Under Projet San Francisco (PSF), a research project con HIV/AIDS in Rwanda, experts have said that the first phase on HIV/AIDS vaccine trial has shown there is hope for positive results.
Speaking in the meeting that brought together researchers on HIV/AIDS from across the World, the Projet San Francisco coordinator, Dr. Etienne Karita said that a step has been made to get the vaccine.
In Rwanda, research on HIV/AIDS vaccine started in 2005. One vaccine is tried on between 20 and 50 people to find out whether there is no impact it can bring on human health and whether the body can develop blood cells able to resist HIV/AIDS.
“It is done through different processes like testing its effects in the body and when there is no effect detected, then it’s tested to establish if it can protect against HIV/AIDS,” he told the media yesterday.
He said that the first phase on establishing whether it cannot cause side effects in the body went well.
“The first phase in laboratory has shown that this vaccine helps the body to develop blood cells that can fight HIV/AIDS; the next phase will be experimenting among the most high risk groups,” he said.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Diane Gashumba said that the meeting being held in Kigali is committed on coming up with discovering HIV/AIDS virus vaccine.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health shows that in Rwanda 3% of the populations is HIV/AIDS positive.
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