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The experimental vaccine will be tested on 2,600 women in Africa./ Photo AFP
Researchers revealed, Saturday, encouraging progress in the fight against HIV. An experimental vaccine would have had conclusive results on macaques.
Are we headed for an HIV vaccine? In a statement from The Lancet, researchers reported an experimental vaccine. This treatment provoked an immune reaction in humans and protected macaques from infection.
The development of this vaccine potential, safe for humans, is now advanced enough to launch a "life-size" test on 2,600 women in southern Africa. "These results represent a milestone," said virologist Dan Barouch, director of the study. He warned, however, that there was no guarantee that the following tests would be so positive.
First conclusive tests
Two-thirds of the macaques were protected by the vaccine in laboratory tests. The results of the full-scale test are expected in 2021 or 2022. "This will be only the fifth HIV vaccine concept whose efficacy will be tested in the 35-year history of the epidemic," said Pr. Barouch.
The study released Saturday reports the results of a test in 393 healthy, HIV-negative adults aged 18 to 50 in Africa, Thailand and the United States. Some received one of the possible vaccine combinations or a placebo, through four injections in 48 weeks. These combinations were made of different types of HIV viruses, rendered sufficiently harmless, with the hope of provoking an immune response. But this one was "robust", praised the Pr. Barouch.
The tests showed the harmlessness. Only five participants reported adverse effects. In a separate study, these same vaccines offered protection to two-thirds of the 72 macaques to which the researchers later attempted to inoculate the virus.
"A phenomenal advance"
Other researchers have welcomed this progress. For Frenchman Jean-Daniel Lelièvre, from the Vaccine Research Institute: "This is probably not the definitive vaccine, but it can be a phenomenal breakthrough." According to him, in the best case, "this research will produce a vaccine that can be administered in almost 10 years."
Some 37 million people are living with HIV or AIDS, according to the World Health Organization. 1.8 million cases are contracted each year. The disease has killed some 35 million of the 80 million people it has infected since it was first diagnosed in the early 1980s.
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