Jan, 03, 2014 – HIV Vaccine

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ANCHOR LEAD: THE LATEST VACCINE FOR HIV DIDN’T WORK BUT STILL ADVANCES EFFORTS, ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS

The latest vaccine candidate to prevent infection with HIV hasn’t helped, a study published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine reported. Mike Klag, dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says that valuable information was gleaned from the trial, however.
KLAG: The investigators found that two variables, a history of more than 3 male sexual partners, or unprotected receptive anal sex, in the three months before enrollment, were incredibly predictive of the risk of infection, so that’s an opportunity for prevention. The other thing that was discouraging but also an opportunity was that the prevalence of prophylaxis use was very low, pre-exposure prophylaxis or post-exposure prophylaxis was somewhere in the order of 1% or 3% , so again, discouraging but an opportunity for prevention. :32

Klag says each new vaccine candidate also helps us understand the ways of the virus better, so there is hope. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.