A Refreshing Perspective

Recently it feels like everything you read in the news just shows the world is going to hell in a hand-basket. The Taliban is growing more intelligent, the UN talks haven't made significant progress, healthcare reform debates are using scare tactics and flashy media stunts instead of intelligent debate, we still don't have a military strategy in Afganistan, and that's just the beginning! So when I finally stumbled upon David Brown's article "AIDS Vaccine Experiment Yields Unanticipated Results" it felt as though it was the only positive thing going on in the world right now.

According to the article an experiment in Thailand called the "Thai trial" yielded the first positive results for an AIDS vaccine. Don't jump for joy just yet though- not only has most of the data from the study not been released yet, but "it is unlikely that any country would consider it effective enough to be used as a public health measure against HIV."

Still, even with this wet blanket, Brown manages to show the positives of this research, without using any fluffy terminology or giving the readers false hope. He mentions that the research has shown that a vaccine is possible. In addition, he shows the reader that by using the information found from this study, scientist are able to gather a great deal of information about what is going on in the immune system when a person has some protection from HIV. However, Brown then deftly presents the negative aspects of the Thai trial showing that researchers are still skeptical about drawing conclusions from the study when the results have not yet been released.

All in all, I think Brown does a good job of not only showing the significance of this study, but also giving the reader perspective on what this truly means for the future of AIDS. While this vaccine may not be the answer, at least we know that it wasn't a total waste of time and resources and that there is some hope to finding a cure in the future.

Article link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/24/AR2009092400183.html?hpid=topnews