HIV/Aids trial offer vaccine hope

bbc.com breaking news

An experimental HIV vaccine has cut the risk of infection by a third in a major trial, researchers say.

The vaccine - a combination of two earlier experimental vaccines - was given to 16,000 people in a joint trial by the Thai government and US military.

It reduced by 31% the volunteers' risk of contracting HIV, the virus that leads to Aids.

The researchers said the results give fresh hope that a safe and effective vaccine may yet be possible.

This is certainly good news. I wonder though, how do they test infection rates when dealing with fatal diseases like HIV? I see the article on the BBC web site, and it states that the vaccine was "given to 16,000 people in a joint trial by the Thai government and US military." Perhaps the volunteers were all from high-risk sectors of the population where the HIV infection rate (prior to the introduction of the new vaccine) is pretty consistent.

I read a similar article in the last month or so which stated that a significant breakthrough had been made in the effort to produce a vaccine for HIV. I wonder if this is a related study.

Let's hope they can get it right, it would obviously save millions of lives. Any ideas if there were any side effects - like lack of sex drive etc...

Maybe that is the primary effect, and the key to how it works!

This is good news and i hope that the researchers are onto a major breakthrough.

I have some questions though:

Why is the US Millitary involved in major scientific research? and what role do they play?

what regions ("The study was carried out over seven years on volunteers - HIV-negative men and women aged between 18 and 30 - in some of Thailand's most badly-affected regions.") were the studys conducted?

Has this vaccine been tested on animals?

Why is the US Millitary involved in major scientific research? and what role do they play?

what regions ("The study was carried out over seven years on volunteers - HIV-negative men and women aged between 18 and 30 - in some of Thailand's most badly-affected regions.") were the studys conducted?

The Nation at http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/09/24...al_30112983.php has some more information -

"The results were part of the HIV Vaccine Trial Phase III on 16,402 Thai volunteers in Chonburi and Rayong provinces. Half of the volunteers were given the RV 144 vaccine in 2006, and the other half received placebos. Of those who got placebos, 74 became infected, while only 51 of those who got the vaccines did.

As for the US Military involvement - perhaps the level of HIV in Thailand has consequences for all the military personnel coming here for R&R?

U.S. military? I reckon this is more about hearts and minds PR plus the obvious humanitarian benefit to the entire world if this can be solved. The US and Thailand have had excellent relations for many decades, this is obviously good works. There is also some sensitivity on which populations will be tested. High risk people Thailand are an excellent choice. On the other hand it is understandable that some Thai ultra nationalists might be uncomfortable about their people being used a guinea pigs. Such tests do have political implications. I think it is completely ridiculous to suggest this is some kind of limited selfish thing to protect GIs on R&R. Utterly. Success in this area would have a GLOBAL impact.

Edited September 24, 200916 yr by Jingthing