China makes breakthrough in HIV vaccine research

WATCH VIDEO

Source: CCTV.com | 12-02-2007 12:51

Scientists have announced a breakthrough in research for an HIV vaccine. They've begun field-testing a vaccine that promises to fight the virus in a radical new manner.

About 50 volunteers will take the injection of this vaccine, which is still under development. They have been divided into two groups, one with smallpox vaccines and one without.

AIDS expert Shao Yiming from Nat'l Disease Prevention & Control Center said, "We use smallpox vaccine as the carrier of this new AIDS vaccine. We put the HIV virus gene into the smallpox vaccine and let it produce antibodies inside human bodies."

The world has been researching an AIDS vaccine for over 2 decades. Over 100 field tests have been carried out, but none has been successful.

This time, Chinese scientists have adopted a new way to release the vaccine's efficacy. It will kill HIV virus by replicating itself, so as to increase the patient's immunity to the virus.

China is the first country in the world to test this new method, which will be carried out in 3 stages to ensure the safety and stability of the vaccine.

Editor:Zhang Ning