MIRACLE MILE

FDA Approves HIV Vaccination For Human Trials. Is It Too Early To Be Hopeful?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration just gave permission to researchers at the University of Western Ontario to begin human trials for an experimental HIV vaccine in early 2012. During the trial, researchers will inoculate 40 relatively healthy HIV+ people with a genetically engineered, inert form of the HIV-1 virus. If the January trials prove safe, researchers will move onto Phase Two, where they’ll measure the immune responses in 600 high-risk (but HIV-) volunteers.

If all goes well there, Phase Three would involve vaccinating half of 6,000 HIV- volunteers and track their serostatus for three years.

If Phase Three goes as planned, then perhaps we’ll have a winner.

It’ll probably be at least 2015 before we know the effectiveness of this formula. But with 30 other versions currently in Phase One testing, a feasible HIV vaccine could very well be in the not-to-distant future.

Jump to 8 Comments

By: Daniel Villarreal
On: Dec 21, 2011
Tagged: HIV Research, HIV vaccine, University of Western Ontario

Email This

8 Comments

No. 1 · Wow
How would they find “high risk HIV-negative volunteers”? Do they give off a scent?

Dec 21, 2011 at 5:17 pm · @Reply ·
No. 2 · MikeE
@Wow: isn’t the porn industry full of them?

Dec 21, 2011 at 5:22 pm · @Reply ·
No. 3 · Jeff
Who wants to be a human guinea pig, have raw/bareback sex, and be infected with HIV and be told that the vaccine is a failure or that you got a placebo?

Dec 21, 2011 at 7:00 pm · @Reply ·
No. 4 · jj
@Jeff: They dont tell them its an hiv vaccine, they say something like its an experimental drug used to boost the immune system and they pay them a decent amount of money. Its not like they find hookers and barebackers and tell them they cant get aids anymore if they take the injection.

Dec 21, 2011 at 7:24 pm · @Reply ·
No. 5 · jj
@Wow: Intravenous drug users and men who have sex with more than 1 partner are considered high risk along with people working in the sex-trade industry.

Dec 21, 2011 at 7:26 pm · @Reply ·
No. 6 · B
No. 3 · Jeff wrote, “Who wants to be a human guinea pig, have raw/bareback sex, and be infected with HIV and be told that the vaccine is a failure or that you got a placebo?”

First, they go to considerable lengths to be as sure as possible that the vaccine is safe. Second, they typically provide some safe-sex education and make sure that the participants don’t trust the vaccine.

Regarding No. 4, they do tell them it is an experimental HIV vaccine. I know people who were in previous vaccine trials – they did it out of altruism and knew exactly what they were doing.

Dec 21, 2011 at 8:57 pm · @Reply ·
No. 7 · jason
HIV doesn’t cause AIDS. This proposed HIV vasccine is therefore a waste of time and money.

Dec 22, 2011 at 9:08 am · @Reply ·
No. 8 · Arek
@jason: Are you kidding me? The evidence is conclusive. Are you some kind of conspiracy nut? That’s a very dangerous opinion…

Dec 22, 2011 at 12:54 pm · @Reply ·