For First Time, AIDS Vaccine Shows Some Success in Trials By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. Published: September 24, 2009
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Why is this interesting? We've all talked about the fact that we do not really have a clear knowledge of what AIDS is, or more likely how to test it. Thus, it would be more benefitable to help the hungry in Africa. This article, though, sheds a rare light on a positive process of finding a vaccine for HIV/AIDS. We are not even close, but it is a beginning.
---------
A new AIDS vaccine tested on more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand has protected a significant minority against infection, the first time any vaccine against the disease has even partly succeeded in a clinical trial.
Related Health Guide: AIDS Scientists said they were delighted but puzzled by the result. The vaccine — a combination of two genetically engineered vaccines, neither of which had worked before in humans — protected too few people to be declared an unqualified success. And the researchers do not know why it worked.
“I don’t want to use a word like ‘breakthrough,’ but I don’t think there’s any doubt that this is a very important result,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is one of the trial’s backers.
“For more than 20 years now, vaccine trials have essentially been failures,” he went on. “Now it’s like we were groping down an unlit path, and a door has been opened. We can start asking some very important questions.”
Results of the trial of the vaccine, known as RV 144, were released at 2 a.m. Eastern time Thursday in Thailand by the partners that ran the trial, by far the largest of an AIDS vaccine: the United States Army, the Thai Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Fauci’s institute, and the patent-holders in the two parts of the vaccine, Sanofi-Pasteur and Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases.
Col. Jerome H. Kim, a physician who is manager of the army’s H.I.V. vaccine program, said half the 16,402 volunteers were given six doses of two vaccines in 2006 and half were given placebos. They then got regular tests for the AIDS virus for three years. Of those who got placebos, 74 became infected, while only 51 of those who got the vaccines did.
Although the difference was small, Dr. Kim said it was statistically significant and meant the vaccine was 31.2 percent effective.
Dr. Fauci said that scientists would seldom consider licensing a vaccine less than 70 or 80 percent effective, but he added, “If you have a product that’s even a little bit protective, you want to look at the blood samples and figure out what particular response was effective and direct research from there.”
The most confusing aspect of the trial, Dr. Kim said, was that everyone who did become infected developed roughly the same amount of virus in their blood whether they got the vaccine or a placebo.
Normally, any vaccine that gives only partial protection — a mismatched flu shot, for example — at least lowers the viral load.
That suggests that RV 144 does not produce neutralizing antibodies, as most vaccines do, Dr. Fauci said. Antibodies are long Y-shaped proteins formed by the body that clump onto invading viruses, blocking the surface spikes with which they attach to cells and flagging them for destruction. ---
1. Inyun Choi 2. Trafigura 'to pay out over waste' 3. Following last week’s posting, this article is also related to the environmental problem in the Third World. In addition, I wondered how poor countries' governments respond to those kinds of problems. It reports that one of African countries has been spoilt by a multinational oil-trading corporation, which is called Trafigura. To save the cost of toxic waste disposal, many companies seem to illegally dump it out in the sea near poor countries. Afterwards if something happens, they just pay some compensation to victims’ governments. However, the governments use the money inefficiently; for instance, much of compensation given for victims to treat their illness caused by the waste is mostly intercepted by the governments. According to the book Bottom Billion, I suppose it can be explained from bad governance in a small country trap as well as poverty trap perspective. Bottom billions get in trouble and are dying; pollution, health problems, etc. due to top billions and their governments’ inability. ------------------------- BBC Newsnight has learnt that oil-trading company Trafigura has offered to pay damages in a case relating to toxic waste dumping in Ivory Coast. The case was brought on behalf of 30,000 Africans who say they were harmed by hazardous waste. The waste from a ship called Probo Koala was illegally dumped in Abidjan. The news comes as a UN report has said there is "strong prima facie evidence" that death and injuries reported in Ivory Coast are related to the dump. The waste had been generated by the oil-trading multi-national, Trafigura, which has bases in London, Amsterdam and Geneva. Denials The company has persistently denied that the waste was dangerous to