MUHAS enrols its first participants to the PrEPVacc clinical trial
PrEPVacc’s third trial site to begin enrolling participants is Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Two participants in the PrEPVacc clinical trial were vaccinated at MUHAS on 15th September 2021, contributing to the 1,668 participants total that PrEPVacc is seeking to enrol at four sites in southern and eastern Africa. The pair are among the first participants ever to take part in an HIV efficacy trial in Tanzania.
As well as testing two different HIV vaccine regimens, PrEPVacc is also testing a new form of daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against the existing standard for PrEP, meaning that participants are testing two ways to prevent HIV at the same time.
Findings from PrEPVacc will inform scientists as to whether developing either of the two different combination vaccine regimens for preventing HIV is worthwhile or not; and also, whether a new form of PrEP is as acceptable, safe and effective as the available oral standard PrEP, in women as well as men.
Professor Said Aboud, MUHAS site Principal Investigator, said “It has been a great team effort here at MUHAS to get ready and be prepared to begin efficacy trials of HIV vaccines in Dar es Salaam for the first time ever. We have excellent supporters in our community and great enthusiasm in our cohort of would be participants, without whom none of this would be possible.”
MUHAS, whose Site Initiation Visit took place in March 2021, joins the NIMR-Mbeya site as one of two Tanzanian sites open and actively enrolling for PrEPVacc. NIMR-Mbeya began enrolment in July 2021.
Professor Said Aboud, Professor Patricia Munseri and colleagues at MUHAS working on the PrEPVacc study
Professor Patricia Munseri, Clinical Coordinator PrEPVacc MUHAS site said “It was gratifying to see the excitement of the two enrolled participants and the clinic staff who had been waiting eagerly for this day. HIV vaccines are one form of prevention being trialled here but we are also offering participants a second form of prevention at the same time, known as PrEP. The results of PrEPVacc will therefore yield a lot of valuable information about the most effective and optimal ways to prevent HIV both globally, and also in our own city and country.”
Dr Eugene Ruzagira, Trial Director of PrEPVacc who is based at the MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit, congratulated staff at MUHAS on their achievement. He said: “Congratulations to all the staff and participants and supporters at MUHAS on beginning enrolments to PrEPVacc. This is exciting news and it has taken a great deal of commitment and intense preparation to begin this HIV prevention study that is testing two ways to prevent HIV at the same time.
“We are proud to have two PrEPVacc clinical trial sites in Tanzania and we are very grateful for all the support within the country to get this trial up and running.”
PrEPVacc is funded by the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), as part of the EDCTP2 Programme supported by the European Union.