HIV Vaccine Breakthrough

This is welcome news and is considered a major milestone.  31% is modest but the single most impt. thing here is that it's safety profile is said to be very good. 

Likelihood that the vaccine will do more harm or even introduce HIV to a healthy individual or predispose certain individuals to acquiring it which were the failures of the past two major clinical HIV vaccine trials in 1983 and 2003 is said to be very small or even close to nil.

I would not be surprised if a real HIV vaccine will be made available within the next 3-5 years after more studies and ff-up trials have been conducted.

A world first: Vaccine helps prevent HIV infection

Excerpts:

BANGKOK – For the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus, a watershed event in the deadly epidemic and a surprising result. Recent failures led many scientists to think such a vaccine might never be possible.

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, researchers announced Thursday in Bangkok.

Even though the benefit is modest, "it's the first evidence that we could have a safe and effective preventive vaccine," Col. Jerome Kim said in a telephone interview. He helped lead the study for the U.S. Army, which sponsored it with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.Even though the benefit is modest, "it's the first evidence that we could have a safe and effective preventive vaccine," Col. Jerome Kim said in a telephone interview. He helped lead the study for the U.S. Army, which sponsored it with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"Today marks an historic milestone," said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, an international group that has worked toward developing a vaccine.
"It will take time and resources to fully analyze and understand the data, but there is little doubt that this finding will energize and redirect the AIDS vaccine field," he said in a statement