human health. But an investigation by Newsnight earlier this summer revealed that it contained a cocktail of potentially lethal compounds that can cause sickness, breathing difficulties and skin damage. It also contained the deadly gas hydrogen sulphide. An analysis of the waste was carried out by the Dutch authorities after Trafigura unsuccessfully tried to offload the waste there, claiming it was simply tank washings - the standard oil-water mixture produced by routine tank cleaning. The company is also being prosecuted in the Dutch courts. The class action, on behalf of more than thirty thousand Ivorians, had been due to be heard in London next month. Trafigura has always denied and continues to deny any liability for events that occurred in Ivory Coast, but in 2007 they paid £100m to the Ivorian government to "compensate the victims" amongst other things. The government administered fund paid compensation to the families of 16 people whose deaths they believed were caused by the waste. On Wednesday Trafigura admitted a "global settlement is being considered" for the victims who suffered lesser injuries. In the meantime it says there will be no further comment. A statement from the Ivorians' lawyers, Leigh Day and Company, confirms an offer has been made and says: "The claimants are very pleased and are keen to see the issue resolved." Watch Newsnight's report, revealing new information about the Trafigura story, on Wednesday 16 September 2009 at 10.30pm on BBC Two. ------ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8259482.stm
3. Last week, as part of EBS Documentary Festival, "Apology of an Economic Hitman" was screened on TV. In this documentary by Stelious Koul, John Perkins, once an economic hitman, testifies US's secret empire building process since WWII. According to Perkins, he was assigned to work for Chas T. Main, a non-governmental consulting firm, - this was to protect from being found out its connections with the government in case it was accidently revealed to the public - by the CIA to visit countries that had valuable resources, such as oil, and persuade (or more like threaten) presidents by inflating the need for infrastructures and development so that the country would borrow huge amount of money from the World Bank of the IMF. Once these countries are in too much debt to repay, they would be pressured to change their policies so that the resources would be privatized and eventually owned by US's multinational companies. John Perkins mentions some creepy series of mysterious accidents that killed many presidents in the past that now piece the puzzle together. I was curious in class when we were studying the rothschild, why these countries would keep borrowing huge amount of money that eventually leads them to become one of the bottom billion, but this video explains a great part of that curiosity.
----------
*This is a rather critical introduction of the film by the New York Times. I don't like it, but it was the only one I could find that was in English.
August 15, 2008 MOVIE REVIEW | 'APOLOGY OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN' Thoughts on a ‘Corporatocracy’ By ANDY WEBSTER
John Perkins, the focus of Stelios Koul’s overheated documentary “Apology of an Economic Hit Man” and a rising star among liberal political commentators, has less satirical wit than Michael Moore and less intellectual authority than Noam Chomsky. What he has instead is a propensity for melodrama.
Mr. Perkins, who says he was screened by the National Security Agency before being hired by the strategic-consulting firm Chas. T. Main in Boston, talks about a United States “corporatocracy” that assassinates South American leaders and, through the World Bank, exploits developing nations with unfair lending practices. The film, which almost shares a title with his best seller, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” derives its name from its central scene, a public appearance of the author before an angry audience in Quito, Ecuador.
With a few other talking heads — all of similar political disposition — the film drops some intriguing facts. And its stinging portrait of the crowd in Quito bristling at American policy is arresting.
But the film is undone by bargain-basement, noir-style re-enactments; a foreboding, over-the-top soundtrack; and a wholesale abandonment of any semblance of balance. There is a great documentary waiting to be made about the levers of control with which South American nations are kept impoverished. This, unfortunately, isn’t it.
A very down to earth* kind of guy. I'm an environmental sociologist interested in establishing material and organizational sustainability worldwide. I'm always looking for interesting materials/technologies, inspiring ideas, or institutional examples of sustainability to inspire others to recognize their choices now. To be fatalistic about an unsustainable world is a sign of a captive mind, given all our options.
*(If "earth" is defined in a planetary sense, concerning comparative historical knowledge and interest in the past 10,000 years or so anywhere...) See both blogs.
