[NVIC] NIH foisting experimental AIDS vaccine on the world.

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E-NEWS FROM THE NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTERVienna, Virginia http://www.nvic.org* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * UNITED WAY/COMBINED FEDERAL CAMPAIGN #8122* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *"Protecting the health and informed consent rights of children since 1982." =========================================================================================="The Thai government has approached recruiting for the trial like the U.S.government did for the military during World War II -- with a call forpatriotism and a plea for people to think of the greater good."BL Fisher Note: The latest AIDS vaccine fiasco has the NIH foisting two experimental AIDSvaccines on

unsuspecting citizens of Thailand, who trust that Americandoctors and the Thai government have their best interests at heart. Eventhough every experimental AIDS vaccine that has been created has failed,including one that will be used in this trial, government health officialsand eager drug companies press on, determined to ultimately force mandatoryuse of an AIDS vaccine on the whole world. And the best part? Once a bit ofthe virus that causes AIDS has been injected into all of us, we will alltest positive for HIV. For the greater good, of course.http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/living/health/14646199.htmMonterey County Herald, CAPosted on Tue, May. 23, 2006email thisprint thisBiggest AIDS vaccine trial yetResearchers air doubts about

U.S.-funded study in ThailandBy ARIANA EUNJUNG CHAThe Washington PostCHONBURI, Thailand - Inside a ramshackle Buddhist temple here on thecountry's southeastern coast, curious villagers gathered last fall as partof the United States' biggest gamble yet on stopping the AIDS pandemic.The informational meeting was almost like a game show as attractive younghosts revved up the crowd, working up to the big question, boomed out overloudspeakers: Would the audience be willing to volunteer to test anexperimental HIV vaccine?The villagers hesitated. No one moved for a full 60 seconds. Then,tentatively, they approached the three stands set up at the front, marked''Join,'' ''Not Join'' and ''Unsure.''For the past three years, such gatherings have been held all over Thailand,exhorting young adults to take part in the largest, most expensive, mostresource-intensive AIDS vaccine trial

ever. Funded by the NationalInstitutes of Health, it ultimately will involve 16,000 people and last 3½years.But as the trial moves forward, at a cost of more than $120 million, someresearchers are raising questions about its validity. They disparage itsscience, question its ethics and doubt its efficacy.No luxury of time|One of the chief dissenters is Robert C. Gallo, who helped discover thehuman immunodeficiency virus. He scoffs at the notion that the trial will besuccessful. ''I thought we'd learn more if we had extract of maple leaf inthe vaccine,'' he said derisively.NIH scientists defend the study, arguing that even if the vaccine doesn'twork, the trial may reveal new things about HIV. ''With 5 million newinfections each year, the luxury of time is absent,'' four researchers wrotein the journal Science.When scientists identified HIV as the cause of AIDS 21 years

ago, theypredicted that a vaccine to prevent the infection would be ready long beforea treatment for the symptoms could be developed. The opposite turned out tobe true. Many people today, especially in wealthy countries, are keeping thevirus in check with drugs, but a vaccine, desperately needed in poorcountries, has eluded modern medicine.Despite years of effort, investment in the billions of dollars, and dozensof small tests in people around the world, there's still no scientific proofthat a vaccine is even possible. HIV is a diabolical virus that disables thevery immune responses a vaccine needs to trigger in order to work.No cure|And yet the need is so urgent that scientists have gone forward withpreliminary human tests of many vaccines on the basis of data theyacknowledge is weak. The one in Thailand is the largest.The fact that no one has ever been cured of AIDS increases

the urgency offinding a vaccine. ''In contrast to virtually every other microbe we've comeacross, there isn't a documented case of anyone who... ultimately clearedHIV from the body completely. That's why more and more research is beingdirected at trying to stop infection from happening in the first place,''said Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy andInfectious Diseases, part of the NIH.The U.S. government last year spent 22 percent of its $3 billion AIDSresearch budget on vaccines and other preventive drugs, compared with lessthan 8 percent a decade ago. (Most of the rest is devoted to developingtreatments or a cure for those already infected.) Meanwhile, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation this year designated up to $360 million for AIDSvaccine research, and Congress is encouraging more research with bills thatwould provide liability protection and

tax benefits for drug companies.Tricking the body|But the science is daunting and subjects hard to come by. Scientists havebeen forced to travel to remote corners of the world to find communitieswhere the infection rate is high enough to show results in a reasonableamount of time.Thailand, where AIDS is a leading cause of death, has been among the mostaccommodating places. The NIH effort there involves two vaccines thatindividually have been disappointing in previous trials. One of them,developed by a once-revered scientist in the AIDS world, floppedspectacularly after an expensive test funded by private investors. The othershowed little promise in early trials. Researchers cling to the hope thatusing them simultaneously will attack different aspects of the disease andprove effective.A vaccine is basically a trick: Take a germ or part of a germ, kill it oralter it so

that it doesn't cause disease, then inject it into the body. Thebody thinks it is being attacked and produces an immune response that willprotect it when it is exposed to the real thing.But because HIV comes in 11 subtypes that constantly mutate, it must betreated differently. Enter Donald Francis, a longtime government researcherwho is credited with helping to eradicate smallpox and develop vaccines forEbola and hepatitis B.In 2005 he founded Global Solutions for Infectious Disease, a nonprofitorganization that aims to develop an AIDS vaccine. Francis works in abasement office south of San Francisco that looks more like a file room thana laboratory. After abandoning the VaxGen project, Francis and hisresearchers struck out on their own. Four of the five researchers workwithout pay, draining their personal savings to pay for their research asthey apply for grants. Francis said recently that

he expects funding from afoundation in the coming month.Francis is no longer involved in testing the VaxGen vaccine. But the failureof the big 2004 trial did not stop its inclusion in the current trial, whichwas begun by the U.S. Army and subsequently taken over by the NIH. Half aworld away in Thailand, that effort continues.The Thai government has approached recruiting for the trial like the U.S.government did for the military during World War II -- with a call forpatriotism and a plea for people to think of the greater good.Dual responses|The recruiters in December exceeded their goal of enrolling 16,000volunteers. Test subjects will receive either a placebo or a combination oftwo vaccines -- Francis' and one by Sanofi Pasteur SA of Lyon, France, thattargets T-cells. The study will conclude in 2009, after all participantshave been followed for 3½ years.The idea

behind the NIH trial is that maybe vaccines need to provoke bothantibody and T-cell responses to protect the body from AIDS. Critics saythat the potentially confusing inclusion of Francis' vaccine muddies theissue and that it should be dropped from the study.Nearly two dozen prominent AIDS researchers wrote an opinion piece in thejournal Science in early 2004 calling Francis' vaccine ''completelyincapable of preventing or ameliorating'' HIV infection and questioning''the wisdom of the U.S. government's sponsoring'' the Thailand trial.''There are adverse consequences to conducting large-scale trials ofinadequate (HIV) vaccines....One price for repetitive failure could becrucial erosion of confidence by the public and politicians in ourcapability of developing an effective AIDS vaccine.''=============================================News is a free service of the National Vaccine InformationCenter and is supported through membership donations. Learn more about vaccines, diseases and how to protect your informed consent rights http://www.nvic.org "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.

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