Developments in Brief : Youths May Be First in Line for AIDS Vaccine

A vaccine expert told an international conference on AIDS last week that if a vaccine for the fatal disease ever becomes available, it may be administered first to children.

Samuel Katz, a Duke University pediatrician, noted that most of the successful vaccines that have been developed for other diseases have been for children. “I disagree with my colleagues who are looking for vaccines in adults,” he said.

If an effective vaccine is developed, it may be given early in life, perhaps to third-graders before they are exposed to drugs or become sexually active, with a booster dose as they get older, Katz said. He spoke at a conference on acquired immune deficiency syndrome in children, adolescents and heterosexual adults.

Katz said the chance of developing a successful AIDS vaccine “is in a very fragile balance” with many obstacles to be overcome.

Of the 30,839 AIDS cases reported to the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, 448 victims were children and 129 were adolescents ages 13 to 19.