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Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which helped fund
the study, said early tests show that the Gilead drug blocked all traces of the disease in 25
macaque monkeys more than one year after the experiment began.
It sounds almost too good to be true, said Dr. Marta Marthas, a virologist at the University
of California at Davis Regional Primate Research Center. But she added, You cant argue with
that result.
Dr. Ashley Haase, an expert on lentiviruses, the virus family that includes HIV and SIV
(simian), said he was surprised and pleased by the finding.
He added that the study was carefully done and that it was if anything, more difficult to
protect against SIV than it was to protect against HIV infections.
NIHs Black, who was on work furlough because of the federal budget impasse, said a
tremendous amount of additional research still needs to be completed.
Further tests are needed, for example, to determine how well monkeys tolerate high doses
of the drug.
Monkeys are not human beings, she said. Although it is an excellent model for evaluating
drugs, it is still a model.
But among the encouraging benefits of the Gilead compound is that, in achieving a 100
percent success rate, there were no additional complications.
Such complete protection with no toxicity is unprecedented in the monkey model of AIDS,
said Anthony S. Fauci, director of infectious diseases at NIH.
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