Thursday, September 24, 2009

A Vaccine That Can Cut The Risk Of Getting HIV Has Been Developed!


A medical breakthrough has been achieved in Thailand! Researchers have created a vaccine that cuts the risk of getting HIV by 32%.Scientists hope to improve on the results of this "historic milestone".We are getting one step closer to developing an HIV vaccine that could help stop the spread of AIDS.

Here's more from the Telegraph:

"The combination of two vaccines that has previously failed to produce a response on their own has cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 per cent.

It is the first time in human trials that a vaccine has protected against the virus which leads to Aids.

The trial was conducted in 16,000 volunteers in Thailand, with half receiving the combination of the two vaccines and the other half receiving dummy jabs.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned the development was "not the end of the road," but said he was surprised and very pleased by the outcome.

"It gives me cautious optimism about the possibility of improving this result" and developing a more effective Aids vaccine, he said. "This is something that we can do."

The trial was carried out by the U.S. Military HIV Research Program and the Thai Ministry of Public Health.

Seth Berkley, chief executive and president of The International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) said: “The outcome is very exciting news and a significant scientific achievement.

“It’s the first demonstration that a candidate Aids vaccine provides benefit in humans. Until now, we’ve had evidence of feasibility for an AIDS vaccine in animal models. Now, we’ve got a vaccine candidate that appears to show a protective effect in humans, albeit partially.”

The challenge will now to be improve the efficiacy of the vaccines to a level which clear protection so it can be licensed for widespread use.

Deborah Jack, Chief Executive of the National Aids Trust, said: "These vaccine trial results are very good news - ultimately vaccines are the most effective way by far of tackling serious infectious disease. And with over two million new HIV infections a year this option is desperately needed.

"Obviously there is much more work to do with these promising findings, but they justify the continuing investments and efforts of the international community, including the UK Government, to develop a vaccine."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

1 comment:

Alex Bronson said...

the possibility that there has been a huge breakthrough in finding an AIDS vaccination is great... though the way they went about testing this cure seems a sketchy