Human trials for a new HIV vaccine will begin in 2019

According to UNAIDS, at the end of 2016, there were approximately 36.7 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS. Of these, 2.1 million were children below 15 years old. An estimated 1.8 million individuals worldwide became newly infected with HIV in 2016 - about 5,000 new infections per day. Worse, only around 70 % of them know they have the virus.

The new experimental vaccine regimen generated antibodies in mice, guinea pigs and monkeys, which neutralized dozens of HIV strains.

Because of these findings, medical researchers are optimistic about human clinical trials for a vaccine capable of neutralizing a large fraction of common strains.

A preliminary human trial of the team’s new vaccine regimen is anticipated to begin in the second half of 2019. Other broadly neutralizing vaccines are currently being observed in clinical settings such as HVTN 702 and Imbokodo clinical trials.

The findings were published in the journal, Nature Medicine, and it was led by investigators from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which falls under the National Institutes of Health.

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Photo credit: ET Health