[Ip-health] U.N. agencies say AIDS vaccine results promising

[Sarah Rimmington]

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE58N1NG20090924
U.N. agencies say AIDS vaccine results promising
Thu Sep 24, 2009 5:27am EDT

GENEVA (Reuters) - Two U.N. agencies said on Thursday promising results
with an experimental AIDS vaccine in Thailand gave "new hope" in the
fight against the disease, but more work was needed to see if it could
be used elsewhere.

The vaccine tested on volunteers is a combination of Sanofi-Aventis's
ALVAC canary pox vaccine and the failed HIV vaccine AIDSVAX, made by
VaxGen and now owned by the non-profit Global Solutions for Infectious
Diseases.

"The study results, representing a significant scientific advance, are
the first demonstration that a vaccine can prevent HIV infection in a
general adult population and are of great importance," the Geneva-based
World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on
HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said.

The vaccine lowered the risk of HIV infection by 32 percent among 16,000
heterosexual Thai volunteers who had no special risk of AIDS infection,
the U.S. and Thai government researchers said.

The U.N. agencies, in a joint statement, characterized the efficacy as
"modestly protective".

"However, these results have instilled new hope in the HIV vaccine
research field and promise that a safe and highly effective HIV vaccine
may become available for populations throughout the world who are most
in need of such a vaccine," they said.

"It remains to be seen if the two specific vaccine components in this
particular regime would be applicable to other parts of the world with
diverse host genetic backgrounds and different HIV subtypes driving
different regional sub-epidemics," the agencies added.

Once an HIV vaccine does become available, it will need to be
universally accessible to all persons at risk, they said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Michael Roddy)

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--
Sarah Rimmington
Attorney
Essential Action, Access to Medicines Project
Washington, DC
Tel: +1 (202) 387-8030
Cell: +1 (202) 422-2687
www.essentialaction.org/access/

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