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…)
Even as the H1N1 swine flu vaccine is distributed coast to coast, many people say they have safety concerns that may stop them from getting vaccinated.
People suffering from the flu may be at higher risk for having a heart attack, especially those with heart disease and diabetes, British researchers report.
Showering may be bad for your health, say US scientists, who have shown that dirty shower heads can deliver a face full of harmful bacteria. Tests revealed nearly a third of devices harbour significant levels of a bug that causes lung disease. Levels of Mycobacterium avium were 100 times higher than those found in typical household water supplies. M. avium forms a biofilm that clings to the inside of the shower head, reports the National Academy of Science.