I found this out via Twitter and then went on to the BBC to read up on it here.

51 people who were given the vaccine were eventually infected with HIV, versus 74 people who were given a placebo. Now, if the lower numbers are down to the vaccine, that's pretty damn cool. But I just think the numbers are too close to really draw a conclusion.

What do you guys think?

Oh, and a while back I also read a story about a guy who had HIV was given a bone marrow transplant from a person who has a gene mutation that makes him virtually immune to HIV infection. The guy who was given the transplant hadn't shown any signs of HIV for so many months after the transplant. Like I said, this was a while back but I still found it interesting.

Apparently, 'An estimated 1 percent of people descended from Northern Europeans are virtually immune to AIDS infection, with Swedes the most likely to be protected. One theory suggests that the mutation developed in Scandinavia and moved southward with Viking raiders.

All those with the highest level of HIV immunity share a pair of mutated genes -- one in each chromosome -- that prevent their immune cells from developing a "receptor" that lets the AIDS virus break in. If the so-called CCR5 receptor -- which scientists say is akin to a lock -- isn't there, the virus can't break into the cell and take it over.

To be protected, people must inherit the genes from both parents; those who inherit a mutated gene from just one parent will end up with greater resistance against HIV than other people, but they won't be immune. An estimated 10 percent to 15 percent of those descended from Northern Europeans have the lesser protection.' (From Wired)

Just thought you guys may find that last bit interesting.

There's like a 30% rate, aye?

Apparently so, but they've said themselves that they don't know if it's just down to chance.
But if it isn't, so so cool.

Aye, this is huge news. HUGE news.

i think it will cost alot of money for people to do this. but better to be safe from hiv -- safe sex!

51 vs 74 in a study of 16,000 is a bit slight, but I hope they're actually onto something!

Can anyone say "Ï am Legend"? man I love that movie!!!!! hehehehe

NO WAY! If it's I Am Legend, we're all about to be consumed by some vampire type creatures! :P

I KNOW! You know, my mum scored higher in the facebook "would you survive a zombie attack" than I did!!!!!!

Sorry about the italics!

I think this is really interesting and actually pretty good news. Hopefully they'll figure some sort of vaccination that actually works at some point, or maybe they can figure out about this immune gene and give it to people in a vaccination. That would be pretty cool. It would also be good for people.

Of course, so many people these days are, excuse me for saying so, just plain "idiots" and they will say "oh, my heritage is northern European so I must be immune and I can have unprotected sex with everyone, even people who are infected, and I'll be just fine." Those people are the ones who really scare me - because they're either not listening or they're too stupid to understand what they're hearing/reading. It's like how people in Africa stupidly think that they can 'cure' AIDS by having sex with a virgin so lots of men over there are having sex with little children but, of course, it only infects the little kids with AIDS then. I just don't understand how people can be so ignorant.

Heh yeah it mentions that towards the end of the article - even if you do have the gene mutation, it doesn't make you 100% immune. More like maybe 99%.

And how about AIDS deniers? Did you hear about the American (I think) woman who didn't get treatment for her and her baby and they both died? Idiots.

Of course the main problem in Africa is lack of education. The adults who believe that probably grew up during the apartheid (my parents lived in South Africa then and the stories they've told me you wouldn't believe) when access to education for blacks was severely restricted. As a result, they're uneducated about such things. And of course the Pope doesn't help things by saying that Catholics shouldn't use condoms.

Sadly, this happens with juvenile diabetics all the time. Cancer patients too, I believe.

Awaiting a response from the Fraggle, yo.

Haha. This is the first thing I saw when I opened the thread. I haven't even read it yet!

It's difficult to comment really without seeing the study. :P And I've had a look but can't find it online. It's entirely possible that the difference in numbers is due to chance, but you'd need to look at the statistical analysis they did etc to really say if the difference is significant or not.

It could offer some hope for the future though.

I saw something about this in the news last night. Very cool.

I've been reading the book The Future of Life by E.O. Wilson for one of my classes, and in there it mentioned that a group of (I believe) scientist/biologists who found a tree in (good god I can't remember the country...) some more remote part of the world, and they were able to make a vaccine that did not CURE AIDS, but pretty much halted it in its tracks. Alas, this tree was an endangered plant species, and when they went back to extract more samples there were no more left in existence. Makes me wonder how many natural cures for these life threatening diseases were out there before we started plowing down forests at record speed.

ok this is a little off subject, but how on earth do they get people to willingly infect themselves with a diesease which is incurable and will eventually take the life of the person?... is there some guy standing on the street corner saying "ay, you, over there, in the hat! you wanna get infected with HIV?"... i personally think its awesome that they might be getting closed to a vaccine, however would not be signing up for the test studies...


---food for thought--- does this make anyone wonder if they do come up with a vaccine will people stop having protected sex? causing the spread of ther STI's?

Well I don't think everyone that has protected sex only does it because they don't want to risk HIV...

i mean especially with the gay community... and in schools they teach that using a condom prevents against sti's but the main one they scare kids with is hiv, or aids.

Well I guess if you're stupid enough to think that since you can't get AIDS you're just going to have tons of unprotected sex...then you deserve all the STD's you get.

I don't think this has anything to do with the gay community. Gay or straight, if you're stupid enough to have unprotected sex, whether or not AIDS even exists, thinking that you're not susceptible to STD's you're an idiot.

WIN

I had unprotected sex at 18 which resulted in me getting an HIV test which is why this subject is really close to my heart.
And the problem is I don't even remember my sex ed lessons, and I especially don't remember being told ANYTHING about HIV. I remember them saying about the different types of birth control, but I have no recollection of them hitting upon STDs. This was only a few years ago. I really think it needs to be hammered into kids, because at the time I had my little incident, pregnancy was the biggest scare; STDs didn't even enter my mind (which is silly because I'm usually an intelligent person ;D )

They probably got paid very good money. Also, HIV/AIDS isn't a death sentence anymore.

Well it was done over a few years in Thailand and they let people go on with their daily lives as usual, and inevitably, some poor souls contracted HIV.