South African medical council announces AIDS vaccine trials

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- South Africa's Medical Research Council made a pair of key announcements on Wednesday, including a discovery that heating breast milk from a mother carrying the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) could prevent the virus' transmission from mother to child.

Along with the milk discovery detailed in the council's annual report, council president Malegapuru Makgoba announced that South Africa would begin clinical trials next February of an HIV vaccine developed in concert with the United States.

"I am glad to report today that the vaccine has been manufactured," Makgoba said at a news conference releasing the annual report. "It is going through testing by the Medicines Control Council ... so that at the latest by the beginning of February we will have it undergoing phase one clinical trials."

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MRC spokeswoman Michelle Galloway said the phase one trials would be followed by larger trials lasting for several years. But, she added, South Africa hoped the vaccine would be available by 2005.

"It is an ambitious target, but we are still aiming for it," she said.

Breast milk discovery aimed at reducing treatment cost

With one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS infections on the African continent, South Africa has been in sharp focus because of a controversial stand made by President Thabo Mbeki, who declared that he did not believe HIV was the sole cause of AIDS.

Makgoba joined doctors, AIDS activists and former President Nelson Mandela in flatly disagreeing with Mbeki's stand.

"This syndrome is caused by one virus," Makgoba said at Wednesday's news conference.

About one in 10 South Africans are infected with AIDS or HIV, studies show, with an estimated 1,700 people added to the list each day. High among that number are infants infected by their infected mothers.

The council reported that treating a mother's breast milk with high heat leaves 80 percent of the milk's antibodies and nutrients and provides an inexpensive alternative to expensive anti-retroviral drugs, which the South African government has refused to allow its public health sector to give away to HIV-infected nursing mothers.

"Tests have shown that all the HIV in the milk is killed when the milk is heated to 56 to 63 degrees Centigrade (133 to 146 degrees Fahrenheit) for about 20 minutes," the council said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Government of South Africa
  • Department of Health
Medical Research Council of South Africa

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