Vaccination News

Developing a safe and effective vaccine to protect people against HIV is one of the most important goals in public health. The world has already lost tens of millions of lives to this virus and we must do everything we can to prevent future deaths.

The new Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative partnership will make a significant contribution to this effort through the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, established through the efforts of the G8 countries.

LAS GUARANAS, Dominican Republic - Leaving her tin-roofed brothel for the day, the 42-year-old prostitute journeys to the capital for an injection that might save not only her life, but possibly millions more around the world.

Jacinta Julia Adams Fernández, a mother of three, is one of 175 Dominican prostitutes lending their bodies to a trial of what New Jersey-based Merck & Co. hopes will prove to be a vaccine against the virus that causes AIDS.

Since turning to prostitution after a divorce 13 years ago, Adams has seen friends and co-workers die from the disease. Prostitution is illegal but widespread, largely ignored by the authorities.

Feb. 9, 2007 -- An AIDS vaccine that uses a genetically engineered smallpox virus to boost anti-HIV immunity looks promising in early tests on humans.

In animal tests, the vaccine did not protect monkeys against infection with an AIDS virus. But vaccinated animals remained healthy -- and suffered no immune damage from the deadly virus.

Now, nine humans have received small doses of the vaccine: about one-tenth of the full dose. The vaccine was safe. And even at this tiny dose, it stimulated the kind of immune responses that protected monkeys.

The vaccine is the brainchild of Harriet Robinson, MD, chief of microbiology and immunology at Yerkes National Primate Research Center. Robinson is chief scientific advisor to GeoVax Labs Inc. of Atlanta, spun off from Emory University's vaccine center to market the vaccine.

Author: Tina Rosenberg

Last month, scientists invented the AIDS vaccine. Missed it? Perhaps that’s because you were still seeking the vaccine fantasy: the magic bullet, the impenetrable shield that finally pitches this disease into the trash bin, the shot that will end not only the AIDS epidemic but our anxiety about the AIDS epidemic as well.

The vaccine thunderbolt didn’t strike — and might never. Drearily, the real AIDS vaccine is likely to be imperfect: one more tool in our arsenal, to be used along with condoms and all our other tools. It will most likely avert millions of infections and save millions of lives. But it will not end the Age of AIDS.

Russians did it?.. Wow. Great.

Institute of Immunology of Russian Academy of Sciences takes up a problem of AIDS in Russia.

Laboratory chief of physiology of immunity and allergy Georgi Gudia says about a new vaccine against AIDS: "Anti-HIV vaccine HIV - Ripol was developed in the Institute of Immunology". Said vaccine has passed all necessary preclinical trials, and, since 2005, has been passing clinical trials with volunteer attraction.

First trial stage is coming to an end, and medical experts claim they can surely say that the vaccine is harmless and well tolerated for human beings. Ripol vaccine is classified as so-called vaccine of new generation. Ripol is a proprietary development of Institute of Immunology and is unique in global practice; moreover, the vaccine affects not only the antigen, but also its carrier.

Uganda has screened and vaccinated at least a quarter of the 50 babies needed for vaccine trial focused on prevention of HIV transmission from mother to child during breastfeeding.

The first baby in the vaccine trials was enrolled in October and by last week 14 of them had received either the vaccine or placebo saline solution (for control) while 16 have been screened to participate. 

The center is looking for men and women to participate in the trials which will take place in Beijing, said Shao Yiming, chief expert for the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention.

He revealed the plan at a conference on Sino-U.S. AIDS vaccine research and development held on Sunday without indicating how many participants will be involved in the trial.

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CytoGenix (OTCBB:CYGX) has demonstrated that a synDNA™ vaccine against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has activity in monkeys. The study, conducted by Drs. Yin Chen and Frédéric Kendirgi at CytoGenix in collaboration with Lauren Hirao and Dr. David Weiner of the University of Pennsylvania, demonstrated that rhesus monkeys injected with a synDNA™ HIV vaccine mounted a significant cellular immune response. The study involved monkeys treated with a synDNA™ vaccine targeting two key viral proteins (gag and env) with interleukin-15 as an adjuvant.

