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HIV Vaccine Approval For Human Trials
An anonymous reader writes with news that researchers from the University of Western Ontario have been given approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin testing an HIV vaccine in humans. From the article:
"The vaccine is the first based on a genetically modified killed whole virus, [researchers said.] ... a clinical trial on 40 HIV-positive volunteers will begin next month. That phase will last a year, after which 600 HIV-negative volunteers will see how the vaccine impacts their immune systems. A final phase, which will take about three years, will involve about 6,000 HIV-negative volunteers."
I hope this vaccine is as effective as the smallpox and polio vaccines have been. The world would do well to be rid of this particularly crafty and deadly virus. It is also a whole lot easier to introduce vaccination programs into third world countries (which counts as medicinal treatment) which would otherwise have severe religious problems with contraceptives like condoms (which counts as interfering with "God's work").
- Toast
You can even have another Toronto paper if you like.
Good to hear that this is going forward. Hopefully, this will lead to a brighter future for Africa.
I worry about the health of the participants, but, HIV isn't a death sentence anymore. I would volunteer for the trial, assuming that, in the worst case, they cover my medical expenses and anti-retrovirals to control it.
It would be worth it.
This isn't just positive news, its HIV positive.
Why does a Canadian University need approval from the U.S. FDA?
WALSTIB!
Could more people be saved overall by considering testing volunteers semi-expendable in order to hasten medical advance?
Ask the volunteers.
The best guess for transmission from simians to humans was not via sex, but by eating of undercooked monkey meat. (perhaps even raw). Near as I can tell, those perpetuating the sex with monkeys jokes are racists wanting to malign Africans with beastiality claims.
Learn to love Alaska
There's some progress on that, though still probably some years out from having something available.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
When "...common side effects may include: itching, rash, diarrhea, constipation, shortness of breath, nausea, inability to urinate, hair falling out, unusual hair growth, erections lasting longer than four hours, seizure, coma, or death..."
WHERE DO I SIGN UP?
Or they're just making dumb jokes and you have chosen to project wholly invented motivations onto people you know nothing about. One of the two.
delivers the goods.
Seeing aids go from you are going to die, to testing a vaccine in 25 years is freaknig awesome.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The test with HIV+ people is to check for side effects. They won't get any benefit from it, but they will experience all of the side effects that come with it (hopefully none, but the point of testing is to try to turn 'hopefully' into 'definitely'). The next round of testing (with the HIV- people) is to see if it actually works. These people are likely to be selected from demographics deemed to have a high risk of HIV infection, and if none of them become infected then it worked. If some of them, but a lower population than would be expected, become HIV+ then the vaccine is partially successful and may be used anyway if it has no side effects: reducing the probability of infection by 50% goes a long way towards eliminating the disease, because now there's a much higher chance that no one who is not immune will come into contact with a carrier.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
My guess, the second batch of volunteers will be those in marriages/committed relationships with HIV+ positive spouses (eg: married to a nurse who got pricked, a spouse who had a bad blood transfusion, victim of rape, etc, etc).
No, it's been more than 22.3 years. AIDS is finally funny.
Amputation reduces the spread of STDs even more. That doesn't mean we should encourage it.
"The ends never justify the means" is just a cliche excuse people use to escape having to make the hard decisions.
Anything that happens to you during a trial gets noted as a possible side-effect.
Note that diarrhea and constipation are noted right next to each other, for instance. Ditto for hair loss and increased hairiness.
It is highly likely most of those are completely unrelated to the vaccine, and that you’ll experience no such effects, but at this point, it’s really hard to tell. It pays to be cautious, or even paranoid, when conducting trials.
Ignore this signature. By order.
Attitudes like yours are the reason it took so long for us to get around to curing this disease in the first place.
Are you sure that it doesn't have more to do with the fact that it is incredibly difficult?
"Making the hard decisions" is just a cliche excuse people use to justify doing the unthinkable.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Imagine if 15 years later we discover every adult who receives the vaccine is fine. But every child has become sterile. Sucks to be the human race.
Imagine if 15 years later we discover every adult who receives the vaccine is fine. But every child has gained super-human intelligence. Awesome to be the human race.
