BACKGROUND In Thailand, phase 1/2 trials of monovalent subtype B and bivalent subtype B/E (CRF01_AE) recombinant glycoprotein 120 human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) vaccines were successfully conducted from 1995 to 1998, prompting the first HIV-1 vaccine efficacy trial in Asia. METHODS This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled efficacy trial of AIDSVAX B/E (VaxGen), which inc...

HIV-1 prevalence in Guangxi, China, has been growing since 1996, when the first case was reported. Over half of HIV-1 positive patients in Guangxi Province were injecting drug users (IDUs), possibly because of the province's location near drug-trafficking routes. Since a phase II HIV vaccine trial is ongoing there, a current characterization of the subtypes of HIV-1 among IDUs in Guangxi would ...

Despite great public interest and desperate need, progress toward a viable human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccine remains incredibly slow. Since Merck began its HIV vaccine research in 1985, the pharmaceutical company has yet to produce a vaccine capable of passing Phase II testing. Merck Laboratories President Peter S. Kim recently delivered a speech at Yale University that detailed his co...

BACKGROUND The HIV epidemic among men who have sex with men (MSM) continues to expand globally. The addition of an efficacious, prophylactic vaccine to combination prevention offers immense hope, particularly in low- and middle- income countries which bear the greatest global impact. However, in these settings, there is a paucity of vaccine preparedness studies that specifically pertain to MSM....

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is considered one of the greatest public health challenges given its impact on morbidity and mortality, there currently no vaccine available. costs for any have to be weighed against current preventative measures as well in reducing future infections. This was rationale behind conducting a willingness pay (WTP) study guide funding decisions. A cross-sectio...

BACKGROUND 1.5 million Kenyans are living with HIV/AIDS as per 2015 estimates. Though there is a notable decline in new HIV infections, continued effort is still needed to develop an efficacious, accessible and affordable HIV vaccine. HIV vaccine clinical trials bear risks, hence a need to understand volunteer motivators for enrolment, retention and follow-up. Understanding the factors that mot...

The Thai HIV phase III prime/boost vaccine trial (RV144) using ALVAC-HIV (vCP1521) and AIDSVAX B/E was, to our knowledge, the first to demonstrate acquisition efficacy. Vaccine-induced, cell-mediated immune responses were assessed. T cell epitope mapping studies using IFN-γ ELISPOT was performed on PBMCs from HIV-1-uninfected vaccine (n = 61) and placebo (n = 10) recipients using HIV-1 Env pept...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES In India, phase-I human clinical trials for a preventive HIV vaccine are being conducted at Pune and Chennai Centres. In order to find out the willingness of populations at risk to participate in future preventive HIV vaccine trials (HIVVTs) and to assess the factors that enhance or deter them from participation, a study was conducted at Chennai and Madurai in Tamil Nadu...

Scientific advancement has led to tremendous improvements in the life expectancy of people living with HIV. In addition, there is renewed hope that with combination prevention which includes early initiation of ART and ARVbased PrEP, we may have begun to see the end of the deadly epidemic. However, it is also widely acknowledged that we cannot end AIDS without an effective vaccine. While strenu...

One of the obstacles to AIDS vaccine development is the variability of HIV-1 within individuals and within infected populations, enabling viral escape from highly specific vaccine induced immune responses. An understanding of the different immune mechanisms capable of inhibiting HIV infection may be of benefit in the eventual design of vaccines effective against HIV-1 variants. To study this we...