VIDEO: New HIV/AIDS vaccine proceeding to human clinical trials

The first and only HIV vaccine using a genetically modified killed whole virus has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start human clinical trials. While other HIV vaccines have already begun human trials, they have focused either on one specific component of HIV as an antigen, a genetic vaccine using recombinant DNA, or recombinant viruses carrying the HIV genes. The new vaccine is unique because it uses a killed whole HIV-1, much like the killed whole virus vaccines for polio, influenza, rabies and hepatitis A. The vaccine, developed by a team at The University of Western Ontario in Canada with the support of Sumagen Canada, holds tremendous promise for HIV prevention. The three-phase human clinical trials are set to begin in January.