Botswana To Begin Trials For AIDS Vaccine On Humans

May 19, 2003

GABORONE, Botswana (AP) -- Botswana is scheduled to begin tests on an AIDS vaccine to find out if it is safe when given to healthy adults, officials said Monday.

The experimental vaccine, which has already been tested successfully on mice and rabbits, will be tested to determine the immune responses of healthy adults when the drug is given at different doses, said the Botswana Harvard AIDS Partnership for HIV Research and Education.

The vaccine, called EP HIV-1090, activates the CD8 or killer T cells in the immune system to destroy cells infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The trials form the first phase of the process "to see if the vaccine is safe and well tolerated in humans," said Dr. Tony Villafana, the research site director.

The study, which is scheduled to last 18 months, will involve 42 HIV-negative volunteers from Botswana and the United States.

The test will use only subjects with high levels of the protein leukocyte antigen, or HLA, because it is found to be most responsive to the treatment.

The drug is made by Epimmune, based in San Diego, California.

Scientists around the world have been searching for an effective vaccine against AIDS for over 20 years. More than 30 experimental vaccines have been tested with little success.

In 1999, Uganda became the first country in Africa to begin testing an AIDS vaccine on humans. It tested a vaccine on prostitutes who appeared to be immune to HIV.

Botswana is the first country on the continent to commit to a widespread program of providing AIDS treatment medicines through its public health system.

The diamond-rich nation has the highest HIV-infection rate in the world, and it has set itself the target of ending new infections by 2016.

About 19 percent of the country's 1.7 million people are infected with HIV. An estimated 38 percent of its adults are infected.

The Botswana Center of Human Rights has expressed concern over the fact that there is no local law governing the way in which clinical trials are conducted on humans.