A new HIV vaccine could turn the once deadly condition which has killed millions of people into a 'minor chronic infection' like herpes, say scientists.
The first human tests found nine-in-ten volunteers developed an immune response against the virus, with 85 per cent maintaining immunity for at least a year.
If bigger clinical trials are as successful the virus that claimed the lives of a host ofstars including Freddie Mercury and Kenny Everett would no longer cause a disease and be much less contagious.
The success of the vaccine, known as MVA-B, is based on the ability of the human immune system to learn how to react over time against virus particles and infected cells.
Professor Mariano Esteban, of the Spanish Superior Scientific Research Council (CSIC) in Madrid, said: 'MVA-B vaccine has proven to be as powerful as any other vaccine currently being studied, or even more.'
It had already been successful in experiments on mice and monkeys and is based on a vaccine used to treat smallpox, with the addition of four HIV genes that are not able to self-replicate, guaranteeing safety.
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