South Africa tests first African-made AIDS vaccine

EPIDEMICS

Africa has "extraordinary success" in AIDS fight, Global Fund says
Africa has had "extraordinary success" in the fight against HIV-AIDS, but the access to universal care expected by 2010 will be delayed due to a lack of funds, according to the director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. "We won't achieve universal access in Africa by 2010 but other than that we have enjoyed extraordinary success," the Fund's executive director Michel Kazatchkine told AFP during a three-day visit to Ethiopia. The industrialised countries of the G8 made a commitment in 2005 to help Africa attain universal access to antiretroviral drugs by 2010. But according to the Global Fund, only 35 percent of Africans suffering from the virus currently have access to the drugs, whereas Africa has the highest number of people infected. By next year, it could reach 75 percent, Kazatchkine said, stressing the progress of some countries such as Botswana. Botswana is one of the countries worst hit by the pandemic in Africa with more than 24 percent of the 15-49 age group infected but where patient access to treatment is now 100 percent. The Fund has dispensed more than 16 billion dollars (11 billion euros) in aid since its creation by the G8 in 2002. More than 2.3 million people around the world are receiving treatment thanks to its resources. But the Fund is alarmed by the fall in finances: 10 billion dollars (7 billion euros) had been budgeted for operations for 2008-2010, but it is 3 billion dollars (2.1 billion euros) short because of a growing demand for care. "The fact is that the crisis has come at a bad time because we are currently seeing an expansion of all health programmes in the world," said Kazatchkine, stressing the need for an increase in funds even as the economic crisis has tended to reduce them. "I hope the money promised for 2008-2010 arrives ... but I am worried that the donors might not be able to increase their funding, whereas we are going to have to keep treating patients in the coming period."

UN says Philippines falling behind in AIDS fight
The UN Development Programme on Thursday said the Philippines has not done enough to curb the rise of HIV infections in this largely conservative Roman Catholic nation of 90 million people. Citing official government records, UNDP country director Renaud Meyer said that about 89 percent of reported HIV transmissions were due to unprotected sex. "All the main ingredients for an epidemic are present in the country," Meyer told a conference on HIV. Official government records show that there were 85 new HIV cases for the month of May which is a 143 percent increase on the number of cases posted in the same period last year. From January to May, there were 322 infections with one leading to full blown AIDS and one death, the National Epidemiology Centre said. Most of those who contracted HIV were males in their 20s who had same sex relationships and mostly from highly urbanised areas around Manila. He said the government appears likely to fall short of achieving a UN Millennium Development Goal of halting and reversing the spread of HIV by 2015. Manila was not doing well "because instead of reversing and halting it, we see increasing cases," Meyer said. Condom use among the most at-risk, including homosexual men, female sex workers and their male clients, remained below 90 percent, he said.

by Staff Writers
Cape Town (AFP) July 23, 2009
South Africa has launched human trials of the first African-produced HIV vaccine, as scientists seek new approaches to battling AIDS in the world's worst-affected country.

The locally produced vaccine, being tested in Soweto and Cape Town as well as a site in the United States, was the highlight of an international AIDS conference in Cape Town this week where the trial was officially launched.

A successful vaccine, while years away, could be the only solution for a country with nearly six million infections, where the financial burden of treating AIDS patients threatens to cripple the health system.

"If we don't find a prevention strategy for South Africa we are in big trouble. We are not going to treat ourselves out of this epidemic," Linda-Gail Bekker, a principal investigator on the trial, told AFP.

"We can't afford to let six million people die. The question is, can we afford to keep the tap flowing. There is no question that a vaccine is the best way to treat an infectious disease."

A total of 48 volunteers will take part in the study, 36 in South Africa.

The phase one trials will investigate whether the drug is safe for human use.

The vaccine, developed at the University of Cape Town and manufactured with input from the US National Institutes of Health, is the first to go on trial in the country since 2007.

That trial of a vaccine by pharmaceutical company Merck was stopped after studies found it actually heightened the risk of AIDS infection, striking a double blow to efforts to find a vaccine 30 years into the pandemic.

Disappointments in the vaccine effort have sparked arguments that more money should be spent on other prevention efforts such as microbicides -- anti-HIV substances which reduce risk of infection -- and male circumcision, which show more potential.

A report released at the conference of the International AIDS Society on treatment showed that for the first time in a decade AIDS vaccine research declined, by 10 percent in 2008.

"There is this notion of 'let's go back to the drawing board (but) you still gain an enormous amount of knowledge even though studies get stopped," Bekker said.

Jerry Coovadia, co-chair of the world's largest scientific AIDS conference, said the prevention research field was in a "taking stock" stage ahead of the release of results from several large-scale trials.

Some 25 million people have died from AIDS. While a preventative vaccine is seen as first prize, a so-called therapeutic vaccine could ease the lives of millions taking anti-retroviral (ARVs) drugs.

David Sheon, spokesman for Norwegian drug company Bionor Immuno, said that for AIDS patients who have developed a resistance to current ARVs, a therapeutic vaccine is critical.

The company is testing a vaccine which appears to reduce the amount of HIV in the body, enabling some trial patients to stay off their ARVs for up to five years.

"Even those who are extremely involved in preventative vaccines acknowledge there is an urgent need for a therapeutic vaccine to treat the patients who actually already have HIV," he told AFP.

"There is also a prospect a therapeutic vaccine may slow or stop the transmission of HIV."

About 30 other clinical vaccine trials are underway around the world, but the most-watched is the biggest ever study in Thailand in which 16,000 people enrolled that began in 2003, with results expected later this year.

Positive results from that trial would bode well for South Africa's vaccine which uses a similar method in its drug.

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