The vaccine lessened the chances of catching HIV by 31.2 per cent
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An experimental HIV vaccine given to people in Thailand has cut the risk of infection for the first time
The vaccine was a combination of two earlier experimental vaccines and was given to 16,000 people in Thailand, in the largest ever vaccine trial for the virus which leads to aids.
Researchers found that it reduced the risk of contracting HIV by nearly a third, and has been hailed as a significant scientific breakthrough.
The study was carried out by the US army and Thai government over seven years on volunteers – all HIV-negative men and women aged between 18 and 30, in some of Thailand’s worst affected regions.
The results revealed that the chances of catching HIV were 31.2 per cent less for those who had taken the vaccine.
Editor of the Lancet medical journal, Dr Richard Horton, says, ‘This result is tantalizingly encouraging. The numbers are small and the difference may have been due to chance, but this finding is the first positive news in the Aids vaccine field for a decade. We should be cautious but hopeful. The discovery needs urgent replication and investigation.’
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