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An area of testing animal rights activists claimed would never produce results was AIDS research with monkeys. Unfortunately for the activists, Australian scientists announced a breakthrough vaccine that fights off HIV infection in monkeys.
Given to monkeys already infected with the HIV virus, the vaccine caused their immune systems to produce large numbers of T cells that rid their systems of the virus. The vaccine works by exposing the monkeys to a modified form of the HIV virus which stimulated their immune systems.
Of course monkeys are not human beings and there is no guarantee the method used here will work in human beings. The Australian scientists hope to begin human trials on HIV carriers next year and possibly in non-infected human beings soon after if those trials prove successful. Even if this vaccine should ultimately prove itself ineffective in human beings, however, this represents an important advance in human understanding of HIV and points to ways that the disease can be attacked and hopefully one day cured.