Moderna’s new vaccine is based on mRNA, the same technology used in the company’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Susan Jones works for the Epidemiology Section of Public Health and tracks Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Auto-Immune Deficiency Syndrome in Alaska. She says Moderna’s announcement is good news:
"It's really exciting to think that Maderna and their M-RNA vaccine could be something that will work," she said.
But Jones says it is only at the beginning of the process, and it may be years before the vaccine is tested and made available widely, if it proves to be safe.
In the meantime, service providers here say therapies have been getting better recently and more Alaskans are able to access care.
Jones says a key word in HIV treatment is “undetectable.” It means getting patients to such a low level virus in their bodies that they can’t spread it.
"When a person who does have the virus gets on a good medication treatment regimen and suppresses the virus to a level that's considered undetectable, that person is not likely to transmit HIV through sexual activity," she said.
Alaska takes advantage of the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which uses federal money allotted in the Ryan White Care Act of 1990. It has been able to bring patients together with expensive but effective drugs like anti-retro-virals.
Anna Nelson, the executive director of Interior AIDS association, says it is not revolutionary therapies on the horizon, but simple access that is flattening the epidemic.
“With Medicaid expansion and ADAP and a healthcare marketplace subsidies. I think that every one of our HIV positive clients has insurance of some sort. It is a much better landscape than it used to be,” she said.
Nelson says insurance has changed the dynamic of her agency.
There are 40 people in the HIV services program in Fairbanks.
While there are no HIV specialists in Fairbanks, a grant-funded early-intervention team comes to Fairbanks from Anchorage once a quarter to see people with HIV at Chief Andrew Isaac Health Center and Interior Community Health Center.
For sexual partners of people with HIV, and others who are at high risk of getting the disease, Alaska providers have Pre-exposure prophyliaxis drugs, also known as PREP.
Jones says both military clinics in the Interior offer PREP and it is becoming more available from standard providers.
You know, people should access that. Taking PREP to protect yourself from getting HIV is really important and so much easier than getting HIV.
The Interior AIDS Association’s larger program is actually to treat opioid addiction. It grew out of an HIV prevention strategy.
The Interior Medication Assisted Treatment (IMAT) program helps counteract opiate use and works to get folks to stop using intravenous drugs.
Nelson says there are a lot of tools available now for treatment and prevention. She likes the idea of a vaccine to prevent a lot of people from getting sick – when, and if it comes.
"You know, of course it would be fantastic to have this come true, and have it work, and be effective. And I won't hold my breath and I'll, you know, cross my fingers," she said.
In the meantime, Interior Alaska AIDS Association has several approaches to HIV treatment and prevention, and hands out home test kits where folks can test themselves. They are online at InteriorAIDS.org.
