HIV VACCINE TRIALS IN SA PUT ON HOLD

Oh my! Surely the Minister, if she was interested enough, would make it her business to find out what was happening in he realm! Why now berate the very people who are trying to do something and the media because you have no idea what is happening in your world!

HIV vaccine trials in SA put on hold
Pretoria, South Africa
14 November 2007 09:34


All HIV vaccine trials in South Africa have been put on hold following the failure of the Phambili HIV vaccine trial. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Wednesday invited researchers who worked on the Phambili study to her office in Pretoria to explain the reasons why the vaccine trial was stopped. She complained that they had not informed her of the suspension of the trial and that she had had to find out about it in the media. She also blamed the media for not writing enough about the vaccine trials.

The trial in South Africa of the experimental vaccine was put on hold in September and then suspended in October after trials in the United States showed signs that the vaccine somehow raised the risk of infection. South African researchers were still waiting for 67 of the 799 people who took part in the study to return to the sites where they received the shot to be tested, before they could decide if similar results were found in South Africa.

It could take six weeks for the results after the last person has been tested, said Professor Glenda Gray, of the prenatal HIV unit at Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital, the national principal investigator for the Phambili trial. Pending the outcome of the research on why the vaccine in the US had raised the risk of contracting HIV and whether or not this was the case in South Africa, all vaccine trials in the country have been put on hold.

Professor Anthony Mbewu, president of the Medical Research Council, said there were no trials at the moment but two trials due to start early next year would be affected. "We are committed to research, but it cannot be research at all costs," Tshabalala-Msimang said.

The Phambili study -- or HVTN 503, as it was known in research circles -- began enrolling participants in January this year. Since then 799 people had been enrolled and 55 were fully immunised. They will be told who had received the vaccine and who had received the placebo.

The study was conducted at five sites in Soweto, Cape Town, Klerksdorp, Pretoria and Durban. - Sapa