Posted on 07/22/2004 5:04:19 PM PDT by LunaticSVT
The vaccine, called the HIV-1 DNA, immunised mice and monkeys from sub-type C — the type of HIV, which accounts for more than 95 per cent of infections in India — in trials carried out since 1996. A vaccine is the surest shield against HIV/AIDS.
Finally it is ready for use and recognition!
In December last year, Dr Pradeep Seth gave himself what could turn out to be the most important injection of his life. He had earlier tried out the injection — a vaccine for HIV — on mice and monkeys.
The vaccine had worked on the animals. And Seth found that he was fine — he had suffered no side-effects.
The tests on animals had been conducted in 'vitro' — blood samples from the injected animals were made to react with the HIV virus and Seth, head of microbiology at AIIMS, discovered the vaccine was successful in inducing immunity. "Tremendous and robust and HIV-specific immune response to the vaccine was seen during animal trials. Special tests were conducted and it was found that the vaccine had induced development of antibodies to the virus,'' says Seth.
The research team at the National HIV Reference Centre in AIIMS that developed the vaccine is now waiting for clearance to start clinical trials on human beings.
"Dr Seth wrote to us a couple of months ago and we responded saying his work has to be reviewed by an expert scientific committee before clearance for human trials can be given," says health secretary J.V.R. Prasada Rao.
LOL!
The article doesn't say how the vaccine was created, nor exactly how it works.
As I understand it, there are two problems with HIV vaccines.
One is, it appears that merely stimulating the production of antibodies to HIV isn't enough to protect against infection. Your body defends itself against invaders in two different ways: one, it produces antibodies which attach to an invader and disable it; and two, it produces white blood cells which hunt down the invader and eat it. Researchers believe, partly from unsuccessful vaccines, that creating a vaccine that only triggers the antibody response is not enough to protect against HIV. You must have a vaccine that triggers the cell-based response. The cell-based response is active on mucus membranes where the virus would infect its victim.
The other problem with HIV vaccines is the extreme variability of the virus. It quickly forms new strains in a person's body, and this evades the immune system. This is part of the reason why it takes years to develop AIDS after getting infected with HIV -- the virus doesn't lie dormant, instead, the body is in a pitched battle with it for years, a battle it loses because the virus damages the immune system itself. A vaccine must target less variable portions of HIV or its genes; or a variety of subtypes of HIV must be included in the vaccine.
It would be good news indeed if the Indians have produced a successful vaccine. But they haven't begun human trials yet, and there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lips. There are various Western vaccines beginning human trials. But it will be years either way before there's a vaccine, and as aruanan suggests, even then it will still be too dangerous to ignore God's instructions about sexual hygiene.
Yeah...right! Did you hear that 3 nukes were found in Iraq?
Sorry, but you've been scammed. I got the Nigerian thingy first. Ha ha on you!
Do they mean someone just found it lying around in the lab?
But I'll bet that India doesn't have any bull$ht law preventing people from shopping for it on the world market, either.
bflr
It won't be any cheaper on the world market. The only reason American-made drugs are cheaper on the world market is because Americans pay full price at home. The "cheap drugs" from abroad are disgusting examples of socialist price-fixing that hurts American capitalism and science. Canadians and thieving Americans can go to Hell.
Trinoasitol?
Cool...now make them give it away for free, or better yet, make the Indian taxpayers pay to provide it to the whole rest of the world, just like would happen if it were discovered in the United States of America.
You forgot poison ivy.
Then why are drugs, including American drugs, also cheaper in countries like Switzerland (where my wife is from, so we visit every year), where there are no price controls or government buying programs?
No, the one and only reason why drugs are more expensive in the US is that the FDA, at the behest of drug companies who want capitalism for their customers while reserving socialism for themselves, forbids Americans from shopping around. We can freely import computer chips from anywhere we want to - why isn't that hurting Intel and AMD?
And that's probably the case. After all, he did not even provide any back-up but just went ahead and made the assertion. I think if Vitamin E was the answer that knowledge would not be limited to one freeper who goes by the moniker 'Extremely Extreme Extremist.'
That would be just too extreme. LOL.
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