HIV/AIDS patients can now say that they have been given a new hope following after a new collaboration of European and African researchers have been set to develop an AIDS vaccine in order to prevent infection with different strains of HIV worldwide. Dubbed as the Globally Relevant AIDS Vaccine Europe-Africa Trials Partnership or GREAT, it was found that the partnership will be bound to asses a vaccine that can have the ability to trigger the body to produce specialized immune cells known as T cells. That said, the trial is said to be tested at four sites in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia.
Aids Vaccine On The Works
In one of his statements reported by Laboratory News, study lead researcher, Professor Tomáš Hanke, from the Jenner Institute at the UK's University of Oxford has claimed that there is currently an enormous variation between HIV strains across the globe, which is one of the challenges in making the right treatment difficult, has also been regarded as an obstacle to developing a vaccine. Through the use of small parts common to most HIVs, Professor Hanke explains that if all goes according to plan, the vaccine could be used around the world, especially in Africa which is most affected by the HIV pandemic. It was found that the HIV virus which eventually develops into AIDS has been considered as one of the biggest diseases that the world is currently facing wherein at the end of 2015, data shows that there were approximately 37m people living with HV.
Furthermore, according to International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics, similar kinds of vaccines have already been proven to be safe and promising in several past trials. Additionally, the lead researcher continues to explain that this vaccine only contains small portions of HIV-1, thus, it does not have the ability to cause HIV infection or AIDS. Concurrently, alongside the vaccine testing, experts have also revealed that the said project will also aim at new building programs that will allegedly prepare the researchers for large scale medical trials in future.
Study's Future Plans
Meanwhile, it was found that GREAT is being funded by a 7.1m grant from the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trial Partnership (EDCTP), Oxford University and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. Dr. Michael Makangq, the executive director of EDCTP said that despite the fact that there are now remarkable advances in treatment and prevention, he explains that the AIDS epidemic is not yet over. Ultimately, Makangq has explained that only an effective vaccine could have the ability of preventing the majority of new HIV infections.
