Abbott says researchers in the Democratic Republic of Congo have made findings that could lead to HIV vaccine - MarketWatch

said Tuesday a team of scientists has found an unusually high number of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with controlled HIV and said they could be a key to advancing therapies, or even developing a vaccine.

Researchers from Abbott, working with Johns Hopkins University, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the Université Protestante au Congo found the prevalence of HIV elite controllers was 2.7% to 4.3% in the DRC, compared with 0.1% to 2.0% worldwide.

"The finding of a large group of HIV elite controllers in the DRC is significant considering that HIV is a life-long, chronic condition that typically progresses over time," said Tom Quinn, M.D., director of Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, and chief of the International HIV/AIDS Research Section of the NIAID.