A new AIDS vaccine could give people 100 per cent protection against the virus for up to three months
A new HIV vaccine could protect people from the infection for up to three months, a study suggests.
Researchers believe the injection of long-lasting drugs could temporarily provide 100 per cent protection against HIV infection.
They say this could be a huge breakthrough which would be particularly important for couples in which one partner is infected while the other is not.
In two separate studies scientists found that the vaccine gives monkeys complete protection when it is administered monthly, The New York Times reports.
However, scientists think that having a single injection just once every three months month could be sufficient to provide complete protection.
They hope the results can be replicated in humans.
Currently, people who are in a relationship with someone who is HIV positive are given low doses of antiretroviral drugs to prevent them contracting the infection.
However, this can be problematic if they forget to take the drugs at the right times and, even if they do, it only offers about 90 per cent protection.
The researchers hope this vaccine could eventually offer a safer alternative.
Human trials of the vaccine are due to start later this year according to experts at Columbia University.
However, if this is successful, a larger human trial will still be required before the vaccine could be widely offered.
This would take a number of years.
It is thought the vaccine could be particularly beneficial for women in Africa.
The vaccine could be particularly beneficial for HIV negative people who are in relationships with people who are HIV positive. Image shows HIV in human tissue
Many such women with an HIV positive partner already take the daily pills but some have reported that taking medication every day leaves them open to stigma by people who assume they are already infected.
As a result, they might benefit from being able to go for a regular protective injection.
Many of these women already receive long-lasting contraceptive injections for fear that their partner would be angry he found a packet of The Pill.
As a result, offering the HIV vaccine as well could be relatively easy.
Currently people who are in relationships with people who are HIV positive take low doses of antiretroviral drugs each day to prevent them becoming infected. However, many forget to take them or are stigmatised for doing so
Dr David Ho, director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Rockefeller University told The New York Times that these contraceptive injections give ‘a good analogy for how [the AIDS vaccine] might work in developing countries’.
One of the vaccine trials was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and saw six female monkeys given monthly doses of GSK744 – a long-lasting antiretroviral drug.
Another six monkeys were given a placebo and then they were all exposed to HIV in a way that simulated having vaginal sex with an infected man.
The researchers observed that none of the vaccinated monkeys became infected while all of the unprotected ones did.
The second study was designed to establish whether the vaccine could be as effective in people having anal sex with someone HIV positive.
It was carried out at Rockefeller University, in New York, and involved 16 monkeys who were injected with the same drug.
During the study none of the monkeys who were given the vaccine contracted the infection while all of the unprotected ones did.
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told The New York Times that the results are ‘very impressive for something in the animal model’.
‘This is the most exciting innovation in the field of HIV prevention that I've heard recently,’ added Dr Robert Grant, an AIDS expert at the Gladstone Institutes, a foundation affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2573722/Could-HIV-vaccine-horizon-New-jab-protect-against-infection-three-months.html#ixzz2v8CIQU80
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