Experimental HIV vaccine shown to cut risk of infection

**debbystewart** · #1 09-28-2009, 08:14 PM

Some great news in the HIV/Aids research field!

An experimental HIV vaccine has for the first time cut the risk of infection, researchers say.

The vaccine - a combination of two earlier experimental vaccines - was given to 16,000 people in Thailand, in the largest ever such vaccine trial.

Researchers found that it reduced by nearly a third the risk of contracting HIV, the virus that leads to Aids.

It has been hailed as a significant, scientific breakthrough, but a global vaccine is still some way off.

The study was carried out by the US army and the Thai government over seven years on volunteers - all HIV-negative men and women aged between 18 and 30 - in parts of Thailand.

Eric G. John, US Ambassador to Thailand: "(It has) brought us one step closer to an HIV vaccine"

The vaccine was a combination of two older vaccines that on their own had not cut infection rates.

Read the full article at BBC NEWS | Health | HIV vaccine 'reduces infection'

**Rohan** · #2 10-20-2009, 07:29 AM

I found one Article about Trail Success Of AIDS Vaccine...

For the first time ever, a trial vaccine has successfully cut the risk of HIV infection by 31% in humans. In the largest human trial of an AIDS vaccine till date, involving more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand, scientists found that HIV infections were prevented in over a third of the 8,000 people who received the vaccine.

For the past 20 years, scientists have been testing experimental vaccines against HIV on human subjects. But all of them, including two large trials in 2007, failed. Not only did those candidate vaccines fail to stop infection but in some cases it actually helped the virus to infect.

However, this latest vaccine - a combination of two genetically engineered vaccines ALVAC-HIV and AIDSVAX B/E, neither of which had worked before in humans - is the first to have even partly succeeded in a human trial.

This has given hope that the global dream of an effective vaccine against HIV - the virus known to be a master in evading and fooling the human immune system - could end up being a reality in the near future.

This is how the Thai Phase III HIV vaccine clinical trial, also known as RV 144 took place - 16,402 non-infected volunteers (18-30 years old) at average risk of HIV infection were enrolled for the study.

Complete Post here:

**debbystewart** · #3 10-20-2009, 04:29 PM

A review of a trial of a HIV vaccine in Thailand has concluded that it does show real signs of a protective effect.

Scientists announced last month that a combination of vaccines gave a 31% level of protection in trials among 16,000 heterosexuals aged 18-30.

Doubts had been raised about whether the finding was significant.

But new data published at a conference in Paris indicates that, while small scale, the findings are robust and statistically significant.

However, the scientists say they do not understand what is causing the effect, and it seems to offer less protection to those most at risk.

Despite these drawbacks, Colonel Nelson Michael from the US military HIV research program it is still a small step in the right direction.

He said: "It's important that people understand that this is a scientific advance, a scientific breakthrough.

"It is not a public health breakthrough; there is not a vaccine that is around the corner.

Read more at BBC NEWS | Health | HIV vaccine trial was significant