Ntaion Starts New HIV/Aids Vaccine Trials

Evelyn Lirri

20 May 2011

Uganda has started two new HIV/Aids vaccine trials as part of ongoing efforts to find a cure for the deadly disease.

Prof. Pontiano Kaleebu, the director of the Medical Research Council at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, said the trials that started two weeks ago will take two years and are being conducted in Entebbe and Masaka.

“We are conducting two trials but using the same vaccines,” Prof. Kaleebu said. “We are testing these vaccines in low risk individuals who are HIV negative because we want to find out if these vaccines can lead people to produce the right immune responses like antibodies.”

Speaking at the Aids vaccine Awareness Day in Entebbe yesterday, Prof. Kaleebu said recent breakthroughs in Aids vaccine trials in various countries across the globe have given hope to scientists and researchers to do more work in finding a cure for the deadly disease.

Prof. Kaleebu particularly pointed out a 2009 experimental trial in Thailand which reduced HIV/Aids infection by a third in that country and another trial conducted by scientists in the United States and other nine countries which showed that among discordant couples, a partner who is HIV positive and started on antiretroviral treatment when their immune systems are still strong reduce the risk of their partners contracting the disease by up to 90 per cent.

“Although these are exciting results, they should not make us lose sight of the importance of Aids vaccine,” he cautioned.

He explained that the cost of administering a vaccine would be cheaper in the long run compared to drugs which are more expensive.

Several Aids vaccine trials have largely been marked by high failures and scientists agree that a vaccine would still offer a lasting solution to the Aids epidemic.

Dr Kihumuro Apuuli, the director general of the Uganda Aids Commission, explained that a social vaccine would save the country against HIV/Aids.

“A vaccine that lives within yourself–to change your sexual behaviour – is the only thing that will set you free,” Dr Apuuli said.

Currently, some 130,000 new infections occur every year in Uganda and without an effective control method, these numbers are expected to rise further in coming years.

Uganda has played a crucial role in trying to find an Aids vaccine through the various trials it has undertaken. In fact, the first trial in Africa was done in Uganda in 1999. Since then several trials have been conducted in other African countries, though with little success.

AllAfrica – All the Time