I can play the "let's make shit up" game, too!
With the first link, the chain is forged.
IMO it pays the lawyers, who put everything but curing you as a bad side effect. "Hey we warned ya it would fall off, see, turn the page over."
You presume too much about me with your statements.
I know about the trials and tribulations of the communities when HIV was found out and pointed out as being "god's punishment" by those whom are uncaring and hateful.
But such hate and ignorance doesnt mean I cant joke about the hate or ignorance.
If anything, it points out our history... much like blackface, hooded cloaks, and hitler of which you see many jokes making fun of these topics.
Priapism is usually painful, and often ends with either someone drawing off the blood with a needle or necrosis of the penis. But, hey, if you're into that kind of thing, I'm not here to judge.
What are you going to do with it when you simultaneously have diarrhoea and constipation?
Try not to sneeze?
WHERE DO I SIGN UP?
When you walk into the ER, the sign up desk is usually the first thing you see in front of you.
/Well, if you've had an erection for 4 hours, maybe the second thing you see.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I've worked with an organization providing care to the homeless a few years ago, and while being HIV+ is not a short-term death sentence anymore, it is nowhere near as easy to treat as you make it. Most patients can expect to spend about 3 to 7 years using drugs with only moderate side-effects, but after that, most start needing to use some stronger drugs. These can have very serious side effects, including vomiting several times a day, constant headaches, extreme dizziness, lack of appetite so bad that they have to force themselves to eat every meal, sexual dysfunction, etc.
I'm not a medical professional but from what I understand there are also strains of HIV that need the "strong" treatment right away, and people can even get multiple strains (I saw a few of those). Even with the medication being free in Canada, where I live, I spoke with people in their late 30s who stopped taking the meds because they'd rather have a few more years of relatively good life than living with the drugs' side effects.
We've made a lot of progress, but HIV is still a death sentence, just longer term. And you'll feel miserable for the better part of your remaining life. Not something to take lightly.
Religion is the best example of mass psychosis
I'm a scientist in mind, if not in profession, but really... come on and put some effort into it.
I click the link.
I see the hyperbole in the first few paragraphs. Start to ignore the rhetoric and go for the linked "facts". Hit a site, linked to prominently under the heading "Informative Websites" (alongside other prominent links such as "Mind Control 101", "State Use of Schizophrenia", "Human Race Being Nonconsensually Brain-Linked", "US Army Intelligence Officer: Gang Stalking Phenomenon is Precursor to Coming Holocaust", etc.).
Whoop, whoop, amber alert, plough on.
Anyway, the link I click is centre-page, top of the fold, with the name "AIDS Controversy" (and they don't capitalise AIDS properly half the time) on the domain biblebelievers.org.au
Whoop, whoop, red alert, plough on anyway.
Read the first name on the list. Apparently a Nobel prize-winning biochemist is top of the list. Look him up on Wikipedia. Read the first two paragraphs about him which contain the following:
"Since winning the Nobel Prize, Mullis has been criticized in The New York Times for promoting ideas in areas in which he has no expertise. He has promoted AIDS denialism, climate change denial and his belief in astrology."
Right up until the last line I was prepared to give the guy a chance, at least, but I don't believe he's been misquoted at all based on the links there.
I tried to get further down the list but either the people listed were non-notable, outside their field of expertise (a mathematician... really?), misquoted, not discoverable via some quick searches or just plain loopy. There probably are a couple of sensible people in there but even being ASSOCIATED with those organisations, websites, etc. and not clearly stating their personal position somewhere I can find it is pretty damning evidence that they just don't care who quotes them or what they are associated with.
I terminated my investigation there. Please note that I've seen people claim man didn't walk on the Moon and their "evidence" got several stages further than this just by the presentation (but obviously fall down on facts later on).
If you want to quote random crap at me, at least make sure it's *feasible* random crap, not linked to complete timewasters, attention-seekers and tinfoil-hat-nutters. Any form of argument, whether religious, scientific or otherwise, needs to be able to stand alongside who it cites and quotes with pride, and to be taken seriously when doing so. Otherwise, we will just file it in the bit-bucket within literally SECONDS of checking facts.