Health: HIV

Lord Collins of Highbury Excerpts

Monday 17th November 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

My noble friend is probably aware that we are a major donor to the Global Fund, which works internationally in middle and low-income countries. She is right that our bilateral programmes focus on the poorest countries, but through our enormous contribution to the Global Fund—we are the second largest international donor in this area—we are supporting those with HIV in middle-income countries.

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

My Lords, I am aware that the Minister recently visited the IAVI lab in London. What consideration has her department given to the role of a vaccine in controlling the HIV/AIDS epidemic?

[Baroness Northover]

Like the noble Lord opposite, I had an extremely instructive visit to the IAVI lab at Imperial College. He will have noted, as I did, the challenge of trying to find a vaccine for HIV because of the difficulty with the way the virus mutates. This is in contrast, for example, with seeking to find a vaccine for Ebola. We continue to emphasise the need for research in this area, but it is immensely challenging.