In what is great news for pretty much everyone everywhere, a study conducted by the US Army’s AIDS vaccine program that was printed in the New England Journal of Medicine has yielded some statistically significant results.  Combining two failed vaccines, AIDSVAX and ALVAC, researchers have come up with a cocktail that, while not preventing AIDS and HIV, has shown to yield a significant drop in infection rates among a cross-section of 16,000 people in Thailand.

The two vaccines are used in what is called a prime-boost approach.  One vaccine boosts the body’s readiness to fight off HIV infection, while the other vaccine strengthens the body’s response to the presence of the virus.  Combined, the two vaccines yielded a 31% drop in HIV/AIDS infection as compared to a placebo group. This is one of the most significant results of any HIV/AIDS vaccine study to date, and should yield important results about how the body fights off the deadly disease.

Just how significant is the study?  Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had this telling quote:  “For more than 20 years now, vaccine trials have essentially been failures,” he said. “Now it’s like we were groping down an unlit path, and a door has been opened.”  Hopefully this is one more step to finding the cure.  Time to put that AIDS research money to good use!.

Tags: HIV vaccine, AIDS vaccine, Thailand, New England Journal of Medicine, AIDS Vaccine 2009 conference, AIDSVAX, ALVAC, prime-boost

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Every day, Tom Baker deals with the issue of traffic.  Given Southern California’s massive concentration of cars, it’s no wonder that Baker would get frustrated dealing with the daily traffic routine.  That inspiration resulted in these great images of Los Angeles without the cars.   Here’s the full image gallery, and it’s awesome.
I love the […]

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