Aids-related deaths in South Africa: 1 934 304 at noon on October 18
Baby steps: Uganda has become the first country in Africa to try an HIV vaccine on a baby in an effort to find a solution to mother-to-child transmission (MTCT).
The lead investigator of the Makerere University John Hopkins University Research Collaboration (Mujhu), Francis Mmiiro, said the baby was born at Mulago Hospital last week.
‘The enrolment into the first paediatric HIV vaccine to be conducted in Uganda in particular and Africa in general began with the immunisation of the first newborn baby in the small phase one study,” he said.
The baby was born to an HIV-positive mother. Mmiiro said both the mother and the baby had been discharged from hospital, but they would be under close observation up to the end of the study.
He said the ministry of health, HIV researchers and the parents of this first baby all gave the trial the go ahead.
‘In Africa, where breastfeeding is the norm, HIV transmission through milk accounts for one-third of the total MTCT of HIV,” said Mmiiro. Making breastfeeding safe is possibly the most important challenge for those involved in the prevention of MTCT of the virus in sub-Saharan Africa.
‘MTCT occurs during pregnancy, labour and through breastfeeding, which makes this vaccine a major priority for babies born to HIV-infected women, because they are exposed to the virus,” said Mmiiro. The phase one study was first carried out in the United States using a similar vaccine and ‘it was found to be very safe on babies”.
The head of the paediatrics unit at Mujhu, Phillipa Musoke, said phase one involves about 50 babies who will be tested for the safety of the vaccine and to see if their bodies produce an immune response.
Phase two involves a larger number of babies, to see if the trial vaccine is effectively safe on a larger scale on the babies, and phase three, the final trial, involves an even bigger number of babies.
The babies in the first phase will receive vaccination at birth, one, two and three months of age and will be carefully evaluated during the vaccination period of 24 months.
Mmiiro said doctors want to establish the safety of the vaccine in small groups of Ugandan babies before it is tested on a larger number.
‘However, doctors conducting the study caution that the current study is not measuring whether the vaccine protects against HIV at this stage,” he said.
‘The hope is that the information collected from this study will help to evaluate the vaccine for safety and may lead to future larger trials of the vaccine, which would in turn help us to know whether the vaccine can protect infants against HIV infection.”
Source: The Monitor (Kampala)