Why don’t we have a vaccine for all diseases? The first reason is embarrassing

Health

Although vaccines have saved millions of lives and eradicated terrible diseases, we still do not have a shield against all infections. Why? What obstacles stand in the way of an effective vaccine even against highly researched diseases such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis?

The reason there isn’t a vaccine for every disease. Photo: pexels.com

Many, following the complex events surrounding the approval of the first anti-Covid vaccines, must have wondered: how come we don’t have a vaccine for every dangerous infection?

Some life-threatening diseases, such as polio and smallpox, have been eradicated or nearly eradicated thanks to vaccines. Immunizing children against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, chicken pox, hepatitis A and B and other diseases has helped improve child survival.

In tropical countries it is now possible to vaccinate against yellow fever, cholera, forms of meningitis and encephalitis, typhus, dengue, rabies.

However, in 2020, after 40 years of non-stop research, we still do not have an effective HIV vaccine; and there are none in sight against Lyme disease, Zika, West Nile virus, hepatitis C, Nipah virus disease, and Lassa virus fever. There is still no vaccine against malaria, which kills 405,000 people each year.

Science mysteries and financial hurdles: Why don’t we have a vaccine for HIV, malaria or tuberculosis?

In an ideal world, investment in these life-saving tools would take precedence over many other public expenditures.

As an older New York Times article explains, there are essentially two main obstacles.

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The first, the most embarrassing, is related to the economy. It usually takes a decade and over a billion dollars in investment to arrive at an effective vaccine. In the search for a Covid vaccine, public and private investment around the world is flowing: the urgency to save lives and return to pre-pandemic life has led to an unprecedented collective effort. But it doesn’t always happen that way. Vaccine research for common diseases in developing countries can often rely only on the support of philanthropic organizations.

In rarer cases, the obstacle is scientific rather than economic—and when it is, the problem is harder to solve. Some viruses, such as HIV, influenza and hepatitis C, mutate so rapidly that the antibodies developed in response to them soon become “old”. HIV would not be necessary: ​​the virus that causes AIDS mutates in a day as quickly as the flu virus changes in a year.

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In general, when it is possible to fully recover from an illness and develop a natural immunity that lasts a lifetime, then a vaccine is possible. Malaria, HIV and tuberculosis escape this rule. Tuberculosis bacteria can survive inside white blood cells. Malaria can strike the same person more than once. HIV destroys the immune system and it is nonsense to think that you can develop a natural immunity against it.

Finally, coronaviruses have so far been a difficult target for researchers because they enter the body via the upper respiratory tract, which has a specific immune defense almost separate from the rest of the body. For the purposes of immunization, they can be compared to the skin, as they constitute a physical barrier against pathogens.

Although many diseases seem invincible, researchers continue to fight.

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