Vaccine Helps Prevent HIV Infection

An experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus for the first time ever. The vaccine cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 percent in the world’s largest AIDS vaccine trial of more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand.

Even though the benefit is modest, it’s the first evidence that there could have a safe and effective preventative vaccine.

Details of the $105 million study will be given later in October.

This is one little step that could lead to a large impact. Every day, 7,500 people worldwide are newly infected with HIV; two million died of AIDS in 2007, UNAIDS estimates.