Our Best Chance to Eradicate AIDS?

Approximately 40 million people are currently living with HIV and an estimated 25 million have died from this disease. In the United States, approximately 1 million people are currently infected. The best news to come from the folks who are on the frontline of this war comes to us from Spain. Spanish researchers lead by Dr Mariano Esteban, a researcher at the Spanish National Research Council's Biotechnology National Centre, have completed the first human trial of a new vaccine against HIV. It has been successful in 90% of the HIV-free volunteers during phase I testing.

The team They are using an attenuated virus called the MVA-B, a variation of the Modified Ankara Vaccinia, which was previously used to eradicate smallpox.
The scientists injected the vaccine in 24 of 30 HIV-free volunteers. Six volunteers were treated with a placebo vaccine—they didn't experience any effect. But 90% of the treated subjects developed a very strong immunological response against the HIV virus. 85% kept the immunological reaction for at least one year, which is really good news.

According to their results, there were no significant secondary effects in any of the patients, which was one of the major objectives of to be tested in this clinical trial.