HIV Vaccine Modestly Successful

[bbrubaker]

http://www.genengnews.com/news/bnitem.aspx?name=63638555

 

"HIV vaccine regimen demonstrates modest preventive effect in Thailand clinical study.

 

In an encouraging development, an investigational vaccine regimen has been shown to be well-tolerated and to have a modest effect in preventing HIV infection in a clinical trial involving more than 16,000 adult participants in Thailand. Following a final analysis of the trial data, the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army, the trial sponsor, announced today that the prime-boost investigational vaccine regimen was safe and 31 percent effective in preventing HIV infection. (more)"

Edited September 24, 2009 by bbrubaker

[insane_alien]

eh there were only 74 that got HIV in the placebo group. kind of indicates a small sample size of those that were actually exposed.

 

51 with the vaccine contracted it.

 

i think the conclusion is premature. much more testing would be needed(although i appreciate that it is difficult to predict who will get HIV, perhaps they should focus only on those with extremely high risk of contracting it as the useful sample size would likely be much larger)

[CharonY]

Well, it does not necessarily mean that they have not been exposed, just that only relatively few contracted it. IIRC the frequency of transmittance per act was well below 1% (somewhere around 0.1-0.2). But yes, it is still early days, so to say. However, this vaccine had the highest success rate so far. One question is, of course. And of course there is the trouble with getting the right population for a clinical trial. Getting 16,000 high risk people to volunteer and get monitor for six years is quite a task (not to mention the costs).

Edited September 25, 2009 by CharonY

[CharonY]

Some update

Now some researchers who have seen more of the data in confidential briefings are complaining that a fuller analysis undermines even cautious claims of success, and they are raising questions about the way the results were announced.

 

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/10/unrevealed-anal.html

[bbrubaker]

So sad.