Eugene Ruzagira talks about the search for an HIV Vaccine

PrEPVacc coordinating investigator Eugene Ruzagira featured in an International AIDS Society (IAS) interview to mark World Immunisation Week 2019, talking about the importance of the search for an effective HIV Vaccine.

Dr Eugene Ruzagira

I have seen first-hand how HIV has affected my own country, Uganda. Although a lot has been achieved with antiretroviral treatment and PrEP, people still suffer on a daily basis in communities in Uganda ... That’s why this new trial is so important. If we find an effective vaccine, a few shots will be enough to prevent HIV for a lifetime.

Dr Ruzagira, who is based at MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit, also explained some of PrEPVacc’s key design features that make it such an efficient ‘three-in-one’ trial.

In the trial, we will be using two innovative study designs. The first is an adaptive trial design (multi-arm, multi-stage, or MAMS) which allows for the evaluation of multiple vaccine regimens concurrently … The second is the use of the “averted infections ratio methodology”, which estimates infections averted by a new form of treatment compared with the standard treatment, using an estimate of incidence in the placebo arm.

Read the full interview here: https://www.iasociety.org/Membership/IASONEVOICE/Stories/the-search-for-an-effective-vaccine