In what can only be considered a huge and long overdue breakthrough in HIV research, an experimental vaccine has been found to lower the incidence of HIV-infection.
The landmark vaccine is actually a combination of two previously unsuccessful vaccines. It cut the risk of HIV infection in 31 percent of those tested — the most successful result of any HIV vaccine tests so far. The study, which included 16,000 volunteers in Thailand, was sponsored by the U.S. Army and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and is the biggest HIV vaccine trial of its kind.
Of course, the drug is a long way from hitting the market, but researchers say it’s a ray of hope in what has been a long, dark road.
“It’s the first evidence that we could have a safe and effective preventive vaccine,” U.S. Army Col. Jerome Kim, who helped lead the study, told The Associated Press.
The study tested the drug ALVAC, made by French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis and AIDSVAX, developed by VaxGen Inc. Participants included HIV-negative Thai men and women between the ages of 18 and 30 who were at high risk of becoming infected with HIV. Only half received the double-drug combo, while the rest were given a placebo and all were observed for a total of three years. Those who contracted HIV were treated with antivirals. None of the participants were actually injected with HIV.
New infections occurred in 51 of the 8,197 given the vaccine and in 74 of the 8,198 who received placebo shots. That worked out to a 31 percent lower risk of infection for the vaccine group.
The study used strains of HIV found in Thailand, so results wouldn’t necessarily be the same on strains found elsewhere such as North America and Africa.
Details of the study will be given at a conference in Paris in October.
Photo of HIV virus courtesy of gfish3000 via Flickr.
