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A boost for the battle against HIV/AIDS
Lynne Altenroxel. The Mercury. 24 April 2003. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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South Africa has moved a step closer to conducting its first HIV/AIDS vaccine trials after ethics approval was granted by Wits University.
The trials have to be approved by the Medicines Control Council before they can go ahead, but the approval by the university's ethics committee means that one more hurdle has been crossed in the long haul to get the trials going.
Wits needs to approve the studies because the sites where the trials are to be undertaken are linked to the university.
The chairman of the university's human research ethics committee (medical), Peter Cleaton-Jones, said on Wednesday that approval had been granted for two of the three trials.
The ethics committee had previously refused approval until researchers guaranteed that trial participants who became infected by HIV during the study would be given anti-retrovirals.
All three vaccines include only a small portion of HIV, which is inserted into other disarmed viruses - such as the cold virus - and so cannot cause HIV.
But participants could become infected if they practised unsafe sex, even after being vaccinated, because researchers do not yet know if the vaccines will work. The three vaccines are based on similar principles to the new Hepatitis B vaccine.
Application for the first HIV/AIDS vaccine trial was made 18 months ago, but technical problems have delayed its approval. A successful vaccine is not expected to be available before 2010. |
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