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American Morning
House Call: AIDS Vaccine Shows Promise
Aired February 24, 2003 - 07:53 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: It's time to make a "House Call" this morning to look at some of today's top health stories. Our medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in Atlanta with news of the first human tests of a vaccine against the AIDS virus.
Sanjay -- talk about dueling newspaper headlines this morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
ZAHN: I'm confused. Are you?
GUPTA: Absolutely. It is confusing. In fact, let me -- I brought these. I wanted to hold these up, Paula, because this "New York Times" over here says, "Large trial fails." A "USA Today" article -- I don't know if you can read that -- but I'll tell you that it says: "Appears to work." And that is the confusion.
Fifty four hundred people being tested over the last four years, people at high risk of getting HIV. They tested a vaccine to find out just how effective it was, and what they have found is sort of interesting. It doesnt appear to work in some of the groups. In fact, less than a 4 percent overall prevention rate. But it did seem to have some benefits in African-Americans and Asians.
I had a chance to speak with Dr. Don Francis. He's the guy that spearheaded all of this. He's the CEO of the company. This is what he had to say:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. DONALD FRANCIS, VAXGEN: I think I'd say that it was a failure and a success. The failure side is that 90 percent of the study where we did not see an effect, and that would be in the white and Hispanic populations. But in the other populations, especially prominent in the African-American descent folks, there is at least the door down the hallway of knowledge seems to be at least cracked open. And the challenge there is, can we make that door open more and expand it to ultimately make a widely effective vaccine?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: Most people believe that probably based on these numbers, this vaccine is not going to get FDA approval, at least not anytime soon. But as Dr. Francis mentioned, could this be something that could be used in the African-American community? We don't know. The numbers weren't that big, but it does appear to be effective. More study is still going to be needed, Paula. So, not quite the big splash that people thought this might be, but still very interesting -- Paula.
ZAHN: Well, thanks for making that a whole lot less confusing, and welcome home.
GUPTA: Thank you. Yes, good to be back.
ZAHN: You were off in Kuwait for two weeks, was it? You were gone a long time.
GUPTA: Yes, two-and-a-half weeks, yes. Sleeping in the desert. It was fun.
ZAHN: Glad to have you back.
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 - 07:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: It's time to make a "House Call" this morning to look at some of today's top health stories. Our medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in Atlanta with news of the first human tests of a vaccine against the AIDS virus.
Sanjay -- talk about dueling newspaper headlines this morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
ZAHN: I'm confused. Are you?
GUPTA: Absolutely. It is confusing. In fact, let me -- I brought these. I wanted to hold these up, Paula, because this "New York Times" over here says, "Large trial fails." A "USA Today" article -- I don't know if you can read that -- but I'll tell you that it says: "Appears to work." And that is the confusion.
Fifty four hundred people being tested over the last four years, people at high risk of getting HIV. They tested a vaccine to find out just how effective it was, and what they have found is sort of interesting. It doesnt appear to work in some of the groups. In fact, less than a 4 percent overall prevention rate. But it did seem to have some benefits in African-Americans and Asians.
I had a chance to speak with Dr. Don Francis. He's the guy that spearheaded all of this. He's the CEO of the company. This is what he had to say:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. DONALD FRANCIS, VAXGEN: I think I'd say that it was a failure and a success. The failure side is that 90 percent of the study where we did not see an effect, and that would be in the white and Hispanic populations. But in the other populations, especially prominent in the African-American descent folks, there is at least the door down the hallway of knowledge seems to be at least cracked open. And the challenge there is, can we make that door open more and expand it to ultimately make a widely effective vaccine?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: Most people believe that probably based on these numbers, this vaccine is not going to get FDA approval, at least not anytime soon. But as Dr. Francis mentioned, could this be something that could be used in the African-American community? We don't know. The numbers weren't that big, but it does appear to be effective. More study is still going to be needed, Paula. So, not quite the big splash that people thought this might be, but still very interesting -- Paula.
ZAHN: Well, thanks for making that a whole lot less confusing, and welcome home.
GUPTA: Thank you. Yes, good to be back.
ZAHN: You were off in Kuwait for two weeks, was it? You were gone a long time.
GUPTA: Yes, two-and-a-half weeks, yes. Sleeping in the desert. It was fun.
ZAHN: Glad to have you back.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
