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October 21, 2009

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Experimental AIDS vaccine excites scientists

FRESH results from the worldís first successful test of an experimental AIDS vaccine confirm that it is only marginally effective.

Yet, the findings are exciting to scientists, who think they may show how to make a better vaccine.

The results also hint that the vaccine may work better in the general population than in those at higher risk of infection, such as gay men and intravenous drug users.

It was the first time an AIDS vaccine was tested mostly in heterosexuals at average risk.

Last month, researchers announced that a two-vaccine combination cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 percent in a trial of more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand.

Full results, published online yesterday by the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at a scientific conference in Paris, include two additional analyses that merely suggest the vaccine is beneficial, rather than providing definitive proof.

Thatís mostly because so few participants became infected ó only 125 people, 10 times less than in previous HIV vaccine trials, said Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the studyís main sponsor.





 

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