Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - November 30, 2004
Kerry Cullinan and Claire Keeton
The International Aids Vaccine Initiative notes that almost all the 30-odd candidate vaccines undergoing human trials are "narrowly focused on a single hypothesis that a vaccine can confer protection by eliciting a cell-mediated immune response".
"If the hypothesis is proven incorrect, the pipeline of candidates now in trials will be rendered mostly irrelevant," says the international organisation.
Last year, the candidate AIDSVax was found to be ineffective. The vaccine candidates now on trial are only in phase I (small safety) and phase II (large safety) trials. The actual efficacy is tested only in phase III trials. The earliest the world can expect the results of these is in four years.
South Africa's first phase I trials started a year ago in Durban and Johannesburg. Two vaccines are being tested.
The VEE subtype C is the first candidate for the subtype of HIV most common in southern Africa. South African scientist Dr Carolyn Williamson developed it in collaboration with Bob Johnson of the US. The second, MVA subtype A, is for the kind of HIV most common in East Africa.
"There have been no adverse reactions so far, and this trial will be completed in about six months," says Michelle Galloway of the SA Aids Vaccine Initiative. "If all goes well, we will move on to a phase II trial, which will take about two years."
The phase I trial of another candidate developed by Williamson and her sister Anna-Lise may begin next year.
Not a single volunteer in the HIV vaccine trials, at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, dropped out.
This month the first volunteers - an Irish priest from Atteridgeville and a mother from Soweto - completed their year-long commitment by giving their last 21 vials of blood to researchers.
The head investigator for the Soweto trials, Dr Eftyhia Vardas, said the 45 volunteers enrolled in testing two HIV vaccines were very committed.
Each volunteer had to make nine visits, three of which involved getting shots of experimental vaccines.
Vardas said: "Some volunteers had pain or redness and swelling at the injection site but there were no serious side-effects. This means the agent is safe for humans."
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