Bangkok:
Researchers in Thailand announced on Thursday that for the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus. Recent failures led many scientists to think such a vaccine might never be possible.
The vaccine - sponsored in part by the US Army and conducted by the Thailand Ministry of Public Health - cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 percent, in the world's largest AIDS vaccine trial of more than 16-thousand volunteers in Thailand.
"This is a scientific breakthrough," said Dr. Supachai Rerks-Ngarm, director of the project. The trial used strains of HIV common in Thailand. Whether such a vaccine would work against other strains in the US, Africa or elsewhere in the world is unknown, scientists stressed.
Every day, 7,500 people worldwide are newly infected with HIV; 2 million died of AIDS in 2007, the United Nations agency UNAIDS estimates. Even a marginally helpful vaccine could have a big impact.
The vaccine - sponsored in part by the US Army and conducted by the Thailand Ministry of Public Health - cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 percent, in the world's largest AIDS vaccine trial of more than 16-thousand volunteers in Thailand.
"This is a scientific breakthrough," said Dr. Supachai Rerks-Ngarm, director of the project. The trial used strains of HIV common in Thailand. Whether such a vaccine would work against other strains in the US, Africa or elsewhere in the world is unknown, scientists stressed.
Every day, 7,500 people worldwide are newly infected with HIV; 2 million died of AIDS in 2007, the United Nations agency UNAIDS estimates. Even a marginally helpful vaccine could have a big impact.
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