VIEWS & REVIEWS

Vaccines are needed for sexually 1ransmitted bacterial diseases

Sexually transmitted bacterial diseases are showing increased resistance to antibacterials, they playa role in mv transmission, and they require expensive treatment which is unlikely to be widely available to people in developing nations or even to important segments of the US population. These factors all point to the importance of developing vaccines for such diseases, according to a presentation before the US National Academy of Sciences.

A group from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine reviewed the status of gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, and chancroid, and concluded that current therapies have achieved only mixed success worldwide.

They suggested a number of possible strategies such as a major outer membrane protein-based chlamydial vaccine, but noted that research is hampered by lack of adequate animal models for most of these infections. Despite such difficulties, they concluded that the development of vaccines 'is a very important goal'. Sparling PF, Elkins C, Wyrick PB, Cohen MS. et aI. Vaccines for bacterial sexually transmitted infections: a realistic goal? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United Stales of America 91: 2456-2463, 29 Mar 1994 IDOW222

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