Scientists are hopeful that a vaccination against the HIV could showed promising results

News24xx.com -  Scientists are hopeful that a vaccination against the HIV that could be in sight after tests on hundreds of adults and animals can to show ‘promising’ results. 

And they hope that the vaccine could have the potential to protect people around the world from the threat of the virus.

Tests on a new drug will boosted an anti-HIV immune system response in 400 healthy adults.

According to the study in The Lancet, about 37 million people worldwide live with HIV or Aids, and there are an estimated 1.8 million new cases every year. Before, just four HIV vaccines have ever been tested on humans, making this current test an ‘important milestone’ according to the scientist leading the study.

Scientists tested various combinations of the mosaic vaccine in people aged 18 to 50 who did not have HIV and were healthy. The participants, from the US, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, and Thailand, received four vaccinations over the course of 48 weeks.

Scientists also carried out a parallel study where they gave monkeys the vaccine to protect them from getting simian-human immunodeficiency virus – a virus similar to HIV that infects monkeys. The mosaic vaccine combination that showed the most promise in humans was found to protect 67% of the 72 monkeys from getting the disease.

Scientists will now carry out a trial named ‘Imbokodo’ on 2,600 women in southern Africa. The women are believed to be at risk of HIV and scientists hope that tests of the vaccine will bring results by around 2021.  

 

 

 

 

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