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CNN Live At Daybreak
AIDS Vaccine Test Results
Aired February 24, 2003 - 06:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The company that's been experimenting with an AIDS vaccine says it doesn't appear to protect most people, but there is some promising news for some.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to give us a better understanding of it all.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning. One of the most widely anticipated trials. This is the first phase III trial looking at a large number of humans to actually find out if this vaccine would work.
It's been going on since 1998; 5,400 people overall, 5,100 about men and about 300 or so women. Interesting, the results are a little bit confusing for sure.
Let me just even show you the cover of two newspapers today. If you look at "USA Today," it says, "Vaccine for AIDS shows promise," whereas the cover of "The New York Times" front page says, "Large Trial" -- I don't know if you can see that -- "Large trial finds AIDS vaccine fails to stop infection."
Fredricka, a little bit of confusion on this. Let me see if I can put it in perspective.
Essentially, what they found -- what they were shooting for was to find at least a 30 percent reduction in overall infection rates amongst everybody -- amongst all 5,400 people. They didn't get anywhere near that. In fact, they found about a less than 4 percent overall reduction.
But the sort of interesting thing here, and what people are sort of focusing on, is that there's a disparity amongst different racial groups. Blacks and Asians in particular appeared to have more protection than whites and Hispanics.
Now, there were only about 300 or so blacks in the study, and only about 77 Asians. Those numbers are very small. But the authors, as well as the investigators, concede that amongst African-Americans at least, there appear to be some statistical significance in terms of protection. Simply put, this vaccine does seem to offer some protection amongst African-Americans. Amongst Asians, it's going to require further study to actually see.
But overall, less than a 4 percent reduction in the vaccine. That's not enough probably to get this thing approved. WHITFIELD: So, they talk about further study. Are they also talking about perhaps having more minorities, having more Asians, having more African-Americans so that they can try and, you know, dispel or maybe even...
GUPTA: Yes, that's exactly right. There are two questions. You know, why the difference? Is it that the virus itself is a different subtype of the virus that infects African-Americans and Asian- Americans? Or, are those people somehow genetically responding to the virus differently, their bodies actually adapting to the vaccine better?
They don't know the question, but exactly what you said, Fredricka, the numbers are going to need to increase to find out if these benefits still play out. They don't know that yet.
WHITFIELD: All right, still trying to figure out whether this really is a significant breakthrough.
GUPTA: That's right. It doesn't appear to be. And you can see the headlines in the newspapers: one says "promise," one says "fails."
WHITFIELD: Right.
GUPTA: It's sort of teetering right on that balance there.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
GUPTA: All right, we'll see you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired February 24, 2003 - 06:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The company that's been experimenting with an AIDS vaccine says it doesn't appear to protect most people, but there is some promising news for some.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to give us a better understanding of it all.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning. One of the most widely anticipated trials. This is the first phase III trial looking at a large number of humans to actually find out if this vaccine would work.
It's been going on since 1998; 5,400 people overall, 5,100 about men and about 300 or so women. Interesting, the results are a little bit confusing for sure.
Let me just even show you the cover of two newspapers today. If you look at "USA Today," it says, "Vaccine for AIDS shows promise," whereas the cover of "The New York Times" front page says, "Large Trial" -- I don't know if you can see that -- "Large trial finds AIDS vaccine fails to stop infection."
Fredricka, a little bit of confusion on this. Let me see if I can put it in perspective.
Essentially, what they found -- what they were shooting for was to find at least a 30 percent reduction in overall infection rates amongst everybody -- amongst all 5,400 people. They didn't get anywhere near that. In fact, they found about a less than 4 percent overall reduction.
But the sort of interesting thing here, and what people are sort of focusing on, is that there's a disparity amongst different racial groups. Blacks and Asians in particular appeared to have more protection than whites and Hispanics.
Now, there were only about 300 or so blacks in the study, and only about 77 Asians. Those numbers are very small. But the authors, as well as the investigators, concede that amongst African-Americans at least, there appear to be some statistical significance in terms of protection. Simply put, this vaccine does seem to offer some protection amongst African-Americans. Amongst Asians, it's going to require further study to actually see.
But overall, less than a 4 percent reduction in the vaccine. That's not enough probably to get this thing approved. WHITFIELD: So, they talk about further study. Are they also talking about perhaps having more minorities, having more Asians, having more African-Americans so that they can try and, you know, dispel or maybe even...
GUPTA: Yes, that's exactly right. There are two questions. You know, why the difference? Is it that the virus itself is a different subtype of the virus that infects African-Americans and Asian- Americans? Or, are those people somehow genetically responding to the virus differently, their bodies actually adapting to the vaccine better?
They don't know the question, but exactly what you said, Fredricka, the numbers are going to need to increase to find out if these benefits still play out. They don't know that yet.
WHITFIELD: All right, still trying to figure out whether this really is a significant breakthrough.
GUPTA: That's right. It doesn't appear to be. And you can see the headlines in the newspapers: one says "promise," one says "fails."
WHITFIELD: Right.
GUPTA: It's sort of teetering right on that balance there.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
GUPTA: All right, we'll see you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
