Melanie Lofgren
9/25/09
11:20
Colonel Jerome Kim, HIV vaccines product manager for the U.S. Army, and his researching team conducted what is being called the world’s largest HIV vaccine trial ever with more than 16,000 (between the ages of 18 and 30) participants in Thailand. About 8,200 participants received a placebo and the other group received a combination of six vaccines over six months. Both groups were closely watched for three years. In their findings, those who received the injections of the vaccine were 31 percent less likely to contract HIV than those on the placebos. This is good and hopeful news as we progress to finding a vaccine for HIV for previous vaccines haven’t been nearly as promising in their findings. This trial was only conducted in Thailand and followed HIV strains that were circulating in a particular area, so it is still unknown how these vaccines will work in other parts of the world. As the vaccine did not prevent everyone from contracting the disease, further research is imperative.
Research findings like this honestly make me feel a lot better about the future. AIDS is a scary disease that kills millions every year, including children. I am very hopeful that we will find a vaccine or cure for this disease one day and these findings just emphasized my hopes. I have been to Africa, Kenya and Tanzania, and have seen firsthand the effect of AIDS on a country. . About 2/3 of those infected with HIV throughout the world are found in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is a terrible and life threatening disease that leaves children without parents.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/24/hiv.vaccine/index.html
1 comment:
I thought it was really interesting to read the article and to find out that something like this is possible with the technology we have today. My only problem with this vaccine was that there really wasn't that big of a difference between the amount of people who ended up contracting HIV with the vaccine, 51, and those who contracted HIV without the vaccine, 74.
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