There had been countless efforts by the scientists to find a cure for HIV (Human Immunodeficiency virus), which imposes a great threat to the mankind. Recently, an experimental vaccine, which was supposed to be tried in human beings to see its effectiveness against the HIV virus in US, was cancelled by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Thursday.

The vaccine was known as PAVE 100, and the decision to test it further was dropped by the NIH after fearing that the vaccine could actually increase the virus in the blood of the patients. A similar vaccine was earlier invented by Merck, which failed in the trials last year.  The Merck vaccine had failed completely to decrease or control the HIV virus in the blood of the patients. In fact results were quite scary when they showed that the vaccine could actually the virus in some patients.

PAVE 100 was supposed to be tested on about 2,400 men in the US and other 6,000 volunteers in South America, the Caribbean and Africa. The vaccine had shown positive results in the animal trials of the same. But Dr. Anthoni Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases (part of NIH) said that he stopped the human trail of the vaccine because of the un surety that the vaccine would work in the same manner with the human beings too.

Fauci had delayed the trial of PAVE100 initially, when Merc vaccine trial failed. The man later scaled back the proposed $ 160 million test.

NIH has however decided to run a smaller trial, which will be designed to see that whether the vaccine has a significant effect on the amount of the virus in a person’s blood. NIH will run additional trial only if this trial proves efficient.

Fauci, when asked about the reason to cancel the trail, said, “Show me that the vaccine works by lowering the amount of HIV in the blood. Then we will move to a larger trial that will document the link with a particular immune response. Until then, doing a large trial is not justified.”

NIH has been working from past twenty years to find an appropriate vaccine to fight and eliminate the deadly HIV virus from the books of mankind, but till now has not been able to invent any vaccine to eradicate the disease.  Though the numbers of deaths caused by AIDS have reduced, but still there are lot many that need proper guidance and education regarding the disease. According to the reports, the maximum patients are in Africa, with women constituting most in the population of victims.