Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday 14 April 2002
Bobby Jordan
News of the new vaccine trial emerged this week at an international vaccine conference in Cape Town, attended by South African and world vaccine experts.
The new vaccine - the most promising in 80 years since the introduction of the first TB vaccine that is still in use - is due to start this year in the Worcester area of the Western Cape, co-coordinated by infectious diseases expert Professor Greg Hussey, head of paediatric infectious diseases at the University of Cape Town.
"We've already set up the infrastructure to do this - it is quite a major step," said Hussey.
"Pre-clinical work suggests this new vaccine will be much better than the old one - there's a lot of hope it will work."
The trial, expected to last between three to five years, is a joint venture between South Africa, the University of Los Angeles and an American development agency.
It follows a worldwide resurgence of TB and TB research, due largely to the HIV/Aids pandemic.
"People who are HIV-positive are more at risk of developing TB and this has led to a resurgence of TB vaccines.
"The vaccine we are testing is probably the first of quite a few new vaccines that will come onto the market," Hussey said.
Researchers at this week's conference were also upbeat about the chances of a HIV vaccine, expected within the next 10 years. A number of separate HIV vaccine trials across the globe are nearing the human trial phase.
"With 15 000 new infections daily, speed is absolutely of the essence," the president of the International Aids Vaccine Initiative, Dr Seth Berkley, told the Cape Town conference.
"Given the scope of the epidemic, the world's response has been grossly inadequate. We must drive this [vaccine initiative] forward as fast as is humanly possible," Berkley said.
SA's director-general of health, Ayanda Ntsaluba, told delegates that South Africa needed to ensure an infrastructure was in place to deliver new vaccines if and when they arrive.
South Africa spends about R100-million a year on vaccinations.
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