AIDS vaccine results questioned | Booster Shots | Los Angeles Times
Oddities, musings and news from
the world of healthAIDS vaccine results questioned
October 11, 2009 | 10:45 am
U.S. Army and Thai researchers announced to great fanfare last month that a combination vaccine had produced a statistically significant 31% reduction in new HIV infections in a trial of more than 18,000 people in Thailand -- a modest rate, but the first vaccine results that suggested it may eventually be possible to produce a vaccine against the deadly infection, which has killed more than 25 million people worldwide. In an unusual approach, the researchers decided to make the results public in a news conference rather than wait for formal publication of their findings. The complete results have never been made public.
Now, however, a secondary analysis of the results have suggested that the vaccine was not quite as good as people had believed, reducing infections by only 24%, which was not statistically significant, according to researchers who spoke with Science magazine. The first analysis included all 16,000 people who participated in the trial and produced the promising results. The secondary analysis -- which was part of the protocol and is considered normal for all vaccine trials -- excluded patients who did not follow the experimental regimen. When that was done, the results were less convincing, according to experts who have seen the data.
AIDS vaccine results questioned | Booster Shots | Los Angeles Times
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