Goodnews as AIDS vaccine passes early key test

Scientists has recently announced that a candidate AIDS vaccine which triggered an immune response in humans and shielded monkeys from infection, has passed its key early test.

Scientists who has been tirelessly working on this vaccine for over a decade now seems to got an improved results as it passes an early key test.


The AIDS vaccine which is an output of a 40-year quest for an AIDS cure, proved to be safe in humans and has now advanced to the next phase of the pre-approval trial process. It will now be tested in 2,600 women in southern Africa to see whether it prevents HIV infection.

Though the trials so far has been encouraging, the research team and outside experts warn there are no guarantees it will actually work in the next trial phase dubbed HVTN705 or “Imbokodo” — the isiZulu word for “rock”.

“Although these data are promising, we need to remain cautious,” study leader Dan Barouch, a Harvard Medical School professor, told AFP.

Just because it protected two-thirds of monkeys in a lab trial doesn’t mean the drug will protect humans, “and thus we need to await the results of the… study before we know whether or not this vaccine will protect humans against HIV infection,” he said.

The team also disclosed that the results of the Imbokodo trial are expected in 2021/22.

“This is only the fifth HIV vaccine concept that will be tested for efficacy in humans in the 35+ year history of the global HIV epidemic,” added Barouch.

Only one so far, RV144, yielded some protection. RV144 was reported in 2009 to reduce the risk of HIV infection among 16,000 Thai volunteers by 31.2 percent — deemed insufficient for the drug to pursued.