Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - July 1, 2001
Bobby Jordan
Professor Tim Tucker, head of the R15-million-a-year SA Aids Vaccine Initiative, said it was hoped that South Africa's new candidate vaccine would work against all types of HIV infection, although it was based only on genetic samples of the predominant Southern African strain of HIV.
The vaccine - which scientists hope will activate the body's immune system to kill HIV - has been developed with the help of blood samples from HIV-positive prostitutes in KwaZulu-Natal.
Vaccine testing sites have already been chosen, and 48 people there will receive the first dose, probably early next year, together with another group in the US, said Professor Salim Karim, head of the Medical Research Council's vaccine research.
This means South Africa is one of just a handful of nations to advance to the stage of human trials. It puts the country at the forefront of pioneering a life-saving Aids vaccine.
The news follows years of collaborative research by a team of SA and foreign scientists on several candidate vaccines.
"There's no question about it - we will find a vaccine," said Karim. He added that Aids appeared more preventable than cancer. "But it's a long road - it's not something that we're going to have tomorrow."
The new vaccine, based largely on research in KwaZulu-Natal and by the US vaccine company AlphaVax, has already proved successful in a variety of animals. It is now one of the "frontrunners" in a handful of promising vaccines being studied across the globe. If clinical trials prove successful, it will be available to the public in five to seven years.
Karim said the SA research was based partly on genetic samples taken from prostitutes in KwaZulu-Natal.
The HIV genes were inserted into a special kind of virus that was specially modified to serve as a "carrier" - hopefully to stimulate immune cells in the human body.
SA scientists have also separately conducted research into a group of apparently HIV-immune prostitutes in KwaZulu-Natal, who are regularly tested at a Medical Research Council laboratory. Vaccine research was also being carried out with the help of a group of apparently HIV-immune prostitutes in Kenya, where scientists from Oxford University have developed a DNA-based vaccine.
These studies allowed scientists to isolate what appeared to be HIV-resistant immune cells, Karim said.
The vaccine programme is jointly funded by the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and the Department of Health, in partnership with Eskom.
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