For over three years now, scientists have been working to come up with a vaccine that aims to prevent the spread of HIV. It is with great excitement when experts have announced that they will now be able to test the safety and efficacy of the said vaccine regimen.
A large scale clinical trial known as HVTN 702 is set to be launched in South Africa. The study is allegedly said to last until 2020 and aims to evaluate whether the vaccine regimen would be able to protect a group of healthy adults which are found to be at risk of getting infected.
According to reports released by the International Business Times, experts claim that the clinical trial that is about to take place in South Africa would be based on the previous studies that has shown promising results in a breakthrough research that happened in 2009 known as the Military HIV Research Program.The 2009 study was said to have paved the way for the popular RV144 clinical trial which has been widely known to be used in Thailand.
Furthermore, experts have also explained that the only difference would be that the vaccine course has been slightly modified in order to correspond to the HIV sub-type that is common in South Africa.
ENCA have recently reported that Southern Africa was chosen to be the trial site due to a high rate of infection in the region. Experts believe that through this clinical activity, they would be able to see whether the vaccine will effective enough in one of the world's toughest region. Additionally, the trial is believed to be made possible by a partnership between a number of entities, vaccine developers and funders, including the South African Medical Research Council.
As of the present time, it was found that up to 300 of the young women sector every day are being diagnosed with HIV virus in South Africa. The country has now a record of 7 million people with HIV which is approximately one-fifth of the global HIV-positive population.
