Canadian HIV vaccine gets green light for human testing

[Alex]

Researchers at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, have developped an HIV vaccine that has been greenlit for human testing by the US Food and Drug Administration.

The vaccine has had no reported side effects or safety risks.

Source: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada...d-hiv-vaccine-approved-for-human-studies?bn=1


This is a huge milestone for something that's been threatening our society for a long time. I'm proud to say it was Canadian-made and I hope to see this vaccine prevent many infections.

 

[Mr. X]

A vaccine is good, but a vaccine only prevents illness. It doesn't cure it.

Still, why is it that a Canadian research facility have to get US approval for testing? Seems to me that if the research was done in Canada, Canada should be the ones to approve it for testing. They might be looking to test it in the US, but still, its a product of Canadian intelligence and it should be tested in Canada first. Once those tests are complete, then they can go seeking approval for testing in other countries.

 

[Alex]

Oh geez you're right. Whoops hahaha. Still, a great step nonetheless. Prevention is key in fighting HIV.

You raise a good point there. I was wondering that myself as well. I'm assuming that all previous studies, in order to get the green light, have been done in Canada on animals. But don't quote me on that.

 

[Mr. X]

A great step either way, but as its a new medicine their are bound to be undiscovered side effects.

As for a cure, Germany found one. Its not viable for general use but I think the basis behind the cure might have been used for this vaccine.

I know, sounds wierd. A cure for a very dangerous disease not being viable. The cure? Bone Marrow transplants. A HIV positive person with Leukiema got a bone marrow transplant from a person who had the gene which makes a person immune to HIV (1 in a 1000 odds according to the article.) and the person later tested HIV negative.

 

[doesn't matter]

Yay more vaccinations!

Seriously though, all you need to do is avoid having sex with an HIV/AIDS infected person. This vaccination accomplishes nothing aside from protecting the stupid who are foolish enough to partake in risky behaviour. Just look before you leap and you should be right.

I suppose not everyone is so open about their HIV/AIDS status, but that should just mean that you should be more careful about who you exchange bodily fluids with.

 

[FreakyLocz14]

A vaccine is a good thing. Of course, people should educate themselves about the possible risks such and side effects and make individual decisions on whether to get it or not. It says there are no reported ones so far, but that can't be known for sure until human testing is done. Even then, those results aren't 100% sure.

This will probably be the biggest breakthrough since the HIV morning after pill.

 

[dinosaurodon]

whoever made it is going to be very rich indeed

 

[Legendary Silke]

Having vaccination as well as common sense will go a long way in preventing the spread of HIV, so it's a help, no matter how you look at it. Since in this way, you'll be able to protect more people from HIV. Less people with HIV = better chance of HIV not spreading, especially if HIV cannot spread to anyone with the vaccine. Since the vaccine's working properly, I think things are looking better for the world.

 

[Nihilego]

It's cool while it works. HIV is a very rapidly mutating pathogen which is known to resist drugs quickly. I imagine there are already strains out there which can be passed and overcome the effects of the vaccine, although not many. If this truly has no current resistant strains, though, we're onto something huge. It'll be hard for HIV to mutate to resist something that was waiting for its infection; it'll be killed in the host before it has a chance. I'll be interested to see where this goes.

 

[Castgurl]

Hm, very nice. I'm very interested in seeing the outcome from this new vaccine. Hopefully the results come out good.

 

[Mr. X]

Some people have a natural immunity to HIV. Personally, I'm interested to see what this vaccine would do in them.

 

[Anyu]

I wonder what the outcome will be.

 

[Oryx]

Yay more vaccinations!

Seriously though, all you need to do is avoid having sex with an HIV/AIDS infected person. This vaccination accomplishes nothing aside from protecting the stupid who are foolish enough to partake in risky behaviour. Just look before you leap and you should be right.

I suppose not everyone is so open about their HIV/AIDS status, but that should just mean that you should be more careful about who you exchange bodily fluids with.

What about people in developing nations where they don't test blood for HIV before a transfusion? What about someone who doesn't realize that the person they got their tattoo/piercing from didn't sterilize their equipment first? What about accidental needle sticks? There are situations when it isn't the person's fault, even leaving out the "I won't have sex with you until you show me the results of an HIV test" that you seem to imply people should be doing with their partners.

Plus the vaccination would be the first step towards a viable cure, which would not only affect "the stupid", but all those listed above and children born to HIV-positive mothers.

 

[Nihilego]

What Toujours said about the whole "how do you know?" thing. HIV is a hard to detect illness since it starts off with simple flu-like symptoms but then goes visibly inactive for years while it takes down the immune system. It can be spread in this time, though, which is where all the infections come from. It's pretty hard to detect until absolute telltale signs show up, and you can't not have sex with someone because they might have HIV even if you don't have any evidence for that.

 

[Esper]

This is good news. While everyone should have themselves and their sexual partners tested before they do anything, not everyone knows they have HIV and you typically can't detect the signs of HIV until after at least a few weeks of infection, sometimes even longer. Having a vaccine is just better medicine all around. I mean, what if something unthinkable happens and you get assaulted by someone who's infected?

Still, why is it that a Canadian research facility have to get US approval for testing? Seems to me that if the research was done in Canada, Canada should be the ones to approve it for testing. They might be looking to test it in the US, but still, its a product of Canadian intelligence and it should be tested in Canada first. Once those tests are complete, then they can go seeking approval for testing in other countries.

Maybe in America we have lower standards for human testing so they figured they wanted to start those tests sooner than approval would be given in Canada.

 

[Netto Azure]

This is great news, if this trial proves successful then it's another powerful weapon in preventing the spread of AIDS. Which I should remind people also spreads in Developing Countries.

 

[FreakyLocz14]

Some people have a natural immunity to HIV. Personally, I'm interested to see what this vaccine would do in them.

Is there a way to test for HIV immunity beforehand?

 

[-ty-]

I don't understand why anyone would be opposed or skeptical of the fact that there is collaboration between or among different nations in medicine. If funding for certain programs involves multiple countries, I can only see this as being a positive-more accomplishments at cheaper costs. Isolationism is definitively not the way to go even beyond the arenas of foreign relations and international economy. With that being said, I am ecstatic that, potentially, a HIV Vaccine has been created; hopefully this models for more countries to work together.

 

[Nihilego]

Is there a way to test for HIV immunity beforehand?

It's possible but unusual since only ~10% of people iirc have this immunity. I imagine it'd be more cost-efficent to vaccinate everybody, causing no harm to those who are naturally immune, than to test everybody and only vaccinate the vulnerable.

 

[FreakyLocz14]

It's possible but unusual since only ~10% of people iirc have this immunity. I imagine it'd be more cost-efficent to vaccinate everybody, causing no harm to those who are naturally immune, than to test everybody and only vaccinate the vulnerable.

I'm sure those who could be immune wouldn't want a vaccine due to a possible risk of side-effects. And you know how I feel about mandatory vaccinations.