NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The National Institutes of Health is giving an LSU doctor about $9 million over five years for work toward a vaccine against a major cause of pneumonia in people who have HIV.
Dr. Judd Shellito of LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans — says pneumocystitis is the most common severe secondary infection for HIV patients.
The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute awarded the grant earlier in October.
The pneumocystitis fungus is unaffected by current antifungal drugs.
Shellito says a vaccine would lower the cost of treating HIV and improve the lives of people with HIV.
The fungus also can cause lung infections in people whose immune function is suppressed because of cancer, steroids or other medicines that weaken the immune system, or organ or bone marrow transplants.