Post: #1

Given the scare over the growth of resistent Gonorhea and other sexually transmitted maladies, I thought this would be welcome news.

Granted, this thing is still in testing and may take several years to come to market (assuming it works). That being said, it is still one of the more promising developments we've seen recently in the fight against HIV.

HIV/AIDS Vaccine from Canada Approved for Human Trials

Quote:Canadian researchers from the University of Western Ontario in London claim they have developed a promising HIV vaccine, which has received the green light by U.S. FDA officials to begin testing on humans....

...Unlike other attempts to create a "cure," this experimental medicine uses the entire HIV virus to create a "non-pathogenic" version of the microbe, which doesn't cause HIV in recipients. Instead, the vaccine primes the body's T-cells to destroy any cells that become infected with HIV. This same strategy has been applied to other diseases like polio, rabies, hepatitis A and influenza.

"In the past, people did not use this strategy because people did not know how to make a safer virus and people did not know how to make large quantities of it," Kang said. "Now we have solved those problems by the genetic engineering of the virus."

...The vaccine has been successful thus far: Lab animals demonstrated a strong immune response in preliminary toxicology tests, and the FDA received approval to begin testing on humans in December 2011.

Meanwhile, the Institute of Human Virology in Nigeria predicts the coming of a vaccine within five years.

What this means for players: Africa may not be so intimidating for gamers in the future should this vaccine become widespread.

Post: #2

This would be awesome if it worked out but I'm skeptical. There are lots of vaccines that have gone through clinical trials or are currently in them and they've all been disappointing. Making an HIV vaccine is extremely challenging for several reasons and I'm not seeing anything in this lay-press article that addresses any of those. Right now the most promising strategies for fighting HIV are aggressive condom use, male circumcision, and anti-retroviral prophylaxis.