Comments on: Experimental AIDS Vaccine Failed to Work

By: The Hottest Buzz posts from September at Sexual Health Buzz

The Hottest Buzz posts from September at Sexual Health Buzz — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 11:30:15 +0000

[...] Experimental AIDS vaccine failed to work Filed under Party Poopers, Herpes / HSV, HIV / AIDS [...]

By: yoshi2me

yoshi2me — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 19:40:35 +0000

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?

By: Chris Roberts

Chris Roberts — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 15:05:23 +0000

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.