Vaccine For HIV Will be Tested on Humans

Experiments with monkeys have given encouraging results, writes NOVA TV. 

A new HIV vaccine launches tests on people, hoping to find a cure for the disease, write Daily Old and Daily News.

Since nearly 40 years ago the AIDS epidemic has started, only four vaccines have reached the stage of being tested on humans. None of them proved effective.

The new vaccine uses a cytomegalovirus form of the herpesvirus family (CMV). It is weakened so that the patient will not be infected.

Injections succeeded in destroying the immunodeficiency virus, which is the equivalent of HIV in monkeys in 16 of 27 infected macaques.

"The results provide a potentially important insight into the design of the CMV-based vaccine for humans," said Professor Klaus Frucht, who is among the study's leaders.

"We significantly weakened CMV, but we still had the same immune response as the version of the vaccine developed for animals," he says.

The CMV virus can be dangerous for people, especially those with a weakened immune system. For pregnant women it can lead to damage to the fetus.

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