AIDS Vaccine Is Partially Successful

ifchairscouldtalk writes "A Phase III 'RV 144' study in Thailand succeeded in reducing HIV infection rate in trial with 31.2% effectiveness. The study was conducted by the Thailand Ministry of Public Health and used strains of HIV common in Thailand. It is not clear whether the vaccine, which combines AIDSVAX with Aventis Pasteur ALVAC-HIV canarypox vector, known as 'vCP1521,' would work against other strains in the United States, Africa or elsewhere. Strangely, the vaccine had no effect on levels of HIV in the blood of those who did become infected, providing 'one of the most important and intriguing findings' of the trial, according to Dr Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is one of the trial's sponsors."

Re:HIV Vaccine

[TheRaven64]

You seem to be reading a different article to the one posted on Slashdot. The one linked in the summary states that it is an HIV vaccine but it didn't affect the amount of HIV in the blood of those who were infected compared to the placebo. Those who were not infected had no HIV in their blood. This is interesting, because normally a vaccine that is partially effective like this will mean that the people who are infected will have less of the virus in their blood than people who are not vaccinated, but still enough to be infected. This one has an entirely binary success rate; it either makes no difference at all in a particular person, or it makes them immune to the relevant strains of HIV. This implies that there is some other factor at play, possibly something in the genetic makeup of the people who were not infected, which could lead to a universally effective vaccine being developed.

Re:HIV Vaccine

[catmandi]

I went and had a look at the aforementioned article. I stand by what I said. The vaccine may not create HIV antibodies, but it still prevents the virus from progressing (maybe). You can't have a vaccine against a syndrome, since by its definition, a syndrome is: "In medicine and psychology, the term syndrome refers to the association of several clinically recognizable features, signs (observed by a physician), symptoms (reported by the patient), phenomena or characteristics that often occur together, so that the presence of one feature alerts the physician to the presence of the others. In recent decades the term has been used outside of medicine to refer to a combination of phenomena seen in association." (wikipedia, of course). You immunize against a virus (however that may work) leading to a symptomatic disease, you TREAT the disease itself.

Re:No hurry

[rivetgeek]

As a middle class white male non IV-drug user, statistically speaking, you are far more likely to hit a hole in one in golf than to catch HIV in the United States. Its something like .04% per incident with a known carrier if you're male and having vaginal sex.

Re:Statistics [Re:Lulz]

[sonnejw0]

Yes, there is a statistical significance between the groups in the study, but not among the population of Thailand. Of the 64,000,000 people in the population of Thailand, 1.5% have HIV.
This study used 16,000 volunteers within the population. Only 125 got HIV? That's less than half the rate within the population. I think we need to know more about the subjects in the study to know more about the value of these results. I had no idea there was a 50% placebo effect in HIV treatment!

What I find most interesting is that the HIV viral load was identical between the two groups. You would think that a vaccine would not just prevent HIV, but lower the amount of the virus in the blood. All in all, I find it a confusing study and one worth a good "hmmm" but nothing more until we get follow-up studies or more information about the subjects and groupings.

Once you've had AIDS

[MillionthMonkey]

The existing battery of drugs is enough to put HIV into remission. Your immune system will remain healthy and the virus particles will essentially disappear. But it's somewhere inside you; if you stop taking those drugs, it eventually comes back although you may have to wait.

HIV has long been known to hide somewhere in the body after drugs have eliminated the actual virus particles. They found where recently; it integrates its sequence into the DNA of T-cells, and the promoter at the start of the viral sequence is capped by a repressor protein. Once it comes off its DNA binding site, viral proteins start getting transcribed again.

They actually developed a drug that can kick it off there and make your AIDS come back again.

20/20: HIV super-spreader among 50s women

[peter303]

Last Friday's 20/20 was about a some middle-age guy who bedded middle-age women almost every day and infected at least a dozen of them (proven in court by DNA analysis). He must of have had a very effective virus or technique, because infection usually doesnt happen in just a few times. He got 45 years for knowing recklessness. But this was less than two years of his exploits. There is suggestion it was going on for over 12 years and there are many other victims.

The point is that some demographics think they are "safe" because they arent connected with risky types, i.e. gays, druggies, promiscuous youth. But sex is something people lie the most about, and you can never be sure.

P.S. The show & court trial did examine the issue of whether there could be "victims" if there was consensual relations. That wasnt fully resolved in my mind.

Re:Inspiring....

[samkass]

Your comment is the exact opposite of true. This vaccine offered a 30% less chance of acquiring HIV, but once acquired offered no protection against AIDS. It's the first vaccine trial ever to show efficacy against HIV infection, but had no effect on HIV levels in the blood in the infected. All participants started HIV-negative.

I think you need to re-read the article.

Re:Thumbs up

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're going to quote stats, get it right.

  The #1 growing AIDS population is BLACK and HISPANIC woman in their 20's. No, I'm not a racist, but these are the facts you carefully omitted.

Re:Lulz

[shaitand]

'Or are you claiming that once people believe they have the vaccine, that they will have more unprotected sex and thus increase their risk of contracting HIV?'

Of course they would. Perhaps you enjoy having sex with a piece of rubber but some of us prefer actual contact. Eliminating STD's and circumcision are two of the greatest causes known to man.