HIV vacine is on the way

[Steven_Draker]

From gawker.com (Wed, Dec. 21)

 

"A team of researchers working out of the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, have received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin clinical trials of an HIV vaccine on humans beginning in January. What makes this vaccine different from the handful of others in development around the world is that it uses dead HIV-1 virus, in a similar methodology that led to vaccines for polio, rabies and hepatitis A.

 

The virus is first produced at special "bio-safety level 3" laboratories in Maryland and Colorado. It's then killed and genetically modified to become harmless, and a protein found in honeybee venom cultivates it into the vaccine, which they've named SAV001. This is the fourth attempt to produce such a vaccine, and only passed FDA approval — considered the world gold standard — after it passed 230 different safety tests.

 

So now what? The clinical trials will take place in the U.S., where facilities are already set up. Phase 1 will take six months to complete and another year to evaluate the results. Phase 2 will measure immune-system response, and will involve 600 HIV-negative people in high-risk categories (hemophiliacs, IV drug users, sex trade workers and gay men with multiple partners). Phase 3 will expand to 6,000 HIV-negative people in high-risk categories, and compare vaccinated to a non-vaccinated control group. Until that phase is complete, it won't be known for sure if the vaccine is 100% effective. If it is, then the vaccine will be ready to distribute in as little as five years. It will likely require two shots, given one month apart, as that's what has produced antibodies in test animals.

 

Fingers crossed. And no matter what, don't stop using condoms — you never know what's lurking around the corner. Gwyneth Paltrow might have just shaken hands with a pig."

 

http://gawker.com/5869969/will-canadians-wipe-out-hiv?popular=true

[Phil_musc]

Thanks for posting this bit of hopeful good news. Let's be optimistic. My one concern (and I'm being only a little snide here) is for the honeybees. The population of honeybees is declining throughout the world. It would be one of life's little ironies if the vaccine turned out to be effective and then the honeybee had become extinct.

[bigvalboy]

Read this and heard the news as well Steven..It is bitter sweet! So many friends I have lost. Good and decent people who left us long before their time. The 90's was one of the darkest decades that I can remember. I do not want to ever forget what happened. I still 15 years later put flowers on the graves of friends every month at Forest Lawn...I sometimes think it is more for me than anything else, you just felt so helpless in those days....I am still amazed that I survived it all, not sure how really, but I do know that I will not forget these dear friends...

[orbital sander]

Lets hope this proves to be effective...a lot of people will get infected over the next 5 years.

[+ Shoreboy]

What a wonderful Christmas gift this would be if it works....that would be my Christmas prayer

[RexAll]

I hope this is the 'cure'. But everyone take a deep breath and step back. Scientists still don't always know if a vaccine will be effective not. Otherwise we would have had a vaccine by now. One of the 1st measles vaccine used a dead virus. Not only did it not prevent measles. But if people caught measles, the course of the disease often proved more virulent than normal. That vaccine was withdrawn, and we have the safer one used today. Other vaccines with dead viruses work fine -- for example the inactivated polio vaccine- although you need periodic boosters of this. So I hope this is the answer, but the results may be years in coming.

 

Rex

[Phil_musc]

You are right, Rexall. We can only hope, but I also had though that one of the major problems with HIV was that the virus itself was constantly mutating so that even if the vaccine works, it might not work against all strains. Please tell me that I'm wrong about this. I would so like to believe there is a cure on the horizon.

 

BVB, I feel your pain about the 90's but I remember the 80's also and we lost a lot of people then too, and in the early years no one really knew what was going on. Before people figured out that condoms were a good preventative measure every sexual encounter held an unbelievable (and unacceptable) sense of risk. Thank god I had found my partner by that time (and we're still together!)

[bigvalboy]

I remember the 80's also and we lost a lot of people then too, and in the early years no one really knew what was going on

.

 

You are so right phil, I was in a bath house one aftenoon in 1984, and I was sitting in the lounge, and on the table was an article in 'Time' magazine. The entire issue was dedicated to Aids. We had just begun to hear about it in the gay community, this new thing called Aids, but no one really understood. I read the entire magazine cover to cover. And to this day I can remember the last thing that was said."At this time there is no known cure and this virus is absolutely terminal" I think it was the first time in my life that I was really scared.

[BSR]

i knew a couple of AIDS researchers back in the 1990s, and they said that HIV was like no other virus they'd ever seen because of its endless and seemingly infinite ability to mutate. While medicine and science have made huge advances in the last 15 years, I have to wonder about the "slipperiness" of HIV. Like Rexall, I am hopeful, but my optimism is guarded.

[Steven_Draker]

We should all bear in mind that a vaccine (if there will be one) is not a cure. It's preventive and not curative.

[justaguy]

While I am hoping that this vaccine proves effective, Steven's point is important: this is not a cure. As always, we need to stay responsible in what we do.

[gallahadesquire]

Regarding mutation:

 

Did you ever wonder why there's not a vaccine for the common cold? Mutation.

[KMEM]

Ditto the flu vaccine. If there is a vaccine for HIV in our near term future, I can easily imagine it will be like the flu vaccine. Good for now or this year but not good for every mutation or every "year". However, I am more than willing to applaud any good news we can hear or find.

 

Best regards,

KMEM

[+ deej]

Ditto the flu vaccine. If there is a vaccine for HIV in our near term future, I can easily imagine it will be like the flu vaccine. Good for now or this year but not good for every mutation or every "year". However, I am more than willing to applaud any good news we can hear or find.

 

Indeed. With luck, if a vaccine works for one strain they'll be able to build on the technique for multiple strains just like with the flu shot.

 

An annual vaccine is better than none.

[Phil_musc]

Definitely, but it tempers my enthusiasm, and the guys who have reminded us that it is not a cure and not to engage in high risk activities are being realistic and smart. Optimism tempered with realism is the order of the day.

[RexAll]

We should all bear in mind that a vaccine (if there will be one) is not a cure. It's preventive and not curative.[/color]

 

Not to mention that unlike the Mumps or Rubella vaccines which are usually effective, the influenza vaccine sometimes doesn't prevent the illness or only lessens it.

 

Rex