China Begins Human Clinical Trial Testing Experimental HIV/AIDS Vaccine
Chinese scientists on Saturday administered an experimental HIV/AIDS vaccine to eight people, beginning the country's first human clinical trial of such a vaccine, Reuters reports (Reuters News, 3/12). Chen Jie, deputy director of the country's Center for Disease Control in the southern province of Guangxi, said 49 volunteers ages 18 to 50 will receive the experimental vaccine over the next year. Chen said the trial will be conducted in three phases, with the first lasting 14 months, according to AFP/Yahoo! News. The second phase will examine the efficacy and safety of the vaccine (AFP/Yahoo! News, 3/13). The Chinese government estimates that there are 840,000 HIV-positive people in the country and that 80,000 people have AIDS (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 2/9). However, international experts and advocates say that the actual number of HIV-positive people is probably between one million and 1.5 million. UNAIDS has said that the number of HIV-positive people living in China could increase to 10 million by 2010 unless steps are taken to address the disease, according to Reuters (Reuters, 3/12).
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