Human tests prove AIDS vaccine safe
By Wang Zhenghua (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-09-13 05:55

Health authorities are still analyzing results yesterday after the initial trial of a Chinese-made AIDS vaccine proved safe in human tests.

A man receives AIDS vaccine in Nanning on March 13, 2005. [newsphoto/file]

Eight volunteers received results from their final blood tests and physical checkups at the disease control and prevention centre in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region over the weekend, showing no side effects.

"We just initially proved the vaccine's safety on the selected eight individuals," the centre's HIV/AIDS department director, who gave only her surname as Liu, said yesterday in a telephone interview.

"But we still need further research to see if antibodies have developed in them."

She said they have yet to complete the phase one trial of the vaccine, so it is too early to call it a success, contradicting some media reports.

"Now we can stop observing the eight volunteers, as the initial test was aiming to ensure the vaccine's safety," Liu said.

Altogether, 49 volunteers, aged from 18 to 50, will soon participate in the tests, the first of their kind in China, she said.

The State Food and Drug Administration approved the initial clinical trial last November. The eight volunteers, four of them women, were injected with either the AIDS vaccine or a control solution on March 12.

Neither the volunteers nor the administering doctors knew who received what.

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