Recently, VaxGet produced a vaccine which held a great promise. Namely, AidsVax was supposed to be the greatest revelation in the field of modern medicine, reducing AIDS infection in people, allowing them to fight this supposedly incurable infection.
Unfortunately, not a long time ago, the company delivered disappointing news, claiming that the vaccine is not capable of preventing the infection after all, judging by the results of the clinical trials which had been carried out. Even though 13 test subjects of African American origin and some other ethnic groups responded well to the vaccine, giving it the effectiveness of marvelous 78%, these were only 13 people, compared to 42 million of infected individuals in the world.
The Test Statistics
As far as African American test subjects are concerned, AidsVax clinical trial involved 314 volunteers. Later, more than 5,000 Canadian, US, the Netherlands and Puerto Rico Caucasian people were involved in the testing too.
The objective of the vaccine was to deal with the infection of the HIV virus, subtype B, being the most prevalent variant in the US and Europe. As for the African continent, A and C subtypes are the most common HIV variants.
The Results and the Opinions
Many experts agreed that this is a very small group of people which cannot be enough for delivering any genuine data about the potential power of this vaccine. Others praised the vaccine for its effect on certain ethnic groups of people, predominantly African American and Hispanic. The FDA had its say too, claiming that this kind of testing is not sufficient for proper results.
Dr. Phillip Berman, the senior vice-president for the research and inventing of this vaccine, announced that there are numerous biological and environmental differences between races, sexes and geographical locations of the test subjects, possibly influencing the results of these trials.
VaxGen is currently developing a vaccine for treating the subtype C of the HIV virus.
All in all, even though the trials may still be ongoing and the results may need to become clearer and more prominent, this is certainly a step forward when it comes to fighting something no one else has managed to fight successfully before. Scientists remain confident that the vaccine is possible and are using all of their knowledge and skills in order to solve this mysterious medical puzzle. Many factors slow down the development of an effective vaccine such as funding and lack of governmental support. Nevertheless, scientists do not give up and it seems that the world can rely on them, awaiting for the day of salvation from this cruel and merciless disease.
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