HIV Vaccine Trial to be launched in South Africa
“We’ve never treated our way out of an epidemic. There’s no doubt we have to have primary prevention alongside treatment in order to get HIV control, but we are not going to get HIV eradication without a vaccine. That is very clear.” Linda-Gail Bekker, Deputy Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, explains the urgent need for an HIV vaccine in a recent interview with The Guardian. See full interview “HIV vaccine test hopes for breakthrough in combat against the virus” here: http://bit.ly/2fTn4NP .
The new vaccine trial, HVTN 702, will be launched on 30 November 2016 at the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre’s Emavundleni Research Centre in Nyanga. The trial will access the safety, tolerability, and efficacy (ability to prevent HIV infection) among South African adults. The vaccine is a modified version of the vaccine used in the RV144 Thailand clinical trial, which reduced the HIV infection rate by 31.2% – the first vaccine to ever show even partial efficacy against HIV!
More information on how the trial is going to be conducted and how the vaccine was developed to suit a South African population can be found here: https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-how-what-and-why-of-the-latest-hiv-vaccine-trial-67987
Keep a look out for an update on this exciting development on 30 November when the first vaccination will be conducted live from Emavundleni. If this vaccine works it could provide the boost needed to reach the UNIADS 2030 goals of eradicating the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030!
