KAMPALA, Aug 16 (AFP) - An AIDS vaccine under trial in Uganda is showing encouraging results, with 20 subjects developing the antibodies of the HIV virus which causes AIDS, Ugandan medical scientists said Monday.
Peter Mugenyi, the director of the Joint Clinical Research Centre, told AFP by telephone that 20 volunteers injected with the ALVAC vCP205 test vaccine developed HIV antibodies while another 20 given a placebo did not.
The vaccine was developed by the French company Pasteur Merieux Connaught.
"Detailed preliminary results are expected at the end of next year," Mugenyi said.
"That the volunteers developed antibodies indicates that the vaccine has the potential of protecting against HIV infection," he said.
The vaccine, which has reportedly been tested on 800 people in the United States and France, is made of a weakened canary pox virus with three HIV genes and is reported to be incapable of multiplying within its human carrier.
Uganda has one of the highest levels of HIV infection in the world with up to 30 percent of people in urban areas and 10 percent in rural areas infected. The country's population is estimated at 20 million.
An aggressive awareness campaign has brought HIV infection rates sharply down during the past two years.
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