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Tanzania starts trials on HIV vaccine

Xinhua, December 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Tanzania's National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) said Thursday it has started trials on a potential vaccine against HIV, raising hope to scientists struggling to find a cure for the virus that causes AIDS.

Mwele Malecela, the NIMR Director General, said the same trial was also in progress in Kenya, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi.

"At the moment at least 17 volunteers have been registered out of 28 who are expected to be in the trial," Malecela told a news conference in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

She said the east African nation was participating in the HIV vaccine trial in collaboration with its partners with the hope of getting good results.

Malecela said participants aged between 15 and 50 years, who are free from HIV and chronic diseases will participate in the vaccine trial.

"Despite the vaccine trials NIMR is set to invest in doing more HIV research that will include finding the resistance of Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) amongst the users," she said.

She said the research on ARVs will be conducted for 15 years in a joint partnership between NIMR and Mbeya Referral Hospital and it will involve at least 500 ARVs users at the hospital.

Statistics from the Tanzania Commission for AIDS indicate that more than 2 million people in Tanzania are living with HIV, equating to an estimated HIV prevalence of around 5 percent. Endit