Christoffer Grønlund
ReplyDeleteFor First Time, AIDS Vaccine Shows Some Success in Trials
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Published: September 24, 2009
-----------
Why is this interesting? We've all talked about the fact that we do not really have a clear knowledge of what AIDS is, or more likely how to test it. Thus, it would be more benefitable to help the hungry in Africa. This article, though, sheds a rare light on a positive process of finding a vaccine for HIV/AIDS. We are not even close, but it is a beginning.
---------
A new AIDS vaccine tested on more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand has protected a significant minority against infection, the first time any vaccine against the disease has even partly succeeded in a clinical trial.
Related
Health Guide: AIDS
Scientists said they were delighted but puzzled by the result. The vaccine — a combination of two genetically engineered vaccines, neither of which had worked before in humans — protected too few people to be declared an unqualified success. And the researchers do not know why it worked.
“I don’t want to use a word like ‘breakthrough,’ but I don’t think there’s any doubt that this is a very important result,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is one of the trial’s backers.
“For more than 20 years now, vaccine trials have essentially been failures,” he went on. “Now it’s like we were groping down an unlit path, and a door has been opened. We can start asking some very important questions.”
Results of the trial of the vaccine, known as RV 144, were released at 2 a.m. Eastern time Thursday in Thailand by the partners that ran the trial, by far the largest of an AIDS vaccine: the United States Army, the Thai Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Fauci’s institute, and the patent-holders in the two parts of the vaccine, Sanofi-Pasteur and Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases.
Col. Jerome H. Kim, a physician who is manager of the army’s H.I.V. vaccine program, said half the 16,402 volunteers were given six doses of two vaccines in 2006 and half were given placebos. They then got regular tests for the AIDS virus for three years. Of those who got placebos, 74 became infected, while only 51 of those who got the vaccines did.
Although the difference was small, Dr. Kim said it was statistically significant and meant the vaccine was 31.2 percent effective.
Dr. Fauci said that scientists would seldom consider licensing a vaccine less than 70 or 80 percent effective, but he added, “If you have a product that’s even a little bit protective, you want to look at the blood samples and figure out what particular response was effective and direct research from there.”
The most confusing aspect of the trial, Dr. Kim said, was that everyone who did become infected developed roughly the same amount of virus in their blood whether they got the vaccine or a placebo.
Normally, any vaccine that gives only partial protection — a mismatched flu shot, for example — at least lowers the viral load.
That suggests that RV 144 does not produce neutralizing antibodies, as most vaccines do, Dr. Fauci said. Antibodies are long Y-shaped proteins formed by the body that clump onto invading viruses, blocking the surface spikes with which they attach to cells and flagging them for destruction.
---
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/health/research/25aids.html?_r=1&hp
1. Inyun Choi
ReplyDelete2. Trafigura 'to pay out over waste'
3. Following last week’s posting, this article is also related to the environmental problem in the Third World. In addition, I wondered how poor countries' governments respond to those kinds of problems. It reports that one of African countries has been spoilt by a multinational oil-trading corporation, which is called Trafigura. To save the cost of toxic waste disposal, many companies seem to illegally dump it out in the sea near poor countries. Afterwards if something happens, they just pay some compensation to victims’ governments. However, the governments use the money inefficiently; for instance, much of compensation given for victims to treat their illness caused by the waste is mostly intercepted by the governments. According to the book Bottom Billion, I suppose it can be explained from bad governance in a small country trap as well as poverty trap perspective.
Bottom billions get in trouble and are dying; pollution, health problems, etc. due to top billions and their governments’ inability.
-------------------------
BBC Newsnight has learnt that oil-trading company Trafigura has offered to pay damages in a case relating to toxic waste dumping in Ivory Coast.
The case was brought on behalf of 30,000 Africans who say they were harmed by hazardous waste.
The waste from a ship called Probo Koala was illegally dumped in Abidjan.
