Italy will test the HIV / AIDS vaccine in South Africa

According to Ansa, the Italian Institute of Advanced Health (ISS) has said it will test an HIV / AIDS vaccine in the process of research called TAT in South Africa.

The ISS HIV / AIDS team, headed by scientist Barbara Ensoli, will work with the South African Ministry of Health to continue the second phase of testing for the vaccine.

Ensoli's team plans to test 200 volunteers aged 18-45 who are HIV-infected at a South African Medical University hospital in the northern province of Gauteng and will continue testing. at another location at Walter Sisulu University.

HIV / AIDS virus. (Source: Internet ).

ISS aims to obtain preliminary results showing that the TAT vaccine can produce immune responses and will then monitor the safety of the vaccine.

ISS director Enrico Garaci said after tests in Italy, the TAT vaccine has shown signs that it is " a promising tool to improve immune function in HIV-infected patients ." In November 2010, Italian researchers announced preliminary test results of Phase II, indicating that the TAT vaccine was working effectively.

Ensoli, who has been studying the vaccine for 10 years, said 48 weeks after the vaccine was given to volunteer patients, " their indicators are still improving, the team has found a way to stop the destruction of the immune system . ' Ensoli's second trial period began in late 2008 for 128 HIV-infected patients aged 18-25 (both male and female) in 11 centers in Italy.

In 2006, Ensoli ended its first phase of research and announced that her AIDS vaccine had passed initial trials with great success. Tracking all of the Italian voluntary patients showed that 100% had feedback on the vaccine by producing specific antibodies.

Ensoli's vaccine is considered groundbreaking because it follows a new method to fight HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Traditional vaccines often seek to promote the immune system to enhance the body's ability to resist this disease, but are relatively unsuccessful in fighting HIV, a mutable and well-known virus. Self-recovery ability.

In contrast, Ms. Enso's vaccine, which seeks to stop infection, prevents replication of infected cells and may be effective against all variants of the HIV virus.

The results of the TAT vaccine for laboratory animals show that this may be an important step towards AIDS prevention. Ensoli's vaccine was described by former Italian Minister of Health Umberto Veronesi as a smart vaccine, which has been tested in humans since 2003.