"This observation, the first evidence of activity for a synDNA™ vaccine in non-human primates, is encouraging in that it shows that the synDNA™ vaccine is as effective as the DNA plasmid-based vaccine expressing the same antigen. The advantages of using DNA vaccines can be significantly extended using synDNA™ constructs and warrants further study to determine if the response is sufficient to protect against HIV infection,” stated David B. Weiner, Ph.D., an expert in DNA vaccination and a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

In the first programme of its kind, Virax, which is listed on the Australian stock exchange and plans to float on Aim next year, has set up a non-profit organisation for corporate donors with operations and interests in South Africa and other neighbouring countries, and whose workforces are affected by the disease.

Eight companies including Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton will fund the trials, expected to cost between $5m and $6m.

There are more than six million people with HIV/Aids in the country. The incidence of the disease varies - in KwaZulu-Natal, for example, up to 35% of the population is HIV positive, and 41% of those in the penal system have the virus.

A Perth researcher playing a key role in the fight against HIV-AIDS says there could be a breakthrough in vaccines within 10 years.

Professor Simon Mallal leads a team of 42 scientists at a collaborative research centre in Perth who have already notched up a breakthrough in HIV-AIDS research.

In 2002, the team discovered that a person's genetics will determine how they will react to HIV and how they should be treated.

The unique nature of HIV has hampered the search for an Aids vaccine and it remains a distant prospect, the world's leading experts say.

When American politicians announced the discovery of HIV in 1984, they predicted that a vaccine and a cure for Aids would be available within five years. It turned out to be a hopelessly optimistic assessment as the immense technical and scientific difficulties unfolded.

Nevertheless, the discovery of the virus led to important developments. The first was a blood test to determine whether someone was HIV positive. A global research effort into the genetics and biology of HIV led to a deeper understanding of the virus's modus operandi. This pointed to ways of sabotaging viral replication in infected patients.

(AGI) - Rome, Nov 28 - 27pct of young people believe that there already is a vaccine against AIDS. 20pct are mistaken in how the HIV virus is spread. These figures were given by Prof. Fernando Aiuti, immunologist and Chairman of Anlaids, opening for the XX National Congress in Rome in the presence of Prof. Roberto Gallo, a world expert on the disease.

"There is no vaccine against AIDS, but there are some candidates which could become it, though it is not yet known which ones will work," he added. "Condoms should be placed in selling machines in high schools or nearby. Joints should not be allowed," added Prof. Aiuti, recalling data given by the Italian National Health Institute (ISS), which count one infection every two hours.

The production of an AIDS vaccine would cost 10 billion euro, virologist Vittorio Collizi said. A joint Bulgarian- Italian team is working on the new medicament.

Collizi is in Bulgaria to present research developments, Darik Radio reported. Together with Bulgarian Bogdan Petrounov, Collizi is working on a vaccine which at the same time develops immunity against HIV and tuberculosis.

The project was worth 10 billion euro, Collizi said. Funds were needed for the development and practical implementation of the vaccine, said he.

An Australian company is in a global race to produce a vaccine for diseases such as HIV and cancer.

The privately-owned company Replikun Biotech Pty Ltd has used the kunjin virus, found in mosquitoes from the wet tropics region of north Queensland, to make an injectable vaccine after processing with gene technology.

Replikun Biotech says laboratory testing has yielded promising results and the company has now reached the stage where the vaccine could be tested on monkeys, and if that is successful, on humans.

Replikun Biotech chief executive Shane Storey said the class of vaccines under development activated parts of the immune system which conventional vaccines could not kick-start.

Ugandan and American Aids researchers have begun the first ever clinical trial of a vaccine to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV through breast-feeding which, if successful, could prevent at least 25,000 infections in new-borns in East Africa alone.

