Thai HIV vaccine reduces infections by a third
Updated
The US army and the Thai Public Health ministry may seem like odd bedfellows, but together, they are part of one of the most successful HIV vaccine trials to date.
Even the scientists don't know why or how the vaccine works, but Thai researchers are thrilled with the success of the world's largest HIV vaccine trial which has taken patients a small step closer to effectively combatting the virus.
Presenter: Karen Percy, South East Asia Correspondent
Speakers: Dr Supachai Rerks-Ngarm, Public Health Ministry of Thailand
KAREN PERCY: The island of Phuket in Thailand's south west is hosting 5,000 American sailors right now as part of a courtesy call by the USS Ronald Reagan and two other US naval ships. Phuket's girly bars are a honey pot for the young men who are following the footsteps of many before them.
This visit is timely, coinciding with the release of the results of a US army sponsored trial of a vaccine for the human immunodeficiency virus HIV which is often contracted through sex or intravenous drug use.
Over the past six years the US army has been working with the Thai Ministry of Public Health on a trial centring on another favourite sex spot of American GIs, Pattaya on Thailand's eastern shores. In the city and the surrounding provinces of Chonburi and Rayong they've undertaken the largest vaccine trial in the world involving 16,000 men and women.
It's also being hailed as the most promising test, revealing a 31.2 per cent drop in the rate of HIV infection.
(Sound of Supachai Rerks-Ngarm speaking)
"It is safe and reduces infection," says Dr Supachai Rerks-Ngarm from the Public Health Ministry of Thailand. "This is the first team to achieve that," he says.
The US army has spent $140 million backing the trial. The US ambassador to Thailand, Eric G John, hailed the longstanding and strengthening relationship between the two countries.
Thais and Americans have won a foothold in a battle against one of the world's deadliest diseases. These findings demonstrated even if modestly, that the vaccine regimen was safe and successful in reducing the risk of HIV infection among the trial participants.
KAREN PERCY: It would take a significantly higher reduction in infection rates to translate into a usable vaccine product for the market but the results are expected to boost other research efforts.
This study centred on strains of the virus that are common in Asia. It would need to be tested on African strains and on other populations to see how truly effective it might be.
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