Halted HIV vaccine trials were not a waste of time - UVRI

Professor Pontiano Kaleebu has said the HVTN 702 HIV vaccine trials that were recently halted in South Africa were not a waste of time, according to The Independent newspaper.

On 3 February, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health stopped the administration of vaccinations in the trial studying whether they could help prevent HIV infection.

Speaking to Uganda Radio Network, Professor Kaleebu, PrEPVacc's Chief Investigator and Director of the MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit, said this wasn’t entirely a blow as scientists are “now embarking on studying what exactly the vaccine did to the bodies of the recipients even if it failed to offer protection. He said this information will help them in other researches that are on-going to find alternative vaccines.”

“We will continue trying other avenues and we will get a vaccine in future”.

- Professor Pontiano Kaleebu

Read the full story here: https://www.independent.co.ug/halted-hiv-vaccine-trials-were-not-a-waste-of-time-uvri/