In the first phase of the trials the researchers will be testing whether the vaccine, formally known as ALVAC-HIV, is safe for use in children, following which they will study whether it can stop the transmission of the Aids virus to a suckling baby through breastmilk. Preliminary results are expected in mid-2007.

According to the UNAids, breast-feeding by HIV-positive mothers accounts for more than a third of all infections in new-borns, translating to about 1,800 children each day around the world. In Uganda alone, at least 8,000 of the country's 22,000 infections in children each year occur as a result of breast-feeding.

At St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Drs. Karen Slobod and Julia Hurwitz have been working for more than a decade on a vaccine to protect against the AIDS virus. Although medications have helped transform AIDS from a rapidly fatal to a chronic disease, there is still no vaccine or cure.

Human testing with the experimental vaccine began in the late 1990s. In a statement, Dr. Elaine Tuomanen, chairwoman of St. Jude's department of infectious disease, said a final round of safety testing is expected to begin early next year. She indicated the next step will be determined by those results along with the immune response the vaccine sparks.

LONDON (AFX) - Bavarian Nordic AS said it has started a Phase I and a Phase I/II clinical study in Europe with MVA-BN polytope vaccine against HIV.

The vaccine was recently released from the company's facility in Berlin for use in clinical trials.

Results from both studies are expected in the second half of 2007.

MVA-BN polytope is the second of the company's three vaccine candidates to enter clinical trials.

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HIV/AIDS vaccine trials to prevent mother-to-child transmission through breast-feeding have started at Mulago Hospital, writes Hillary Kiirya.

The trail, the first in Africa, started on Thursday on the first-born baby out of the 50 mothers screened.

"Making breastfeeding safe is possibly the most important challenge for those involved in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission in Sub-Saharan Africa," said Prof. Francis Mmiro, the lead investigator of the study.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: The campaign, called "Be The Generation," calls on young people in the U.S. to stop AIDS through the discovery of a safe and effective HIV vaccine during their lifetime.

It will launch this month with a television ad running for six weeks in 14 U.S. cities where HIV vaccine research is underway.

The campaign also includes a Web site, bethegeneration.org, a community toolkit and partnerships with vaccine research institutions and community-based groups (NIAID release, 10/16).

While the majority of news websites are spamming that there are enough flu shots for the next "flu season", at the same time there are some reports of flu shots not being available straight away. In my opinion all this is nothing else but a "battage" or a stir created by PR departements of pharmaceutical companies and related media corporations.

Here it is:

The first HIV vaccine trial in Jamaica has begun with 24 persons who have volunteered to be tested from an experimental vaccine. Beginning today, The Sunday Gleaner will carry a diary of persons participating in the study. Dr. Peter Figueroa, chief of epidemiology and AIDS at the Ministry of Health, said it was not possible for persons to contract HIV or develop AIDS from the experimental vaccine. "I must stress that it is not possible to get HIV infection or develop AIDS from experimental vaccines< because they are not made from live HIV, killed HIV (or) weakened HIV or infected cells," he stated

Scientists at Makerere University, in Uganda, along with scientists from Johns Hopkins and other institutions worldwide, have begun the first clinical safety trial in Africa of a vaccine to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV through breastfeeding, according to a news release from Johns Hopkins Friday.

Breast milk is a leading route of infection in the developing world, according to the World Health Organization, which estimates that each day 1,800 newborns are infected with the AIDS virus, 30 percent to 40 percent by virus carried in their mother's milk.

PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Studies presented at the Modern Vaccine Adjuvants et Delivery Systems Conference and at the AIDS Vaccine Conference 2006 show improved immunogenicity of vaccines when used with the Biojector® 2000 ("B2000") in cancer and AIDS vaccines.

CHONBURI, Thailand -- Inside a ramshackle Buddhist temple here on the country's southeastern coast, curious villagers gathered last fall as part of the United States' biggest gamble yet on stopping the AIDS pandemic.

The informational meeting was almost like a game show as attractive young hosts revved up the crowd, working up to the big question, boomed out over loudspeakers: Would the audience be willing to volunteer to test an experimental HIV vaccine?