work together, as quickly and effectively as possible, to understand why this vaccine regimen worked as it did, how its efficacy can be improved, whether and how it may work in other parts of the world, and how to develop new vaccine candidates that expand on the level of protection achieved here.

This study also demonstrates the importance of global cooperation and collaboration – the central values of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise – in accelerating the search for a safe and effective HIV vaccine.  Researchers, advocates, funders and policy makers are working together through the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise process to develop and test new vaccine candidates. Full data from the Thai trial will be presented at the Enterprise’s annual scientific conference, AIDS Vaccine 2009, in Paris on October 19-22. http://www.hivvaccineenterprise.org/conference/2009/

Finally, these results are an immediate call to action to governments, funders, policy makers, researchers and advocates to dramatically step up our efforts to develop and make globally available a safe and effective HIV vaccine. Stakeholders of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise will continue to lead this fight, but developing a safe and effective AIDS vaccine will require the full and collective efforts of every individual and organization worldwide committed to ending this devastating epidemic.

Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise partners will be working aggressively in the months ahead to address the many scientific questions raised by this study, and to develop and test other vaccine candidates.  The findings of this trial will also help inform strategies outlined in the updated Enterprise Scientific Strategic Plan, the global strategy for HIV vaccine research currently being developed by over 150 scientists from around the world, to be released in spring 2010.

We look forward to hosting the ongoing discussion of results of this trial and the discussion of next steps in the journey to find an AIDS vaccine at the AIDS Vaccine 2009 conference in Paris, October 19-22.

The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) staff will provide training on Post-Disaster Damage, Loss, and Needs Assessment Methodology to increase the Ugandan communities’ disaster preparedness and response capacities. Based on the UN Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) 2003 Handbook for Estimating the Socio-economic and Environmental Effects of Disasters (see Annex 1 for details), the training is part of a comprehensive package that enables national professionals to apply this knowledge in their day-to-day work, thereby institutionalizing disaster risk reduction and recovery in the country’s contingency planning and response mechanisms.

Objectives

The purpose of the training is to: “expose trainees to the conceptual framework as well as practical application of the methodological tool for damage and loss assessment”, thus enabling the country to establish a cadre of disaster management professionals.

Activities

The training covers sector-by-sector and macroeconomic analyses of the effects of the main types of disasters to ensure that all trainees become acquainted not only with the procedures for assessment in their individual sector of interest, but the linkages with other sectors and the view of the macroeconomic impact of disasters as well. The practical aspects of data collection, processing and analysis in the field are also discussed. Professionals drawn from all Government line Ministries and disaster departments, UN Agencies, NGOs, donor partners etc are expected to participate.

Outputs

The outcome of this training is that the participants, selected from all government ministries and agencies involved in post-disaster work, will be able to identify and quantify disaster damage and losses in all sectors of the economy, ensuring that these sectors receive attention in case of a disaster. The assessment tool can also be applied ex-ante to prepare contingency plans to minimize the negative impacts when disasters strike.
The above ensures that there now exists a core group of Ugandan professionals that can be called upon to participate and conduct an assessment of damage, losses and needs arising from disasters of every kind that may lead to the definition of post disaster recovery and reconstruction programs as well as to the ex ante analysis of different scenarios for defining disaster risk mitigation planning purposes. After the training, it would now be desirable to expose this group of professionals to an actual assessment of disaster impact to widen their exposure to this type of work.

The methodology developed by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC) is used to estimate the effects and impact of natural hazards. DALA was developed in the 1970s and since then has been strengthened, simplified and customized for application in different areas of the world.

DALA bases the assessment of disaster impacts on the overall economy of the affected country as well as on household level. This provides a basis for defining the needs for recovery and reconstruction following any disaster. DALA estimates:

• Damage as the replacement value of totally or partially destroyed physical assets that must be included in the reconstruction program;
• Losses in the flows of the economy that arise from the temporary absence of the damaged assets;

The resulting impact on post-disaster economic performance, with special reference to economic growth, the fiscal position and the balance of payments.