Scientists say HIV therapeutic vaccine can temporarily improve the immune system

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  1. Alan Edwards  4 Jan 2013, 3:14pm  Report
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    Amazing! ZERO comments on a piece of news that should be stimulating and exciting the LGBTI community, It only goes to show (a) that you are not bright enough to understand the theory and implications (b) that you don’t care about those with HIV/AIDS (c) that you only really want to bitch about people who attack your lifestyle!

    Most interesting!

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    1. I opened this Comment thread twice earlier on having seen two people had posted a comment, but I found it empty! I re-loaded the page several times but it made no difference: the comments wouldn’t show. So maybe this didn’t encourage people to post. There’s occasionally a glitch with the PinkNews software, I think.

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  2. W6_bloke  4 Jan 2013, 3:46pm  Report
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    As someone living with HIV this study is very encouraging & could be the start of a long lasting functional cure for those of us living with the virus.

    Even if the vaccine just offers protection against viral replication for 6 months to a year it could revolutionise HIV treatment as we currently know it.

    As with all things HIV we have to play the long game with this breakthrough, but it certainly seems to be a great step forward – I am optimistic that we will find a functional cure in the not too distant future!

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  3. This is, indeed, very promising news for the millions of people all over the world, straight and square alike, who suffer as a result of the HIV infection.

    Here’s a totally new way of dealing with that virus. I’m sure lab medics in the HIV research-world will be taking great interest in this development and wondering how it could be furthered.

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  4. Staircase2  4 Jan 2013, 8:57pm  Report
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    Great news

    Although the article was marred by confused information concerning the 24 week follow up and appears to be contradicting itself.

    Please amend, Pink News

    Thanks

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    1. Staircase2, I cannot imagine why, as of this precise moment, you have “-2″ recommendations when there is nothing offensive in your posting at all, just as there is nothing offensive in mind (and I have “-1″).

      Maybe we have some mentally ill persons viewing these threads?

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  5. Jock S. Trap  5 Jan 2013, 11:33am  Report
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    This a Very positive step forward and one to keep an eye on.

    Hope is always a good thing and |I hope in my lifetime HIV will be a cureable illness!!

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  6. New Aussie  5 Jan 2013, 12:30pm  Report
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    I’d encourage caution with these results. The history of therapeutic vaccines for viral illnesses has been a rocky one. Unless they can find a way to produce this cheaply and demonstrate it is more effective than combination therapies, which are mostly off patent and cheap now, it will never be successful.

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    1. W6_bloke  5 Jan 2013, 1:16pm  Report
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      I think you are correct to urge some caution here – this was a very small study but it does provide proof of concept for this particular vaccine intervention. We do not know if the reductions in viral load achieved an “undetectable” viral load (less than 40 copies of virus per ml of blood) so at this stage it may be a vaccine that can extend the time period between initial infection & starting treatment with traditional HIV drugs.

      This vaccine could be of enormous significance for resource limited countries, where often they have to rely on older toxic drugs & where adherence is also a huge problem. There is a great deal of research happening around the world & I am hopeful we will see the decline of HIV in my lifetime.

      We are steadily getting closer to the use of injectable versions of newer HIV drugs, which could make treatment a weekly or monthly event. Again we are a long way off these interventions becoming available to “a clinic near you soon”, but we are getting there.

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      1. rottweil  6 Jan 2013, 12:00am  Report
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        Caution indeed: I view this as basic proof that the concept is possible and look forward to development of the idea, much as I see PEP and PrEP.

        The implication is that the vaccine is a single drug. While I think W6_bloke is right in saying it could stave off beginning treatment with more conventional HIV drugs, I see it from the other end of the spectrum. Both my consultant and the pharmacist have said that they’d have a hell of a job finding a suitable combination for me if my present (substandard) combination doesn’t work out. This could give those of us who’ve pretty much exhausted the existing combinations a breathing space as we wait for the “next big thing”.

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  7. Brett Gibson  7 Jan 2013, 12:59am  Report
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    Baby steps, but steps nonetheless.

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