HIV Vaccine Trial Shows 90% Immune Response

fergus07 writes "Researchers at the Spanish Superior Scientific Research Council (CSIC) have successfully completed Phase I human clinical trials of a HIV vaccine in which 90% of volunteers developed an immunological response against the virus. The MVA-B vaccine draws on the natural capabilities of the human immune system and 'has proven to be as powerful as any other vaccine currently being studied, or even more,' says Mariano Esteban, head researcher from CSIC's National Biotech Centre."

Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you

[BradleyUffner]

Healthy relationships would kill HIV 100%, not 90.

Meanwhile, back in reality....

Re:Great

[magsol]

Good luck with abstinence being "used widely".

Re:Great

[sulimma]

Abstinence will actually extinguish the whole human race from the face of the earth in only a few decades, if used widely.

Re:Great

[Riceballsan]

Abstinance alone, on a global scale in roughly one century can whipe out aids, cancer and every other disease from the human race, even solve world hunger and the economy.

Re:Getting an immune response will not help

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm certain that eminent molecular biologists who developed the vaccine in question are grateful to you for sharing your valuable insight with the world, because I'm sure that as an Anonymous Coward on Slashdot, you are so much more qualified and knowledgeable than they are about HIV's abilities and vulnerabilities.

Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you

[Dahamma]

And don't ever get sick enough to need a blood transfusion.

Oh, and don't ever work in the health industry or volunteer anywhere that you could accidentally come in contact with infected blood.

Are you trolling or just that naive?

Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you

[HateBreeder]

Because HIV infected individuals have a large glowing neon sign attached to their foreheads saying "I HAVE HIV!"

Re:Science 1000000001, god 0

[anagama]

Not just homophobic, crustaceaphobic as well [godhatesshrimp.com].

Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you

[ewieling]

Having only "safer sex", sex with only one partner, and abstinence goes against our nature. Our entire biology is geared to reproducing and spreading our genes as widely as possible. You will never get 100% of people to have protected sex 100% of the time. You will never get 100% of people in monogamous relationships to not cheat. The best we can do is get the largest percentage of people we can to do things which reduce their chances of contracting HIV. Rather than live in the fantasy world where nobody makes bad decisions, why not live the real world? I don't understand why the concept is so difficult.

Re:Science 1000000001, god 0

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow got your bigot on today dont you...

If you said they same thing about say blacks or Jews you would be voted down to troll so fast...

You are a despicable person. 100 years ago you would just be making jokes about races instead of the creeds of people.

If you can not see this and think I am full of it? Your words speak volumes. You're venue of choice to speak your opinion, also shows the cowardice of it.

You sir are a racist. Bet you dont think so either do you.

Re:Science 1000000001, god 0

[kevinNCSU]

Wow, you're giddy about fellow human beings dying because they have different culture and beliefs than you. Is this really the "enlightened" and "evolved" alternative to religion you wish to present?

Immunological response?

[Guppy]

HIV vaccine in which 90% of volunteers developed an immunological response against the virus.

This is an absolutely meaningless measure; seroconversion against HIV is easy to achieve, and typically worthless. The elicited antibodies end up being targeted to highly variable regions, and have little long-term neutralizing power.

Although a handful of unusual broadly neutralizing antibodies have been found among "elite controllers", it is extremely rare for typical individuals to generate them. There's been some speculation it might be possible to create an effective vaccine by directing the response away from decoy regions, and towards the handful of areas targeted by such elite antibodies. Thus far, nobody has managed such a feat, unfortunately.

I think people forget this

[Sycraft-fu]

Vaccines against viruses work because they train the immune system to attack the virus. They introduce something that gets it going. Can be a dead virus, can be a live but weakened virus, but whatever the case it trips off the immune system which produces a tailor made response. The immune system can then use that to kill any future invasions from that virus.

This is the same thing that happens when someone gets sick. However in that case, the live (in so far as a virus is alive) and fully active so it overwhelms the body for awhile until the body can formulate the response and fight back. All the vaccine does is make that process easier and safer.

The flip side of that is if it is the sort of thing the immune system fights off, but then it comes back, well a vaccine won't work, at least not a vaccine in the classical sense. If the immune system can't develop an effective repeating method to kill the virus, then a vaccine won't help.

Really this shit is not a big medical conspiracy, it is just how things work. What's more, the more things we cure, the harder the things are that remain. We fixed the things that were easy to fix long ago. We are getting to the hard shit now.

Re:Science 1000000001, god 0

[Anonymous Coward]

Or, how about it's a parody of supposedly loving Christians who take joy in the fact people died in tsunamis, and wished it on the people of Dover Pennsylvania; or loving Christians who has no second thought about sending death threats.

Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you

[drsmithy]

Hmmm, so tell me, how do I control with 100% certainty that my wife never strays and never gets infected?

Make sure her leash doesn't reach to the doorway and install a good security system, of course.