Experimental Vaccine Against HIV has Promising Results

A study on a HIV vaccine, which is still at an early stage, has given encouraging results. It was presented at an international conference on AIDS research in Paris. Reports ChronicleBG.

After being tested on 393 volunteers from 5 countries - the United States, Rwanda, Uganda, South Korea and Thailand, the vaccine prototype caused an immune response - antibody production in all participants. "These promising results, as well as the success of other scientists in the same field, encourage us to be optimistic about the development of the HIV vaccine," said Dan Baruh of the research team.

Experts believe that the vaccine remains the best way to put an end to an epidemic that infected 76 million people and caused 35 million deaths since its appearance in the early 1980s.

According to the United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS, despite the prevention methods, 1.8 million new infections were registered in 2016. "So far, only four vaccine projects have tested their clinical efficacy," reminded the virologist Dan Baruh of Harvard University.

The experimental vaccine first excites the immune system with the help of a rhinovirus before it stimulates it with a protein found on the HIV structure, triggering a stronger response from the body.

"In a previous phase of the monkey study, this strategy prevented the spread of the infection among two-thirds of the animals," Baruh said. "Of course, we still do not know if the vaccine will protect people, but the results obtained justify carrying out larger-scale research."