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Live-Virus Vaccine Blocks AIDS In Monkeys

Posted by timothy on from the still-a-long-way-to-go dept.

joestump98 writes: "Using a weakened form of a virus commonly found in livestock and engineered to carry AIDS virus protiens, researchers have successfully protected monkeys from the deadly disease. They say it holds great promise for humans. The lead researcher says he hopes to have FDA approval within a year(!) and wishes they could start working with the drug in areas devastated by AIDS right away."

4 of 14 comments (clear)

  1. Re:but then .. by matrix0040 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yes the effect may not be the same, but that's what the human testing is aimed at finding out. This has been the case with many vaccines in the past. Just because it has different reaction on humans and animals doesn't really mean that it won't be effective in humans.
    But that's a question only human testing can answer.

  2. hmph. by hamburger+lady · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The lead researcher says he hopes to have FDA approval within a year(!)and wishes they could start working with the drug in areas devastated by AIDS right away.

    well, the areas most affected by AIDS are in sub-saharan africa. so why be so concerned with the FDA?

    just saying.

    --

    ---
    Is this the MPAA? Is this the RIAA? Is this the DMCA? I thought it was the USA!
    1. Re:hmph. by david614 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think that there are guidelines when US-based researchers take the results of biological research overseas for "field tests."

      Lest we get an international repeat of the "Tuskeegee Experiment."

      Email me if you don't know what that was.

      --
      ELITISM: It's always lonely at the top. Uninvited company is rarely welcome.
  3. Re:how do u test it ? by diaphanous · · Score: 2

    To study the effectiveness of an HIV/AIDS vaccine in humans, researchers recruit HIV-free volunteers and give half the vaccine and half a placebo and test them all for HIV at regular intervals. If a statistically significant number of those given the vaccine instead of a placebo are free of HIV at the end of the study then you can conclude that the vaccine is effective at reducing your chances of contracting HIV.

    It would be unethical to lead people to believe that they are now immune to HIV (at least half of them, the placebo group, are not) and so encourage risky behavior, so all volenteers are taught about safe sex and given condoms.