HIV/AIDS- Vaccine

[LaaMok]

Results from vaccine trial 'promising'

 

APIRADEE TREERUTKUARKUL

 

RAYONG : The final phase of an Aids vaccine trial in Thailand which is due to be completed next year has showed promising results as the latest results revealed that the number of volunteers who contracted the virus was lower than expected, experts say.

 

Of the total of 16,402 volunteers recruited for the clinical trial, 7,000 had completed the monitoring period so far. Follow-up tests found the number of volunteers who had contracted HIV/Aids while participating in the programme was lower than the expected 150-200, said chief researcher Supachai Rerks-ngarm.

 

The clinical trial was launched in October 2003.

 

Most of the volunteers contracted the virus through unprotected sex. But the low infection rate among the volunteers could not give a complete indication of how effective the vaccine was in Aids prevention.

 

''It is still too early to say for the time being if the vaccine is effective. However, it is likely the results of the clinical trial will be ready in July 2009,'' he said.

 

Assistant chief researcher Nakorn Premsri said the programme would be responsible for providing funds for medication for those volunteers who had contracted the virus during their participation in the trial.

 

Funded by pharmaceutical firms and health advocacy groups in the United States along with the Public Health Ministry, the project faced a stumbling block initially due to a shortage of volunteers. It took a long time before all the planned 16,000 volunteers were recruited.

 

All volunteers aged 20 to 30 live in the two eastern provinces of Rayong and Chon Buri where the rate of infection among labourers is high.

 

Half of them have been getting injections of two combination vaccines _ the canary pox vaccine Alvac and a synthesised combination of the B and E sub-types of the Aids virus AidsVax, with the rest getting placebo injections over a one-year period.

 

Each volunteer would be monitored for at least another three and a half years.

 

The clinical trial in Thailand was the first time the two vaccines were combined as experts believed that the combination was an effective alternative to HIV/Aids control.

 

Previously, research projects in Africa had used only one vaccine at a time and the results were unsatisfactory.

 

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/15May2008_news07.php

[cjtrader]

Good to know they are still working on it. Nevertheless, it won't be a real vaccine until the number of positives is ZERO!

[SneakySnake]

hmm,

 

so let's get this straight, they are putting these volunteers into test results, the volunteers are obviously supposed to have unprotected sex, and they give half of them placebo's, and then they're going to check how many people contracted HIV that were given placebo's vs how many contracted whilst getting actual vaccine....

 

sucks to be one of the 8000 whose getting placebo!

[culvers]

i would suggest that the rate of infection is lower amongst these volunteers because the subject of aids is on their mind i.e they are therefore more likely to use protection because they have taken part in the trial.

[Manggaawn]

My step father once said "There will never be a cure for HIV/Aids or Cancer." I in all righteous indignation for the Human Race said of course there will, why would people want others to suffer. (I was 11) He simply replied, "There is no money to be made in a cure, but billions to be made on medicine to combat the disease. His response took me years to understand, and sadly accept. I'm still hoping he will be wrong.

[M_T]

By that reasoning they would never invent any vaccines. Thats silly. There is tons of money to be made in a vaccine. Just imagine how many people there are in the world, new ones being born every day, and it would take decades or longer to eliminate.

[Manggaawn]

By that reasoning they would never invent any vaccines. Thats silly. There is tons of money to be made in a vaccine. Just imagine how many people there are in the world, new ones being born every day, and it would take decades or longer to eliminate.

 

 

A vaccine is not a cure dude. Like you said their is tons of money to be made off vaccines. A cure... would totally eradicate a disease.

[M_T]

A vaccine is not a cure dude. Like you said their is tons of money to be made off vaccines. A cure... would totally eradicate a disease.

 

Did I say or imply it was a cure? The polio vaccine eliminated polio, it did not cure it.

 

Smallpox. etc.

 

Lots of money to be made in a vaccine, and a vaccine CAN eradicate the disease.

 

There wont be a cure for aids, just as there is no cure for pretty much any virus, at least with conventional medicine. Maybe nanotech will change this paradigm, but until then, a vaccine is our best hope.

[Manggaawn]

Immunization from a disease does not kill the virus that is my point. I would rather the thing were dead than have it possibly evolve as all living things do and find its way back into the public view as some scientist fear could happen with smallpox. DNA extraction and manipulation for biological warfare or terrorist attacks are also a concern. A vaccine is well and good, but in the end I would feel safer if it was wiped out of existence.

 

I agree with you mate, just in a different way. Nano's would be cool to see in action and see if its feesable, but that is decades and decades away. Like you say for now, a vaccine is our only hope.

[M_T]

yep. We will see. I just fundamentally disagree with those that say there is no money in a vaccine. There is a shit-ton.

 

The HIV virus is just difficult to nail down due to its high mutation rate. They are trying various approaches and we will probably figure something out eventually, but its just silly to suggest the drug companies are holding back because they are making so much on the cocktails. They arent.

 

Now viagra on the other hand, they make hand over fist there.

 

The cancer argument is even more insidious, because it presupposes that all cancers are somehow equivalent. What we call cancer is actually dozens of different diseases with different causes, cell types, etc. No one treatment could work for all of them, and great progress has been made in all kinds of cancers.

[Manggaawn]

Its funny you mention viagra... My sister works for Pfizer. Maybe she colors my outlook on drug companies. She owns three homes, and makes more money than I will ever see in this life.

[M_T]

Its funny you mention viagra... My sister works for Pfizer. Maybe she colors my outlook on drug companies. She owns three homes, and makes more money than I will ever see in this life.

 

 

Viagra has easily been one of the most profitable drugs of all time. Mostly because of people who dont really need it popping it like candy.

 

I wish I could get some of that boner-pill money. Hot commodity.

[Barrie2819]

M T you are correct , vaccine is a way forward ( too many strains of the virus to knock it out, just like the flu) . Lets just say most people can live ( with the right medicine) say around 20 years before getting full blown aids .

 

If you getting on a bit would Aids worry you? ( sure it is a bad way to go ) but not as worrying as some forms of cancer. they can be a real battle and you maybe " shuffled off from this from this mortal coil" by the end of the month.

[Bastos60]

M T you are correct , vaccine is a way forward ( too many strains of the virus to knock it out, just like the flu) . Lets just say most people can live ( with the right medicine) say around 20 years before getting full blown aids .

 

If you getting on a bit would Aids worry you? ( sure it is a bad way to go ) but not as worrying as some forms of cancer. they can be a real battle and you maybe " shuffled off from this from this mortal coil" by the end of the month.

 

As long as they financial means are available to buy the cocktails needed to suppress the virus then they might live even up till they die of natural causes.

 

But the point is, it will be impossible to eradicate the virus, even with a vaccine that could temporarely block the virus from infecting your bloodcells you will still be vunerable to mutated variants of the virus. Same thing like with the Hep virusses.

You still are recommended to get vaccinated for it and it just doesn't disappear from the face of the world.

[cary888]

good news to hear

[Pheromone]

I don't know if you heard of the Eddie Murphy "Delirious" Prophecy, but the next thing is when you put your dick in a girl and it just EXPLODES!

[boostshakalaka]

this is amazing news