A subunit chicken pox vaccine in HIV+ patients
In a recent study from the Zoster-015 HZ/su study group headed by GSK, a Phase I/II randomized, placebo controlled study to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of an investigational herpes zoster subunit vaccine was performed. To briefly provide a background to the study, the incidence of shingles in HIV-infected adults is 10-20 times higher than in an age-matched general population. This reduced upon the introduction of anti-retroviral therapy but remains 3-5 times higher than in the general population. Vaccination offers protection against shingles and its complications in HIV-infected patients but the use of the vaccine in immunocompromised individuals is fraught with risk due to the potential to cause disease. This necessitated a need to develop a subunit vaccine against shingles. Method: Vaccine: The subunit vaccine consisted of the VZv gE antigen along with an adjuvant. The vaccine was administered to HIV+ patients who were ART/high CD4, ART/low CD4 and ART naive/high