A vacina da Aids, a quimera e a vaca gorda

Abstract

The history of disease control through vaccination is relatively recent, dating back to no more than 200 years. Empirical proposals in their beginning, vaccines got strengthened in late XIX century with the emergence of the Germ Theory, paradigm still dominant in health sciences. The recent developments of biotechnology surpass past difficulties and pose new ones, like the appetite of the large pharmaceutical corporations for profits. The populations in need cannot always be satisfied because of the trade relations involved in the fight for global markets. The controversial Aids vaccine does not escape from such perverse logic, aggravated by the arguments of basic biomedical sciences that cast doubt on its feasibility, and also by organized communities, that claim for a more ethical behavior from the industry.