A World First: Vaccine Helps Prevent HIV Infection

FYI.......... ************************************************************** A world first: Vaccine helps prevent HIV infection By MARILYNN MARCHIONE and MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press Writers Marilynn Marchione And Michael Casey, Associated Press Writers - Thu Sep 24, 3:27 am ET BANGKOK - For the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus, a watershed event in the deadly epidemic and a surprising result. Recent failures led many scientists to think such a vaccine might never be possible. The vaccine cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 percent in the world's largest AIDS vaccine trial of more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand, researchers announced Thursday in Bangkok. Even though the benefit is modest, "it's the first evidence that we could have a safe and effective preventive vaccine," Col. Jerome Kim said in a telephone interview. He helped lead the study for the U.S. Army, which sponsored it with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The institute's director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned that this is "not the end of the road," but said he was surprised and very pleased by the outcome. "It gives me cautious optimism about the possibility of improving this result" and developing a more effective AIDS vaccine, Fauci said in a telephone interview. "This is something that we can do." Even a marginally helpful vaccine could have a big impact. Every day, 7,500 people worldwide are newly infected with HIV; 2 million died of AIDS in 2007, the U.N. agency UNAIDS estimates. "Today marks an historic milestone," said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, an international group that has worked toward developing a vaccine. "It will take time and resources to fully analyze and understand the data, but there is little doubt that this finding will energize and redirect the AIDS vaccine field," he said in a statement. The Thailand Ministry of Public Health conducted the study, which used strains of HIV common in Thailand. Whether such a vaccine would work against other strains in the U.S., Africa or elsewhere in the world is unknown, scientists stressed. "This is a scientific breakthrough," Thai Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai told a news conference in Bangkok. "For the first time ever there is evidence that HIV vaccine has preventative efficacy." The study actually tested a two-vaccine combo in a "prime-boost" approach, where the first one primes the immune system to attack HIV and the second one strengthens the response. They are ALVAC, from Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine division of French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis; and AIDSVAX, originally developed by VaxGen Inc. and now held by Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases, a nonprofit founded by some former VaxGen employees. ALVAC uses canarypox, a bird virus altered so it can't cause human disease, to ferry synthetic versions of three HIV genes into the body. AIDSVAX contains a genetically engineered version of a protein on HIV's surface. The vaccines are not made from whole virus - dead or alive - and cannot cause HIV. Neither vaccine in the study prevented HIV infection when tested individually in earlier trials, and dozens of scientists had called the new one futile when it began in 2003. "I really didn't have high hopes at all that we would see a positive result," Fauci confessed. The results proved the skeptics wrong. "The combination is stronger than each of the individual members," said the Army's Kim, a physician who manages the Army's HIV vaccine program. The study tested the combo in HIV-negative Thai men and women ages 18 to 30 at average risk of becoming infected. Half received four "priming" doses of ALVAC and two "boost" doses of AIDSVAX over six months. The others received dummy shots. No one knew who got what until the study ended. All were given condoms, counseling and treatment for any sexually transmitted infections, and were tested every six months for HIV. Any who became infected were given free treatment with antiviral medicines. Participants were followed for three years after vaccination ended. Results: New infections occurred in 51 of the 8,197 given vaccine and in 74 of the 8,198 who received dummy shots. That worked out to a 31 percent lower risk of infection for the vaccine group. The vaccine had no effect on levels of HIV in the blood of those who did become infected. That had been another goal of the study - seeing whether the vaccine could limit damage to the immune system and help keep infected people from developing full-blown AIDS. That result is "one of the most important and intriguing findings of this trial," Fauci said. It suggests that the signs scientists have been using to gauge whether a vaccine was actually giving protection may not be valid. "It is conceivable that we haven't even identified yet" what really shows immunity, which is both "important and humbling" after decades of vaccine research, Fauci said. Details of the $105 million study will be given at a vaccine conference in Paris in October. This is the third big vaccine trial since 1983, when HIV was identified as the cause of AIDS. In 2007, Merck & Co. stopped a study of its experimental vaccine after seeing it did not prevent HIV infection. Later analysis suggested the vaccine might even raise the risk of infection in certain men. The vaccine itself did not cause infection. In 2003, AIDSVAX flunked two large trials - the first late-stage tests of any AIDS vaccine at the time. It is unclear whether vaccine makers will seek to license the two-vaccine combo in Thailand. Before the trial began, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said other studies would be needed before the vaccine could be considered for U.S. licensing. Also unclear is whether Thai volunteers who received dummy shots will now be offered the vaccine. Researchers had said they would do so if the vaccine showed clear benefit - defined as reducing the risk of infection by at least 50 percent. Those issues, plus how to proceed with future studies, will be discussed among the governments, study sponsors and companies involved in the trial, Kim said. Scientists want to know how long will protection last, whether booster shots will be needed, and whether the vaccine helps prevent infection in gay men and injection drug users, since it was tested mostly in heterosexuals in the Thai trial. The study was done in Thailand because U.S. Army scientists did pivotal research in that country when the AIDS epidemic emerged there, isolating virus strains and providing genetic information on them to vaccine makers. The Thai government also strongly supported the idea of doing the study. ___ Associated Press Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione reported from Minneapolis.

