This week I will continue my conversation, but take it into a different direction and hope I can get responses from individuals out there. I recently just found an article about a new vaccine that has been studied for the HIV virus. Now considering my interest is HIV and Sex, and who does not want to talk about sex, I want to tie in Sex and this new vaccine if I can.
The new recently studied AIDS vaccine showed that it is only marginally effective, however scientist are extremely excited because it is a positive start in finding a vaccine for this deadly virus. The results concluded that the vaccine has a better effect on the general public then it does on those individuals who participate in high-risk behaviors such as gay men and intravenous drug users. Moreover, “last month, researchers announced that a two-vaccine combination cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 percent in a trial of more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand” (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, 2009). Even though the vaccine is not going to be used any time soon in the future, because scientists need to develop and make it more effective, the studies conducted indicate that the vaccine is beneficial. The vaccine is not produced solely form the whole HIV virus, and therefore cannot cause HIV infection. On the study in Thailand, the vaccine combo consisting of four doses of ALVAC and two doses of AIDSVAX over six months was given to half of the test subjects who where HIV-negative Thai men and women ages 18 to 30 at average risk of becoming infected. The other half received a dummy shot. The study showed new infections in 51 of the 8,197 subjects given the vaccine, while 74 subjects obtained the infection of 8,198 who received the dummy shot. Therefore, as mentioned above that comes out to 31 percent lower in risk for the vaccine group. In conclusion, this study shows improved scientific and medical advances to fight this killer virus, which can be extremely helpful in the future (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, 2009).
Furthermore, I believe in the near future, from evidence in this article, that a vaccine for HIV will be available. In saying that I believe people will start caring less about HIV/AIDS and continue to participate in high risk behaviors such as unprotected sex. Eventually, I think, people will begin to think that they are safe from danger and not care. Am I right in thinking this way? Is a vaccine the answer to this virus, or just an insurance option. I would like to think it would be an insurance option, but I think many individuals would take it as a answer and not care about unprotected sex and the dangers. What do you think?
Sources
Web: By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. AIDS Vaccine Seen as Modest Help in The New York Times (2009, Oct. 20). Retrieved October 20, 2009, from http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/10/20/health/AP-US-MED-AIDS-Vaccine.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=HIV%20vaccination&st=cse
Hi Jamie. I liked your post because you made those of us who read it question how we think the vaccine will be perceived. I agree with you. I think those who are involved in risky behavior will continue and feel more at ease if they are given the vaccine. It does not surprise me that the current vaccine showed more beneficial signs to those who are not in the "risk" catagory. A vaccine to stop HIV would be great but I think it should be in combination with a change in our attitudes about sex and drugs. I'm not sure which would be harder to develop. :-) This was a good post.
ReplyDeleteI also did research on this trial vaccine and found that study fascinating! The question being raised now is if the vaccine really did have a slight protective effect. This is a huge leap in progress in curing AIDS if this is true, because there has not been an effective trial in 20 years that has ever protected anyone from this virus.
ReplyDeleteA major controversy is whether the vaccine is really more effective then the placebo. The author of the study results showed that out of the 8,200 people that received the vaccine only 51 percent became infected while out of the 8,200 people that received the placebo only 74 became infected. This is said to be “barely statistically significant” (McNel, 2009).
Wow I am glad that scientist are at least getting close to finding a vaccine. That is exciting news. I couldn't imagine being one of the test subject though, those people really had courage. Not I bet in the future when they really start making the vaccine with the actual virus fewer people are going to be willing to be the test subjects. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI was watching one of the news channels not too long after there was the initial discovery, and I remember being extremely disappointed. This was because the follow up report said that the test results that they had from the first trial had proved to be a very rare circumstance and all of their follow up results were showing that the vaccine had little or no effect what so ever. I also have a very hard time with studies such as the placebo test they did there because all people are not exposed to the same kind circumstances, and I feel it could have been flip flopped very easily on the numbers that came back. Yes, the vaccine would just be an insurance policy...but there are many people now who just go about and not care about what they are doing anyway. I still think the choice of saving lives over letting people be sexually free to do what they want is still the better outcome in the end even though morally it is not the accepted behavior.
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