Vaccine that cuts the risk of infection with HIV – revolutionary scientific discovery

US and Thai researchers have managed to produce a vaccine that can cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by 31%. It is a combination of two previously unsuccessful vaccines, and it was tested in the world's largest [HIV] vaccine trial of more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand. It has been welcomed as a significant scientific breakthrough, but it will take much more time for the vaccine that can be globally used to be discovered.

The vaccine was discovered within the scope of a seven-year study that is carried out by the US Army and the Thai Government on healthy volunteers, HIV-negative men and women aged from 18 to 30. The trials are carried out in the regions of Thailand that have the nation's highest rates of HIV.

The vaccine represents a combination of two older drugs that had not reduced infection on their own. These vaccines are: ALVAC, produced by pharmaceutical company "Sanofi Aventis", and AIDSVAX, produced by company "Vaxgen".

During the tests involving experimental vaccination, half of the volunteers were given the actual vaccines, while the other half were given placebos. They were also given advice on safe sex. They then got regular tests for the AIDS virus every six months for three years. Of those who got placebos, 74 became infected, while only 51 of those who got the vaccines did.

Dr Richard Horton, the editor of medical magazine "Lanset", said that accepting that result as encouraging news was extremely tempting:

- This result is tantalisingly encouraging. The numbers are small and the difference may have been due to chance, but this finding is the first positive news in the AIDS vaccine field for a decade. We should be cautious, but hopeful. The discovery needs urgent replication and investigation – says Dr. Horton.

Dr. Mila Paunić, epidemiologist and the Head of the AIDS Prevention Center in Students’ Clinic in Belgrade, agrees with Dr. Horton:

- The difference between those infected and those who are not should be bigger. In spite of all the desire for making efficient vaccine, I can not see enough evidence that this vaccine is that effective – Dr. Paunić explains.

Dr. Anthony Fauci of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says that this is the first time that a vaccine against HIV virus, which is in the phase of testing, shows certain ability to reduce the risk of infection with this virus among vaccinated individuals.

- In order for us to understand in which way this vaccine cuts the number of people infected with HIV virus, additional researches are necessary, but this is an encouraging progress in the search for the vaccine against AIDS – says Dr. Fauci.

These results have also been greeted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN AIDS Programme. According to people from these organizations, current results can be “characterized as modest protective effect, but they give us a new hope in the search for the vaccine against HIV virus ".

Number of infected and deceased people

The AIDS virus infects an estimated 33 million people globally. There are 2,200 registered people infected with HIV virus in Serbia since 1985, 1,398 of whom have AIDS, while 923 have died. According to the data provided by the Republic Public Health Institute, 87 HIV-positive people were registered last year, 13 of whom have died. Number of deceased people and people ill with AIDS in our country stagnates thanks to the introduced prophylactic and treatment measures.

(Note: complete text is taken over from newspaper Blic of September 25, 2009)