Is it time to give up the search for a vaccine for one of the world's most devastating pandemics, Britain's Independent newspaper asks after it recently polled a group of leading AIDS scientists.

"A mood of deep pessimism has spread among the international community of AIDS scientists," the paper writes, adding that most of the researchers it interviewed believe a vaccine against HIV is further away than ever.

Some are now even questioning whether immunisation against the virus will ever be possible, after it was found last year that prototypes which appear to work well when tested on monkeys, do not in fact work when tested on human volunteers at risk of HIV, the paper writes.

There have been 25 years of setbacks in the struggle to find a vaccine for the virus, which infected 2.5 million people in 2007, the paper says. Two thirds of the scientists it spoke to believe a vaccine won't be developed in the next ten years, while some said it may take more than 20 years. A "substantial minority" admitted a vaccine to protect people from contracting the virus may never be developed, according to the paper.

Writing for the same paper, Steve Connor says that though the vaccine is as far away as ever, massive advances in our understanding of the elusive virus mustn't be underestimated.

"The time to give up on an HIV vaccine has not yet come, and perhaps it never will, given that prevention based on education does not appear to have stopped the spread of the virus," he writes. He says scientists must redouble their efforts to eradicate the disease even though there are no guarantees about how long it will take.

The Washington Post says that it's important to put these setbacks into perspective.

"What might look like a devastating failure to the public could be a steppingstone to advanced medications and an eventual cure," an editorial in the paper says.

It adds that the failure of human vaccine trials is common, and it took nearly 50 years for vaccines against measles and polio to be developed. "While we share the impatience of those who want a cure, that solution will require better science."

But for some, too much money has already been spent chasing a vaccine that might never be developed.

"It is simply unconscionable for the U.S. government to continue such wasteful funding while millions worldwide die for want of access to the AIDS research breakthrough that occurred more than 10 years ago - life-saving antiretroviral treatment," Michael Weinstein, head of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a medical care and advocacy organisation, writes in the LA Times.

Weinstein concludes that: "To continue to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a government-funded search for an AIDS vaccine in the vain hope of success someday while millions worldwide suffer and die is simply unacceptable when other currently available strategies offer practical - and effective - alternatives."

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