New HIV Vaccine

New HIV Vaccine Shows Promise

A new and experimental vaccine has prevented HIV infections for the first time, which is a major breakthrough that has puzzled scientists for nearly quarter of a century.

The US funded study involving more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand has found that a combination of ALVAC, and AIDSVAX, has cut infections by just over 31 % in the people who received it compared with those on a placebo, scientists said today in Bangkok. Neither vaccine had stopped the virus, when they were tested separately in previous studies.

These amazing findings will have a hugely positive effect on further research, the findings don’t mean the vaccine can be used all over the world, there are many still unanswered questions about how the vaccine works exactly and the fact that it was designed using HIV strains that are specific to Thailand. It's still going to take years before such a vaccine can be used in America or Europe, but it is without doubt a major step forward.

This is the beginning of the effort,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. "It’s opened up the door for us to ask some very important fundamental scientific questions as well as some clinical questions.”

The search for a vaccine to prevent HIV has eluded scientists since the early 1980s. AIDS, the syndrome linked with HIV, infects about 6,800 new people globally every day. And yes, while there are treatments for HIV that limit the virus in the body, keeping AIDS at bay for years, there is still no cure.

The researchers enrolled volunteers in Thailand’s Chon Buri and Rayong provinces, which have the nation’s highest rates of HIV, according to the study Web site. The subjects were given four doses of the ALVAC vaccine and two of the AIDSVAX shot over six months, then monitored for three years. They were also given advice on safe sex. There were no serious side effects, the researchers claimed

Of those who received the vaccine, 51 became infected with HIV, compared with 74 who received a placebo, and those in the study who became infected with HIV during the trial were given free access to treatment.

“Although the results were modest, with an efficacy of 31.2%, this is a very important scientific advance, and gives us hope that a globally effective HIV vaccine may be possible in the future,” said Jerome Kim, a deputy director of science at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, which sponsored the trial. “It has already caused us to change some of our ideas,” he said.

There is a lot more work to do and research to be carried out, but, it's a vast leap in the right direction.

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