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HIV Vaccine Trial Shows 90% Immune Response

fergus07 writes "Researchers at the Spanish Superior Scientific Research Council (CSIC) have successfully completed Phase I human clinical trials of a HIV vaccine in which 90% of volunteers developed an immunological response against the virus. The MVA-B vaccine draws on the natural capabilities of the human immune system and 'has proven to be as powerful as any other vaccine currently being studied, or even more,' says Mariano Esteban, head researcher from CSIC's National Biotech Centre."

13 of 386 comments (clear)

  1. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by BradleyUffner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Healthy relationships would kill HIV 100%, not 90.

    Meanwhile, back in reality....

  2. Re:Great by AmazinglySmooth · · Score: 5, Funny

    Abstinence, combined with existing anti-retroviral therapies might actually extinguish HIV from the face of the earth in only a few decades, if used widely.

  3. Re:Great by sulimma · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Abstinence will actually extinguish the whole human race from the face of the earth in only a few decades, if used widely.

  4. Re:Great by medv4380 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'd be learly of this until Phase II and Phase III are completed. Developing an Immune response is different then having a successful vaccine. The antibodies have to be ones that will help in eradicating the infection, and since HIV mutates so rapidly there is no grantee that it will work long term in world wide eradication.

  5. awesome by rish87 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can finally go back to sharing needles. I gotta save money, what with the economy in the gutter.

  6. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by HateBreeder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Because HIV infected individuals have a large glowing neon sign attached to their foreheads saying "I HAVE HIV!"

    --
    Sigs are for the weak.
  7. Re:Science 1000000001, god 0 by anagama · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not just homophobic, crustaceaphobic as well.

    --
    What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
  8. Re:Great by somersault · · Score: 5, Funny

    It'll work fine if people teach it to their kids, grandkids, great grandkids and so on.

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    which is totally what she said
  9. Re:Science 1000000001, god 0 by kevinNCSU · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wow, you're giddy about fellow human beings dying because they have different culture and beliefs than you. Is this really the "enlightened" and "evolved" alternative to religion you wish to present?

  10. Immunological response? by Guppy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    HIV vaccine in which 90% of volunteers developed an immunological response against the virus.

    This is an absolutely meaningless measure; seroconversion against HIV is easy to achieve, and typically worthless. The elicited antibodies end up being targeted to highly variable regions, and have little long-term neutralizing power.

    Although a handful of unusual broadly neutralizing antibodies have been found among "elite controllers", it is extremely rare for typical individuals to generate them. There's been some speculation it might be possible to create an effective vaccine by directing the response away from decoy regions, and towards the handful of areas targeted by such elite antibodies. Thus far, nobody has managed such a feat, unfortunately.

  11. Re:10% by Jarik+C-Bol · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was curious about this, so i did some reading on other vaccine trials.
    turns out, they are not looking for you to not/get the disease, they are looking for you to develop successful antibodies. (which they can test by taking a blood sample, and infecting it and watching under a microscope).
    Additionally, 90% seems to be the benchmark for a useable vaccine. For example, the final tests for some of the Polio vaccines resulted in 90%ish of the test subjects developing antibodies. After that, its basically a war of attrition on the disease.
    If 90% of a population becomes immune, the chances of the disease spreading within it diminishes accordingly. Eventually, all live carriers die of old age or the disease, and no new carriers are produced, thus eliminating the disease from the population. Heck, even a 55 % successful vaccine could do this, it would just take longer.

    --
    I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
  12. Re:90% chance that prostitue won't kill you by jimbolauski · · Score: 5, Informative

    In the US there has been one known HIV transmission through blood transfusion in the last 8 years the chances of getting HIV from a blood transfusion are 1 in 1,500,000. 1 in 400 people who get stuck with a needle or cut with a sharp from a person with HIV contract the virus there have been 57 cases of health care workers getting HIV at work there are 12,000,000 health care workers. Getting HIV is not that easy mostly bad decisions have to be made to get HIV. The chances that you get HIV from a source besides sex and sharing needles is too small to consider 0.000002% you have a better chance of dieing from constipation.

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    Knowledge = Power
    P= W/t
    t=Money
    Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
  13. I think people forget this by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Vaccines against viruses work because they train the immune system to attack the virus. They introduce something that gets it going. Can be a dead virus, can be a live but weakened virus, but whatever the case it trips off the immune system which produces a tailor made response. The immune system can then use that to kill any future invasions from that virus.

    This is the same thing that happens when someone gets sick. However in that case, the live (in so far as a virus is alive) and fully active so it overwhelms the body for awhile until the body can formulate the response and fight back. All the vaccine does is make that process easier and safer.

    The flip side of that is if it is the sort of thing the immune system fights off, but then it comes back, well a vaccine won't work, at least not a vaccine in the classical sense. If the immune system can't develop an effective repeating method to kill the virus, then a vaccine won't help.

    Really this shit is not a big medical conspiracy, it is just how things work. What's more, the more things we cure, the harder the things are that remain. We fixed the things that were easy to fix long ago. We are getting to the hard shit now.