Human trial of AIDS vaccine in India shows positive results: ICMR

New Delhi, Apr 29 (UNI) The human trial results of India's second AIDS vaccine called the ''Modified Vaccinia Ankara'' against HIV has yielded positive results giving hope to millions of people who are at the risk of getting infected with the dreaded disease.

''The MVA vaccine against HIV/AIDS has given positive results. It has worked well and improved the immune response of people who participated in the human trial,'' said Indian Council of Medical Research Director General N K Ganguly.

However, since the results have not yet been properly analysed and 50 percent of people were given placebo, so no concrete results could be announced now, Dr Ganguly said. He said the decoding process was still on, but the initial response of the trial carried out at the the Tuberculosis Research Centre in Chennai has shown some very good results.

Earlier, the human trial results of India's first vaccine tgAAC09 against HIV subtype C at the National AIDS Research Institute (NARI) in Pune, Maharashtra, had shown mild results, Dr Ganguly said.

He said both the results would be compiled and tabulated and then a combination of both the vaccines would be used for human trials to get a better understanding of their efficacy.

About 40 different molecules are undergoing human trials in various parts of the world, he informed, adding that two such molecules are being tested in the country which has an estimated 5.2 million HIV infected persons in the age group of 15 to 49. Both these tests were conducted after obtaining all ethical and regulatory approvals from the Government and taking informed consent from the people participating in the human trials.

Though at present a vaccine against AIDS is a distant dream, it could be the ultimate prize in the fight against AIDS, especially in developing countries like India where the cost of anti-retroviral drugs were out of reach of most people. However, HIV's ability to mutate frequently was a major challenge before scientists involved in the task.

Officials say in the first phase of such trials, vaccines are tested on healthy volunteers who are given a controlled dosage of the HIV subtype C virus to create resistance. In the second phase, the vaccine is given to a small group of high-risk individuals - sex workers, drug users and homosexuals - to check for the efficacy of the dosage.

They are not asked to alter their regular lifestyles.

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