Design News South Africa

SA vaccine trial volunteers contributing to AIDS fight

Although scientists hope that a vaccine will eventually offer the best protection against HIV infection, the complex biology of the virus has posed constant challenges and even a partially effective vaccine is still some years away.

A number of potential HIV vaccines have made it out of the laboratory, but clinical trials on humans are still only in the second of three phases. The primary goals in the current round of trials are to establish safety, dosage and their ability to trigger an immune response.

Thandi Nxamakele, 27, from Klerksdorp, a gold mining town in South Africa's North West Province, was one of 240 South Africans who took part in a phase II HIV vaccine trial conducted by the Aurum Institute for Health Research, an independent medical scientific organisation.

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