The news comes as a UN report has said there is "strong prima facie evidence" that death and injuries reported in Ivory Coast are related to the dump.
The waste had been generated by the oil-trading multi-national, Trafigura, which has bases in London, Amsterdam and Geneva.
Denials
The company has persistently denied that the waste was dangerous to human health.
But an investigation by Newsnight earlier this summer revealed that it contained a cocktail of potentially lethal compounds that can cause sickness, breathing difficulties and skin damage.
It also contained the deadly gas hydrogen sulphide.
An analysis of the waste was carried out by the Dutch authorities after Trafigura unsuccessfully tried to offload the waste there, claiming it was simply tank washings - the standard oil-water mixture produced by routine tank cleaning.
The company is also being prosecuted in the Dutch courts.
The class action, on behalf of more than thirty thousand Ivorians, had been due to be heard in London next month.
Trafigura has always denied and continues to deny any liability for events that occurred in Ivory Coast, but in 2007 they paid £100m to the Ivorian government to "compensate the victims" amongst other things.
The government administered fund paid compensation to the families of 16 people whose deaths they believed were caused by the waste.
On Wednesday Trafigura admitted a "global settlement is being considered" for the victims who suffered lesser injuries. In the meantime it says there will be no further comment.
A statement from the Ivorians' lawyers, Leigh Day and Company, confirms an offer has been made and says: "The claimants are very pleased and are keen to see the issue resolved."
Watch Newsnight's report, revealing new information about the Trafigura story, on Wednesday 16 September 2009 at 10.30pm on BBC Two.
------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8259482.stm
1. Wonmi Nam
ReplyDelete2. Corporatocracy and Economic Hitman
3. Last week, as part of EBS Documentary Festival, "Apology of an Economic Hitman" was screened on TV. In this documentary by Stelious Koul, John Perkins, once an economic hitman, testifies US's secret empire building process since WWII. According to Perkins, he was assigned to work for Chas T. Main, a non-governmental consulting firm, - this was to protect from being found out its connections with the government in case it was accidently revealed to the public - by the CIA to visit countries that had valuable resources, such as oil, and persuade (or more like threaten) presidents by inflating the need for infrastructures and development so that the country would borrow huge amount of money from the World Bank of the IMF. Once these countries are in too much debt to repay, they would be pressured to change their policies so that the resources would be privatized and eventually owned by US's multinational companies. John Perkins mentions some creepy series of mysterious accidents that killed many presidents in the past that now piece the puzzle together. I was curious in class when we were studying the rothschild, why these countries would keep borrowing huge amount of money that eventually leads them to become one of the bottom billion, but this video explains a great part of that curiosity.
----------
*This is a rather critical introduction of the film by the New York Times. I don't like it, but it was the only one I could find that was in English.
August 15, 2008
MOVIE REVIEW | 'APOLOGY OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN'
Thoughts on a ‘Corporatocracy’
By ANDY WEBSTER
John Perkins, the focus of Stelios Koul’s overheated documentary “Apology of an Economic Hit Man” and a rising star among liberal political commentators, has less satirical wit than Michael Moore and less intellectual authority than Noam Chomsky. What he has instead is a propensity for melodrama.
Mr. Perkins, who says he was screened by the National Security Agency before being hired by the strategic-consulting firm Chas. T. Main in Boston, talks about a United States “corporatocracy” that assassinates South American leaders and, through the World Bank, exploits developing nations with unfair lending practices. The film, which almost shares a title with his best seller, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” derives its name from its central scene, a public appearance of the author before an angry audience in Quito, Ecuador.
With a few other talking heads — all of similar political disposition — the film drops some intriguing facts. And its stinging portrait of the crowd in Quito bristling at American policy is arresting.
But the film is undone by bargain-basement, noir-style re-enactments; a foreboding, over-the-top soundtrack; and a wholesale abandonment of any semblance of balance. There is a great documentary waiting to be made about the levers of control with which South American nations are kept impoverished. This, unfortunately, isn’t it.
----------
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/movies/15apol.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=economic%20hitman&st=cse