The Eradication of HIV/AIDS in Monroe County (New York)

Greetings,

Tonight I was a live guest on the Gay Agenda Blog Talk Radio Show discussing my new article "Eradicating HIV in Monroe County ". The premise of my article talks about how racism, power/privilege and homophobia play integral parts in the way that HIV sustains itself, especially in people of color communities (which are hardest hit by virtually every medical disease currently known). If you are interested in calling in the show please use the following information:

If you want to listen to the archived show via internet, click here.

The link to the promo is here - http://www.gayagenda.com/2009/09/ga-speaks-out-on-hivaid-on-btr-tonight/

The link to my article is here:

BET: Of Black Power, White children, and Maintaining the Status Quo

_{Of Black power, White children, and maintaining the status quo}

Pamela D. Reed | Posted September 11, 2009 12:13 AM

FOUNDING SPONSOR

It has been quite a week. It began with the conservative hysteria surrounding President Obama's education speech to the children of America, and it will end with the extreme right wing 9/12 Tea Party March on Washington this weekend, billed as a gathering of "freedom loving patriots."

And just when you thought things couldn't get any more outrageous, U.S. Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina called the President of the United States a liar during his highly anticipated health care address to a Joint Session of Congress. Wilson has since called his outburst "spontaneous" and regrettable.

President Obama has graciously accepted Wilson 's apology, saying that "everyone makes mistakes" and we should not assume the "the worst in other peoples' motives." That's the expected presidential position, but In view of all that has transpired since the election of President Obama, I think we are in need of what John McCain would call straight talk.

Let me start with news of a just-released book that goes a long way toward explaining the force I see at work here: racism, plain and simple--notwithstanding all the talk of Obama's "post-racial," "colorblind" America . I have never bought into either notion, but NutureShock: New Thinking About Children, by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman goes a long way toward dispelling both notions--and I think--explaining the persistence of white supremacy.

The book presents research findings indicating that children recognize differences in skin color by the time they are six months old. More importantly, the researchers found that, were White parents to even slightly adjust the way they introduce the concept of race to their children--by the age of three-- real long-term change is possible, "one future citizen at a time."

No sooner than Newsweek had excerpted the book, a blog thread on Stormfront.org, the website that celebrates "White pride, worldwide," declared that the magazine has launched a "war on White children."

Specifically, the book highlights the 2007 dissertation findings of Danish researcher Birgitte Vittrup, who recruited, from the database of volunteers for scholarly research at the Children's Research Lab at the University of Texas , Austin , 100 Caucasian families with children 5-7 years old. Vittrup found that even the most liberal White parents--unlike 75 per cent of "nonwhite" parents--were unwilling to openly discuss race with their children, some even going so far as to withdraw from the study when it reached this critical phase. Among the six families who completed the one week-phase of talking to their young children openly about race, there was "dramatic" improvement in their racial attitudes.

Another UT researcher, Rebecca Bigler, conducted a two-week study in which children read short biographies of famous African Americans, like Jackie Robinson. She divided them into two groups, one a test group and the other a control group. In addition to the bio information, one group was given a 5-sentence description of the racial discrimination that Robinson endured at the hands of Major League Baseball--and from White people in general. When the children were surveyed to test their racial attitudes, those who had read about prejudice toward Blacks, exhibited a more favorable attitude. "It knocked down their glorified view of white people," said Bigler.

