HIV vaccine being tested in Durban
AS THE world commemorated World Aids Day on Thursday, South Africans held on to a thread of hope for an HIV vaccine that could be on the horizon.
The first participants of the HVTN 702 HIV trial were injected with the vaccine in Durban on Wednesday.
Ningi Mbutho, 29, and Nkosinathi Mncube, 23, both of Inanda, were proud to be participants in the trial.
They got their injections at the Medical Research Council (MRC) site in Verulam, outside Durban.
This is part of a major study to test whether the vaccine could safely prevent HIV infection in South African adults.
A total of 5 400 HIV-negative vol- unteers are expected to take part in the study at 15 sites around the country.
Half of the participants in the HVTN 702 trial will receive the vaccine and the other half will receive a placebo (an injection without any study vaccine in it).
Risk
Neither group will know who has received which type of injection until the end of the study.
Activists were concerned about how the trial would be monitored and whether people were being encouraged to have unprotected sex to test the vaccine.
Professor Gita Ramjee of the MRC said the participants were not being placed at risk.
“In fact, throughout the trial, all participants receive risk-reduction counselling, condoms and other HIV-prevention services and methods.
“If they show interest, this includes referrals to nearby centres that provide oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).”
Ramjee said volunteers would not be paid to participate in the study but they would be reimbursed for transport to and from the clinics and the time spent there.
She said that to test the efficacy of the vaccine, all participants were being counselled to continue using established methods of HIV prevention.
“If the vaccine is effective, there will be significantly fewer HIV infections in the group that receives the active vaccine,” she said.