What is a Recombinant Vaccine?
A recombinant vaccine is created by genetically altering the invading virus to modify and thus weaken it so that it will boost immunity without causing death and disease. In the case of HIV, the vaccine contains everything from a live HIV strain except the nef gene. Previously, other methods were used to make vaccines in which the micro-organisms were weakened by methods such as heat, radiation and chemicals. These methods are not useful in making a live anti-HIV vaccine because the virus is extremely fragile and dies when conventional weakening methods are used.
