Tenesha Thomas, Gleaner Writer
THE HEALTH Ministry yesterday launched a new vaccine trial as part of its efforts to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The trial, which is being conducted at the ministry's epidemiology research training unit, is seeking healthy, HIV-negative volunteers between the ages of 18 and 60, who are willing to spend 12 months or more in a follow-up study.
An HIV vaccine research or trial is a carefully-controlled study in which an experimental vaccine is given to people who are followed over a period of time to see how their bodies respond.
Researchers compare persons who receive the experimental vaccine with people who receive an inactive substance called a placebo to see whether the vaccine is safe and effective in preventing HIV infection.
PEOPLE REGISTERED WORLDWIDE
The HIV vaccine trial, which will be conducted in the island early next year, already has about 1,500 people registered worldwide and is being undertaken on all continents.
Chief of Epidemiology and HIV/AIDS in the Health Ministry, Dr. Peter Figueroa, has sought to assure the 32 volunteers needed in Jamaica for the programme that they will not become infected with HIV by their participation in the trial.
"They (the vaccines) are not made from live HIV, killed HIV, weakened HIV or infected cells," he stressed.
He said one of the two vaccines that will be used is called Ad 5 HIV-1 gag/pol/nef and is made up of a weakened form of the cold virus called adenovirus 5 that has been crippled so that it cannot grow or spread to other people nor can it make them sick.
Dr. Figueroa said there are three phases of preventive HIV vaccine clinical trials, ranging from a small number of healthy volunteers, which usually last 12-24 months to thousands of volunteers, which could last between three-four years.
Dr. Figueroa explained that the vaccination process is carried out over a period of six months and participants are given either three shots of the investigational vaccine or three shots of a placebo, an injection without any active vaccine made of saline solution.
"Participants will be followed up for four years and tested for HIV infection every six months while receiving state-of-the-art counselling to reduce risk behaviour," he added.
At the end of the trial it can then be determined whether the vaccine is effective. Approximately 20,000 persons are infected with HIV/AIDS in Jamaica.
