Cape Town: South Africa is launching clinical
trials of two AIDS vaccines its researchers developed in
collaboration with US experts, a major step for a developing
country where political leaders once shocked the world with
their unscientific pronouncements about the disease.
Trials to test the safety in humans of the vaccines begin
this month on 36 healthy volunteers, Anthony Mbewu, president
of South Africa`s government-supported Medical Research
Council, said in an interview yesterday. Mbewu`s respected
organization shepherded the project.
A trial of 12 volunteers in the United States began
earlier this year.
Mbewu said the vaccine was designed at the University of
Cape Town with technical help from the US National Institutes
of Health, which also manufactured the vaccine.
Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Disease and a leading AIDS researcher,
was in South Africa for the launch.
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.
In 1999, the ministries of health and of science and
technology founded the vaccine initiative and poured 250
million rand into it over nearly 10 years.
Bureau Report
