South Africa launches Aids vaccine trial

AP

Monday, 20 July 2009

South Africa launched clinical trials of the first Aids vaccine created by a developing country today, as its own scientists overcame deep skepticism from political leaders who had shocked the world with their unscientific pronouncements about the disease.

The new vaccine targets the specific HIV strain that has ravaged South Africa's people and produced the worst Aids epidemic in the world.

"It has been a very, very hard journey," lead scientist Professor Anna-Lise Williamson of the University of Cape Town said at Monday's ceremony, attended by American health officials who gave technical help and manufactured the vaccine at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

During nearly 10 years of denial and neglect, South Africa developed a staggering Aids crisis. Around 5.2 million South Africans were living with HIV last year — the highest number of any country in the world. Young women are hardest hit, with one-third of those aged 20-to-34 infected with the virus.

Williamson said she sees no choice for South Africa, at the heart of the epidemic, but to press ahead with trials to test the safety of the vaccine in humans.

"We have got the biggest ARV (anti-retroviral) rollout in the world and still hundreds of people are dying every day and getting infected everyday," she said.

At a ceremony in Cape Town's Crossroads shantytown, one of the first of 36 healthy volunteers was injected today before officials and journalists.

The same vaccine is being tested at a trial of 12 volunteers in Boston that began earlier this year, said Anthony Mbewu, president of South Africa's government-supported Medical Research Council that shepherded the project.

The trial may have been started in the US to allay any criticism that the United States was collaborating in an AIDS vaccine that would use Africans as guinea pigs.

"It is being very well tolerated, no adverse events, so it is going very well," Williamson said.

The government decided it was important to develop a vaccine specifically for the HIV subtype C strain that is prevalent in southern Africa "and to ensure that once developed, it would be available at an affordable price," Mbewu said.

South Africa was the site of the biggest setback to Aids vaccine research, when the most promising vaccine ever, produced by Merck & Co. and tested here in 2007, found that people who got the vaccine were more likely to contract HIV than those who did not.

Some 250 scientists and technicians worked on the latest vaccine project, along the way gaining scores of doctorates and producing work for professional publications as well as a model for biotechnology development in South Africa.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and a leading Aids researcher, said the South African scientists received more money from his institute's research fund than any others in the world except the U.S.

He called it "the most important Aids research partnership in the world."

But he warned "There are extraordinary challenges ahead," referring to the years of testing needed now that South Africa has reached the clinical trial stage.

Fauci said scientists do not understand why the search for an Aids vaccine is so difficult, except that they are trying to do better than nature: "We have to develop a vaccine that does better even than natural protection."


Full Article Here

Views: 58

Comment

You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!

Join 12160 Social Network

"Destroying the New World Order"

TOP CONTENT THIS WEEK

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE SITE!

mobile page

12160.info/m

12160 Administrators

 

Latest Activity

Mr. Sizzle favorited Less Prone's video
1 hour ago
Doc Vega posted blog posts
7 hours ago
tjdavis posted a photo
19 hours ago
Sandy posted a video

Aron Siri's opening statement, Senate Hearing on Covid Vaccines, May 25

Opening statement Aaron Siri, Managing Partner, Siri & Glimstad, L.L.P.Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Permanent Subcommittee on Investiga...
yesterday
cheeki kea replied to cheeki kea's discussion Tartaria
"A smidgeon of facts have come to light. In English a misspelling suddenly occurred where an extra R…"
yesterday
Doc Vega posted a blog post

The Cancel Culture Vulture

  Better to shut them down than hear their point of viewCancel culture coming after youHelping to…See More
Saturday
Doc Vega posted a photo
Friday
Doc Vega posted a blog post

The Fingerprint

The Fingerprint On a dance with the unpredictability of the signals you sendA solemn pact with my…See More
Friday
Sandy posted a video
Friday
tjdavis posted a video
Jul 9
Burbia replied to Burbia's discussion Trump Receives Marching Orders
Jul 9
Less Prone favorited Burbia's video
Jul 9
Less Prone replied to Burbia's discussion Trump Receives Marching Orders
"Bullets can be effective in reinforcing ownership."
Jul 9
Burbia posted a discussion

Trump Receives Marching Orders

Netanyahu has made 3 visits to the White house since Trump's second term as President of the United…See More
Jul 9
Burbia commented on Burbia's video
Thumbnail

Ben Shapiro Just LOST HIS MIND — There's No Coming Back From This

"Omg. The Ben Shapiro voice that Luke is imitating here couldn't be any more comedic to…"
Jul 8
Burbia posted a video

Ben Shapiro Just LOST HIS MIND — There's No Coming Back From This

Get the magnesium your body needs - https://wearechange.shop/product/magnesium-glycinate/Ben Shapiro Just LOST HIS MIND — There's No Coming Back From ThisHig...
Jul 8
cheeki kea posted photos
Jul 8
Doc Vega posted blog posts
Jul 7
Burbia posted a video

A few reasons I don’t like jews. It’s not complicated.

These are the reasons I became antisemitic. It’s not complicated. Sure, I could go on for days, weeks, months outlining everything, but I don’t need to. This...
Jul 6
Doc Vega commented on Doc Vega's blog post Unusual Discoveries and Headlines
"Less Prone, Thanks Buddy! I'd like to volunteer as a historical reconstructionist! "
Jul 6

© 2025   Created by truth.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

content and site copyright 12160.info 2007-2019 - all rights reserved. unless otherwise noted