A huge breakthrough has been made in AIDS research, as researchers in Thailand believe they may have found a successful vaccine for HIV. After years and years of tireless failed experiments, medical scientists tested the vaccine RV 144, a combination of two previously failed genetically engineered vaccines, on a group of 16,000 volunteers. The vaccine was successful in protecting 1/3 of the participants.
The World Health Organization and the U.N. agency UNAIDS said the results "instilled new hope" in the field, even though it likely will be years before a vaccine might be widely available.
- "That benefit is modest, yet "it's the first evidence that we could have a safe and effective preventive vaccine," said Col. Jerome Kim, an Army doctor who helped lead the study.
The outcome "gives me cautious optimism about the possibility of improving this result" and developing a more effective AIDS vaccine, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which co-sponsored the study.
"It's an opening of a new gateway to a road that has brighter lights in it now and maybe some directions," he said. "We need to bring the best minds together and map the way forward.""
Though it seems like quite a small step, it is very, very big in the overall mission, as this is the first vaccine that has ever been successful in preventing contraction of HIV.
via AP
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