Experimental AIDS Vaccine Failed to Work
Posted on Saturday, September 22nd, 2007 at 5:19 amIt was a high-profile failure in the daunting quest to develop a vaccine to prevent AIDS. Merck’s vaccine was the farthest along, considered the most promising and was closely watched by experts in the field.
Officials at the company, based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., said 24 of 741 volunteers who got the vaccine in one segment of the experiment later became infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In a comparison group of volunteers who got dummy shots, 21 of 762 participants also became infected.
Could you imagine being a volunteer for a clinical trial such as this one, being HIV free, and at the announcement of the failure of the vaccine finding out that you now have HIV?
I realize that some were given dummy shots and others were not but that can’t be the best news to find out that you contracted HIV from experimental testing.
You’re not suppose to actually contract the viruses that these vaccines are supposed to keep you from getting. It’s all very disturbing to me. I am so disappointed about this setback for the HIV community.
Please read the story again, I think you’ll find that the vaccine didn’t give the volunteers HIV, it was their high risk behavior that led to their infection. The volunteers were from high risk categories in the first place. They will also be monitored and as with any such trial, will be given a cocktail of drugs that they would otherwise been unable to afford.
Ok, I see what you are saying now. It wasn’t the actual vaccine that caused them to contract HIV it was their behavior while participating in the study, correct?
This is what grabbed me:
“The volunteers in the experiment were all free of HIV at the start. But they were at high risk for getting the virus: Most were homosexual men or female sex workers. They were all repeatedly counseled about how to reduce their risk of HIV infections, including use of condoms, according to Merck.
In a statement, the NIH said a data safety monitoring board, reviewing interim results, found the vaccine did not prevent HIV infection. Nor did it limit severity of the disease “in those who become infected with HIV as a result of their own behaviors that exposed them to the virus” — another goal of the study.”
I supposed it would be easy to assume that they had contracted the virus from the actual vaccine.
What I don’t understand is how are they going to know if the vaccine worked or not if they are encouraging participants to protect themselves during sex and/or any other type of risky behavior?
So basically the people that were participating chose not to protect themselves in the hopes that the vaccine would work?
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