A world first: Vaccine helps prevent HIV infection

Darkspirith · Sep 24, 2009

Experts are calling it a major breakthrough in the fight against AIDS. Scientists are reporting that an experimental vaccine offers "modest" protection from HIV infection.

A study testing a new vaccine on more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand found that the shot cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 per cent.

While that's hardly perfect protection, it's a watershed, because until now, work on HIV vaccines have all ended in failure.

What seems to have allowed this vaccine to work is that it combined two older vaccines. It used Sanofi-Pasteur's ALVAC canary pox vaccine, along with the failed HIV vaccine AIDSVAX, made by a San Francisco company called VaxGen and now owned by the nonprofit Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases.

The first vaccine aims to prime the immune system to attack HIV, by using a bird virus to carry synthetic versions of three HIV genes into the body. The second vaccine then strengthened the immune response by introducing a genetically engineered version of a protein on HIV's surface.

The vaccines were not made from the real HIV virus -- dead or alive -- and could not cause HIV.

Half the volunteers were given six immunizations over six months, four with ALVAC and two with AIDSVAX. The other half were given placebo injections.

All the volunteers, who were men and women aged 18 to 30 at average risk of becoming infected, were given condoms and counseling and were tested every six months for HIV. Anybody who became infected was given free treatment with antiviral medicines.

Three years after the vaccinations ended, there were 51 new infections among the 8,197 given the vaccine, while there were 74 infections among the 8,198 who received dummy shots. That worked out to a 31 per cent lower risk of infection for the vaccine group.

The combo had been widely expected to have no effect, so the results surprised and delighted the researchers, who said they still don't understand why the combination worked.

The study was sponsored by the U.S. army and conducted by the Thai Ministry of Public Health. Officials from the two countries told a news conference in Bangkok Thursday that the study's findings are "a very important step for developing an AIDS vaccine."

"It's the first time in the world that we have found a vaccine that can prevent HIV infection," said Thai health minister Withaya Kaewparadai.

Dr. Anthony Fauci of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which helped fund the study, admitted he was one of those who didn't think the vaccine would work.

"Myself, like others, did not think there was a very high chance that this would give any degree of efficacy," he said. "But nonetheless, we went ahead with the trial and it was controversial to go ahead with it."

Fauci said there was still more work to be done, but these initial findings give him cautious hope that they can develop a more effective AIDS vaccine.

But the researchers caution that the application of the vaccine may be limited. That's because there are many strains of HIV now in circulation around the world.

This study used strains of HIV common in Thailand, so whether it will work against other strains in the U.S., Africa or elsewhere in the world is unknown.

As well, the researchers were surprised by a finding among the people who got the vaccine and who became infected anyway. They had hoped that the vaccine would at least help keep infected people from developing full-blown AIDS.

But they found the infected and vaccinated group had just as much virus in their blood and just as much damage to their immune systems as HIV patients who went unvaccinated. That meant the vaccine did nothing to affect the virus once it is in the body.

Two United Nations agencies, the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nationals Programme on HIV/AIDS, said the findings gave "new hope" in battling the disease.

"The study results, representing a significant scientific advance, are the first demonstration that a vaccine can prevent HIV infection in a general adult population and are of great importance."

There is still much more study ahead. Even if the vaccine's effectiveness can be improved, it would still be years before a vaccine could be deemed safe enough to get regulatory approval and to enter the market.

Every day, 7,500 people worldwide are newly infected with HIV. Two million people died of AIDS in 2007, the U.N. agency UNAIDS estimates.
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Source: http://news.sympatico.ctv.ca/abc/ho...ewsitemid=CTVNews/20090924/vaccine_HIV_090924

Revenge-ful · Sep 24, 2009

Orgy mode

teh_NickSauce · Sep 24, 2009

This is so much win

Greggy · Sep 24, 2009

Or we could just not have sex with monkeys anymore

(But seriously, this is great news)

Carpe Diem · Sep 24, 2009

Not really new news... In fact, I've seen this several times in the past.

It's nice to see people making these break-through discoveries. Future generations are saved from one of the most deadly and sinister viruses to ever plague this planet.Though the vaccine will benefit a great amount of people in the future, we need to evaluate the situation right now. There's still yet to be a cure.

As for the source, it doesn't seem too reliable.

If you take a closer look, they misspell a few words and the original source has been deleted.

Example:

per cent
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?

Darkspirith · Sep 24, 2009

Carpe Diem said: ↑

As for the source, it doesn't seem too reliable.

If you take a closer look, they misspell a few words and the original source has been deleted.

Example: ?
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PLEASE, get off the damn computer and go watch the god damn news. Kids like you piss me off.

Macroman · Sep 24, 2009

I guess that's awesome, and allot of peoples lives will be saved, especially in africa.

DrDeath · Sep 24, 2009

Macroman said: ↑

I guess that's awesome, and allot of peoples lives will be saved, especially in africa.
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I wonder who will have to pay for all the vaccines for those africans...

FreedomFight · Sep 24, 2009

120 out of 16000 people - sample could be a source of error...

The Riddler_ · Sep 24, 2009

DrDeath said: ↑

I wonder who will have to pay for all the vaccines for those africans...
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Should someone have to pay for them?

I saw this on the news. They said it's better than nothing, but still not significant.

wtp · Sep 24, 2009

So the volunteers had sex to test it. Wonder if they were hot..

Cody · Sep 25, 2009

Wow... so they had a crap loud of volenteers have sex with HIV infected people? thats fucked up

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