A clinical trial of an HIV vaccine regimen was shown to have some effect in preventing HIV infection.
The trial was conducted in Thailand on more than 16,000 participants.
"The results are encouraging," said Mitchell Warren, executive director for the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition. "And, for the first time, have demonstrated that an AIDS vaccine can actually provide at least some level of protection against HIV."
The trial was the world's largest study of an HIV vaccine regimen, according to a GSID press release.
During the trial, 74 placebo recipients became infected with the virus, but only 51 of the vaccine recipients became infected.
The vaccine had an approximate success rate of 30 percent.
"This is a promising step," said Lance Ignon, spokesman for Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases, "but it is only one step in many more that lie ahead before we can say that we have a safe, effective HIV vaccine."
However, researchers are not sure what this means for every HIV strain in existence. Thailand has a predominance of the strain Clade E, which is different from strains in regions like Africa and North America.
"While the results are very encouraging and exciting," Warren said, "it doesn't change the fact that we need many other kinds of AIDS vaccines in clinical trials and in laboratory tests as well. So it's an exciting addition to our information, but the need for a whole range of diverse approaches is still very much at the center of the search for an AIDS vaccine."
The AIDS Vaccine Conference in Paris Oct. 19 through 22, may answer some of these questions, said Elizabeth Adams, medical officer for the National Institutes of Health. The NIH financially and scientifically supported the study.
After the conference, when the findings will be more publicly displayed, Adams said there will be more discussion about the future of the product and how the study achieved its results.
However, it is not likely this vaccine will be available for administration to the public.
"I think it's important to recognize that this vaccine, although the result was very promising scientifically," Warren said, "no one is thinking about licensing this vaccine."
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