Perhaps the most fascinating study cited was one in which a mixed group of 33 children in a rural Ohio school, two-thirds White, were exposed to a Black version of 'Twas the Night B'fore Christmas by Melodye Rosales. When the children saw the Black Santa depicted in the book, their reactions varied. "A couple of the white children rejected this idea out of hand: a black Santa couldn't be real." Most of the Black children were exultant, while some of the White children were stunned and "puzzled." "'He's black' gasped a white little girl. A white boy exclaimed, 'I thought he was white!'"

A little Black boy was perhaps the most difficult to convince of Santa's Blackness, until he determined that the Black Santa's boots were "like the white Santa's boots." He had to actually have the man raise his pants leg so that he could see his black boots--and his black skin, after which he was thrilled.

Of all the profundities revealed in the book excerpt, I find this one most telling because of what it tells us about how children, very early on, learn to associate power, virtue, and control with Whiteness. That is, left unchecked by parents, society teaches White children a sense of superiority and, conversely, it instills a feeling of inferiority in the minds of young Black children.

Could this be what all the fuss was about from the many White conservatives who screamed bloody murder at the mere thought of the first Black President of the United States (POTUS) delivering a speech, any speech, in their children's schools? Could it be that many Whites are fully aware of the socializing effect of exposure to power and control--and race? That they know the power of imagery? Thus they make certain that there is no shortage of symbols of White power--and beauty: White Jesus, Snow White, White Santa, White House, White Barbie, and White President of the United States .

And therein, I submit, lies the root of America 's centuries-old "problem of the color-line," which Du Bois (1903) lamented in his now classic treatise The Souls of Black Folk. Vittrup and Bigler's research suggests--to this writer-- that the core problem is this: The vast majority of Whites, perhaps some even subconsciously, do not want racism--and its attendant White privilege--to end, bottom line.

In view of their findings, then, it should not be surprising that some found President Obama's decision to deliver a speech to America 's school children--encouraging hard work, educational achievement, and critical thinking--so objectionable. Or that Joe Wilson showed such utter disrespect for President Obama during his health care speech? Or that the media continues to doggedly push this ridiculous notion that "both sides" are out of control?

Basically, I think these "freedom loving patriots" find problematic the idea of their children--and really all children--being exposed to a powerful Black man who commands respect. I'm not sure which possibility they find most frightening, White children accepting Black power-- that is, shared control --or a generation of Black children empowered by it.

 

Potential Weapon Against HIV/AIDS Progression

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-aids4-2009sep04,0,7870223.story

Scientists Locate Antibodies that Can Stop Advance of AIDS

Los Angeles Times (09.04.09): Thomas H. Maugh II

In a new study, researchers reported that two antibodies to HIV could
prove to be keys to a vaccine to stop the progress of the infection to
AIDS. The Scripps Research Institute-based team found the antibodies,
called PG9 and PG16, in people who remained asymptomatic after
infection.

"This is opening up a whole new area of science," said Dr. Seth F.
Berkley, president and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine
Initiative, which financed and coordinated the study.

To find the antibodies, scientists analyzed blood samples from more
than 1,800 HIV-positive people from Thailand, Australia and Africa who
had not developed severe disease for at least three years after
infection. Researchers at San Francisco-based Monogram Biosciences
tested the blood samples to determine which contained antibodies most
resistant to HIV infection. These samples were further analyzed by a
team from Theraclone Sciences, which isolated the antibodies
responsible for the resistance.

Researchers found the antibodies PG9 and PG16 in one African patient
were broadly neutralizing - inhibiting the activity of the 162
separate HIV strains that researchers tested. The antibodies bind to
regions of two HIV surface proteins, gp120 and gp41, that HIV uses to
invade cells, according to lead author Dennis Burton of Scripps in La
Jolla, Calif., and colleagues. These regions of the virus have never
before been targeted by HIV/AIDS vaccine candidates.

The antibodies could potentially be used as a treatment for people
developing severe symptoms from HIV infection. A vaccine based on the
discovery, using either synthetic or natural molecules, remains the
ultimate goal.

The full report, "Broad and Potent Neutralizing Antibodies from an
African Donor Reveal a New HIV-1 Vaccine Target," was published online
ahead of the print edition of Science (2009;doi:10. 1126/science.
1178746).

The Eradication of HIV

I am currently writing a piece entitled "The Eradication of HIV" to be published in various media outlets. As soon as I finish, I will post it here. Just to give you a preview, the piece touches upon assumptions about HIV and about how it can be prevented.

Coming soon!!!