FDA Approves Canadian HIV Vaccine

The first ever vaccine to use a whole HIV virus will be used in human clinical trials next year.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new HIV vaccine pioneered by researchers at the University of Western Ontario. The vaccine will be used in clinical trials on humans starting in the new year. It's the first vaccine to win approval from the FDA that uses a complete HIV-1 virus that's dead but has been genetically altered to make the body's immune system ward off an HIV infection. The same method was used to develop vaccines against polio, influenza, small pox, and more, and Dr. Chil-Yong Kang, the professor that spearheaded the research, believes that the vaccine could one day save millions of people from ever becoming infected by the virus. Here's hoping.