Experimental vaccine shows promise with AIDS
September 24, 2009
Meg Farris / Eyewitness News
NEW ORLEANS, LA. - An experimental vaccine cut the risk of becoming
infected with HIV by 31 percent.
The results were released from the world's largest AIDS vaccine trial of
more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand.
The study was sponsored by the U.S. Army and the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Doctors say the vaccine is not efficient enough yet to be rolled out to
the public.
But local researchers who are also working on an HIV vaccine, say this
gives them a huge scientific clue and points them in an important
direction.
"It's very exciting news because it's the first AIDS vaccine that's ever
worked and shown at least some protection in people despite like 25
years of attempts," said Dr. Alistair Ramsay, Director of the Louisiana
Vaccine Center and The Gene Therapy Program at LSU Health Sciences
Center.
Ramsay said this will advance what he does in his lab."The main thing it will do is it gives everyone clues as to how these
vaccines might work. It gives us a little angle to look in at," he
added.
This is the first time a vaccine has ever given any significant
protection against getting infected with HIV.
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