Intensifying their search for a vaccine to prevent HIV infection, scientists are planning to run an improved version of the successful Thai HIV vaccine trial in South Africa next year.
News from Thailand late last year that a vaccine trial conducted among 16 000 Thais gave a 31% protection rate against HIV infection has given scientists hope that their quest to find a vaccine to prevent HIV infection is on the horizon. But further tests are needed and South Africa is an obvious place for these to be run, given our high HIV rate.
"There was a clinical trial that was done in Thailand and the results were reported in October last year that, for the first time, showed a hint that we'll be able to protect people from HIV by vaccination. We're really building on those findings and there are big plans to repeat those trials, both in South Africa and elsewhere, and, of course, improve on those, but to really see whether these first signs are really something that we can use to make a better vaccine", explained Lynn Morris, a Wits University professor and researcher for the National Institutes of Communicable Diseases (NICD), adding that "the Thai trial showed that the vaccine in question had a protective rate of 31%".
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