A fresh and innovative effort in finding a vaccine for HIV is beginning at laboratories in a London hospital and also two centres in Africa.
Scientists are currently recruiting 64 healthy adult volunteers to take part in this trial, which is said to last up to two years.
The work will be equally divided between the centres in the Rwandan capital Kigali and the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
This early trial is being run by the International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), who are a non-profit organisation, who are looking to disable the disease through vaccination.
The principal investigator, Dr Jill Gilmour, who has worked at the laboratory at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital since its founding in 2001, says she is optimistic that the Aids virus can eventually be tackled with a vaccine.
With the virus now being 30 years old, and the search for a vaccine has proved elusive so far it is becoming more and more likely that a breakthrough will happen
This is backed by the fact an American-backed trial in Thailand in 2009 found that, a combination of two vaccine prototypes was 30% effective in preventing HIV infection.
Jason Warriner, Clinical Director at Terrence Higgins Trust, said: “We welcome investment in the search for a vaccine against HIV. This research is in its very earliest stages. Clinical trials take several years to complete and, even if the vaccine passes this first stage of tests, more research will be needed over the course of many years.
“Although an HIV vaccine has so far remained stubbornly out of reach, we now understand how to prevent transmission better than ever before. A combination of widespread condom use, regular testing for HIV, and getting those with the virus onto the right treatment, could drastically reduce HIV within a generation.”
