Live-Virus Vaccine Blocks AIDS In Monkeys

joestump98 writes: "Using a weakened form of a virus commonly found in livestock and engineered to carry AIDS virus protiens, researchers have successfully protected monkeys from the deadly disease. They say it holds great promise for humans. The lead researcher says he hopes to have FDA approval within a year(!) and wishes they could start working with the drug in areas devastated by AIDS right away."

but then ..

[maxbayes]

killing a virus by a virus !!! interesting if all that VSV causes in humans is mild flu then it's no problem. but i'm not too good in biology .. but if this VSV can infect cows etc ( i don't know what it causes to them.. i presume something more that just mild flu ) so it's effect is different in animals from humans. so will the delivery system work in humans !

Re:but then ..

[matrix0040]

Yes the effect may not be the same, but that's what the human testing is aimed at finding out. This has been the case with many vaccines in the past. Just because it has different reaction on humans and animals doesn't really mean that it won't be effective in humans.
But that's a question only human testing can answer.

Why isn't this on the front page?

[Lemur catta]

I definitely consider this "stuff that matters."

Coz most nerds have never had sex before :).

[TheLink]

No sex = chance of getting AIDS approaches 0.

This is Slashdot after all - news for nerds :).

OK I mean sex with someone else. No virtual sex doesn't count either ;).

Seriously tho. If you don't have sex with more than one partner, don't share needles and don't get tainted blood transfusions then it is very very unlikely you will get AIDS.

That's why AIDS isn't really a big deal once you educate people. Then only the stubbornly stupid or extremely unfortunate die.

Don't get me wrong an AIDS vaccine is good, and I hope it's a great success. I'm just trying to counter the current media perspective of AIDS. Well I suppose their revenues will be affected if they stop promoting promiscuity, sex sells after all ;).

But there are so many other terrible diseases out there which kill millions more. Malaria for one.

And there's always cancer - do everything right and you still have a high chance of getting it eventually. I suppose you have to go one way or another, but still....

You know....

[bitva]

...Stuff like this really brightens up my day. I don't have AIDS, I don't know anybody who does have AIDS (although there are a few people who I wouldn't mind getting the disease and dying a slow painfull death), so this story really shouldn't affect me. Forget sex, just give me science doing positive things and I'll be happy!!!

hmph.

[hamburger lady]

The lead researcher says he hopes to have FDA approval within a year(!)and wishes they could start working with the drug in areas devastated by AIDS right away.

well, the areas most affected by AIDS are in sub-saharan africa. so why be so concerned with the FDA?

just saying.

Re:hmph.

[david614]

I think that there are guidelines when US-based researchers take the results of biological research overseas for "field tests."

Lest we get an international repeat of the "Tuskeegee Experiment."

Email me if you don't know what that was.

Re:Wow

[flewp]

If I discovered this, I'd ask that all people making 10,000 dollars (american) or more pay me 10 bucks for the vaccine. Below 10,000, and you get it free, every 10,000 more you make, you pay me an extra 10 bucks. Then I'll take Bill Gates and put him in a room full of horny AIDs-ridden monkies and charge him half of his current worth to get the vaccine. (I suppose he'd need a cure at that point, not a vaccine, but you get my drift)
Then I would proceed to take over the world, oooh yeah.

how do u test it ?

[matrix0040]

how do they conduct human trials. the article says that it is a vaccine. so it prevents u from getting aids ... it was fine with monkeys .. you could give them the vaccine and then inject them with HIV to see if they develop aids, but clearly you cannot do this on humans.

Am i missing something here, I am no biology/med expert but was just wondering about this. Or is it that you test it on someone who's in early stages of aids .. i dunno if they tested that on monkeys .. anyone has more info on this

Re:how do u test it ?

[diaphanous]

To study the effectiveness of an HIV/AIDS vaccine in humans, researchers recruit HIV-free volunteers and give half the vaccine and half a placebo and test them all for HIV at regular intervals. If a statistically significant number of those given the vaccine instead of a placebo are free of HIV at the end of the study then you can conclude that the vaccine is effective at reducing your chances of contracting HIV.

It would be unethical to lead people to believe that they are now immune to HIV (at least half of them, the placebo group, are not) and so encourage risky behavior, so all volenteers are taught about safe sex and given condoms.