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HIV vaccine

#1
Magical Realist Online
"After years of research, a promising HIV/AIDS vaccine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine is moving into the critical human testing stage.

The school's Institute of Human Virology, headed by Dr. Robert Gallo, who helped discover the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS and who developed the HIV blood test, announced the next big step in the research Thursday.

Scientists at the institute began work on the AIDS vaccine nearly two decades ago and have seen major breakthroughs on tests using animals, but, like much of the work on AIDS vaccines around the country, it has been a long process.

"The results in monkeys are interesting, but they're not perfect," Gallo said at an event at the institute's Baltimore headquarters to announce the human trial. "If we keep just using monkeys, we're never going anywhere. We need for humans to respond."

The institute's vaccine is just one of about 30 such drugs in some stage of human trials, according to AVAC, an advocacy group devoted to HIV prevention efforts. Since the first HIV vaccine trial opened in 1987, researchers have studied more than 50 candidates in more than 100 clinical trials funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

A study conducted in 2009 in Thailand is the only one ever to show some promise, protecting about a third of patients against infection — not enough to support general use.

Even if it proves safe and effective, approval of the institute's vaccine by the Food and Drug Administration remains years away and would require several more rounds of increasingly complex human trials.

The initial phase the institute is entering this month is designed to make sure the drug is safe for patients and will take about a year. Later phases would test whether the vaccine performs as intended and include more patients than earlier stages. They also would take longer to help ensure there is enough data to support an FDA license.

For now, in what the FDA calls a Phase I trial, the institute will enroll 60 people; initially, 20 will get the drug...."===================http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-hs...story.html
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#2
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(Nov 18, 2015 01:53 AM)Magical Realist Wrote: A study conducted in 2009 in Thailand is the only one ever to show some promise, protecting about a third of patients against infection — not enough to support general use.


Yeah, obviously not even an inefficient one was available to Charlie Sheen. Not that this or a better one released to the public would have prompted him to get vaccinated anyway; doubtless he's enjoying his enhanced depiction as a roving menace.

"Charlie Sheen might owe some women an explanation in light of his recent HIV bombshell, but Jenny McCarthy isn't one of them. [...] Charlie was infected long after he left 'Two and a Half Men' and long after he worked with Jenny," the actor's rep told People magazine on Wednesday.
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