Hope is a good thing
Vaxgen, a California based pharmaceutical company, has released the findings of its three year long study on the first Aids vaccine to be tested on humans. The study involved more than 5000 volunteers. Initial results show the vaccine only reduced the rate of HIV infection by 3.8%. Black and Asian people who were given the vaccine, however, had a 67% lower rate of infection than those who received a placebo shot. But these subgroups were small, which means the results have to be treated with caution. To be granted a licence, scientists needed to show that any Aids vaccine was effective in at least a third of patients.

IE has a nice edit on the story today calling for more optimism on the findings.