The full results of a landmark trial of an AIDS vaccine show that the shot did have limited success in protecting recipients from HIV.
But the study, published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, also suggests that this effect fades with time and may not work well for those at highest risk from HIV, such as people who engage in risky sexual practices or abuse intravenous drugs.
“Although our study provided preliminary evidence that an HIV vaccine regimen has the potential to prevent infection, it did not have the power to address two intriguing questions: vaccine efficacy may have decreased over the first year after vaccination, and vaccine efficacy may have been greater in persons at lower risk of infection,” wrote the researchers who tested the vaccine on more than 16,000 young adult volunteers in Thailand. (more…)
