The New York Times reports on the study of a vaccine tested in monkeys infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), a close relative of HIV, which showed nine of the 16 monkeys given the vaccine “slowly ‘cleared’ the virus and now appear to be cured.” SIV vaccines often are used as models for HIV vaccines, but “[n]ever before has one eliminated an existing infection,” the newspaper notes. Louis Picker, a vaccine researcher at Oregon Health & Science University who led the study published last week in Nature, said a human version of the vaccine should take up to three years to prepare, according to the newspaper (McNeil, 9/16).