India launches human trial of HIV-AIDS vaccine

February 7, 2005

Mon Feb 7, 3:46 AM ET Health - AFP

NEW DELHI, (AFP) - India launched its first human clinical trials of a vaccine

designed to prevent HIV -AIDS, federalhealth minister Anbumani Ramadoss said.

" The trial is being conducted by a partnership between the government and

Interational AIDS Vaccine Initiative in Pune, " Ramadoss told the Press Trust of

India news agency.

The " investigational " vaccine was being tested on 30 volunteers in a first phase

of the trial, Ramadoss said.

India has five million people infected with the HIV virus - one in every eight

of the 40 million infected worldwide -- and is second only to South Africa.

The quest for a vaccine is seen as particularly crucial in India where the World

Bank (news - web sites) has warned the disease could become the single

largest cause of death in the nation of more than a billion people by 2033.

The human trials focus on the sub-type C of the virus, the most common in the

country, are taking place at the National AIDS Research Institute in Pune, west

of Bombay.

Over 20 potential AIDS vaccines have been developed worldwide but the only one

to reach large-scale testing failed in clinical trials in 2003 in North

America and Thailand. Many top scientists say they believe a vaccine is at least

a decade away.

_________________________

greetings

Phi Huynhdo

e-mail <huynhdophi@...>

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