After exploring how cholesterol, super monkeys, and glowing cats all figure into the battle against HIV, researchers in Spain may have found a potential HIV vaccine that would make HIV comparable to modern-day herpes.
It’s too early to start rolling up our sleeves for an injection just yet—only 22 out of 24 test subjects developed an HIV-immune response after being given the MVA-B vaccine and only 19 of those 22 still showed an immune response one year after treatment. But head researcher Professor Mariano Esteban at the National Biotech Centre in Madrid says that he plans to take the vaccine into Phase II and III of clinical trials with the next step being to testing the vaccine’s therapeutic effect in HIV-positive people.
Could we see an HIV vaccine developed within the next five years? It’s still too early to tell, but we can hope.
Image via Prefeitura de Olinda
Little Kiwi
i’ll light a candle in hope and i’ll donate some coin, too.
TMikel
I will light candles, pray, donate and stay informed about this! I have lived with HIV since 1984 and any new development is welcome and hopeful!
christopher di spirito
Hey, it’s a start. Interesting the findings come from Spain and not the USA.
Cam
Interesting, not to discount the subject matter of this post and switch to politics. But it’s interesting that one of the arguments against healthcare is that supposedly a European style healthcare system won’t give companies any incentive to develop new drugs or treatment.
So fascinating that this possible huge move forward is coming from Spain and not here.
Mark
I hope and pray we get a vaccine but that’s if gov’t doesn’t destroy it.
asd
@Mark: No gov is going to destroy it since the research comes from public spanish hospitals with money from the very own government. Stop being freaking paranoid.
Brien
19/24 is much better than we’ve accomplished yet! That’s pretty exciting.
B
No. 5 · Mark wrote, “I hope and pray we get a vaccine but that’s if gov’t doesn’t destroy it.”
If you actually think the government would consider destroying it, then you should be very much in favor of universal health care: they aren’t going to destroy a vaccine that will save them a lot of money by reducing the need for expensive medical care.
Dave
I hope that we get a vaccination for HIV.
Mitch
@Little Kiwi: Oh whatever you sanctimonious prick.
steve
An 85% immune response a year on is better than 0%
Start selling it on mass I say!
GayGOP
I’ll be praying for it to work. If I had money, I’d donate that as well.
Bob
I don’t get it. How could a vaccine cure someone already infected with HIV. Vaccines only work for profilactic. I think some more information would be necessary in this article before we start to praise the lord for getting rid of HIV. Altough I’d be the happiest to do so.
Little Kiwi
excellent point, B.
a country with universal healthcare has a vested interest in keeping its citizens healthy. a country that profits from healthcare has a vested interest in keeping its citizens in NEED of healthcare.
werk.
DB
“make HIV comparable to modern-day herpes” – Herpes is not preventable by a vaccine. Also, just because the potential vaccine creates “an immune response” for some recipients does not mean that the immune response is enough to prevent HIV infection.
B
No. 15 · DB wrote, ‘“make HIV comparable to modern-day herpes” – Herpes is not preventable by a vaccine. Also, just because the potential vaccine creates “an immune response” for some recipients does not mean that the immune response is enough to prevent HIV infection.’
… it’s a bit more complicated than that. By “comparable to modern-day herpes,” they mean that the vaccine response seems to do well at keeping the virus in check, so those infected need less medication, and the medication is expensive.
Something else goes on too, however. Apparently how infectious an individual is varies with time, and is at its highest before either symptoms appear or the virus is detected via testing. The medications used reduce the amount of the virus that appears in the blood stream, in some cases to undetectable levels. It is lower in other bodily fluids as well, with a result that once treatment starts, the risk of transmitting the virus per sex act drops, even with no change in behavior.
If the vaccine works as they think and merely controls the amount of the virus appearing in bodily fluids, the result will be a reduced infection rate. If you can drop the infection rate enough (it doesn’t have to drop to zero), the virus will be eliminated from the population over time. A simple model is a geometric progression. If you start with 1024 infected individuals and each infects on the average 1/2 a person, then those 1024 infect 512, those 512 infect 256, those 256 infect 128, those 128 infect 64, etc. If you sum it all up, you get 1024 as the limit. If each person infects on the average 1 other person, the infection persists, and if one person infects on the average more than 1 individual, the number of infections grows exponentially with time.
So, what you save is not just a reduced cost of treating an individual, but in additional the cost of treating all those people who never got infected but would have without the vaccine.
marywmaxwell
A few Years ago, Alan Cantwell, M.D. published, at rense.com, a vaccine recipe sent to him by Army doctor Sue Arrigo, M.D. It is here: http://rense.com/general76/ft.htm. He later had qualms about the authenticity of Sue’s story because she said Cheney was using her for disinformation in Iran. Far as I’m concerned that would tend to add to her credibility rather than detract. In any case I direct you to the recipe in case you are a doctor and could evaluate it. On the general topic of AIDS as deliberate genocide, please see my book about treason which is available for free download at my website: ProsecutionForTreason.com. Also see on Youtube the “Strecker memo”. It was later corroborated by Len Horowitz in his well documented book “Emerging Viruses.” If a civil RICO lawsuit were to be filed by persons with HIV it may help to solve the question of “AIDS as bioweapon.” Thank you. Mary W Maxwell, PhD, LLB
trom
This is good news from spain. The vaccine is needed like tommorrow. I wonder why pple shud peddle out such lies like the gvt may destory yea, yea what what. Listen pple, no gvt under the sun doesnt want this pandemic to extinct. So keep it up scientists
msboersma
Thank You Jesus,God is great, he has given scientist the intelligence,and people the caring and generous hearts to make it happen,I truly BELIEVE they’ve got it,CONGRADULATIONS SPAIN!! yay