South Africa’s Witwatersrand University has been given the green light to conduct its first coronavirus vaccine trial in collaboration with Britain’s Oxford University, APA has learnt.
The two universities are focusing their trials on developing a vaccine that would also be safe to use for people living with HIV, Witwatersrand professor Sabhir Madhi said on Tuesday.
The US$8.8 million South African Ox1Cov-19 Vaccine VIDA-Trial project aims to find a vaccine that would prevent infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, the professor said.
“This is a landmark moment for South Africa and Africa at this stage of the Covid-19 pandemic. The outcome of the study could be available as early as the end of the year.
“As we enter winter in South Africa and pressure increases on public hospitals, now more than ever, we need a vaccine to prevent infection by Covid-19,” Madhi, the principal investigator in the study, said.
According to the official, the vaccine trial is being funded by the South African Medical Research Council and the US-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation of Washington State.
Madhi said the first phase of the vaccine trial is underway in Britain with 7,000 volunteers taking part, and South Africa will join the second phase with 2,000 people on trial.
Individuals involved in the trial include HIV-positive and HIV-negative people in order to see how well the potential vaccine might work in such volunteers, the official said.
South Africa’s Covid-19 cases have reached 101,590 infections, while nearly 2,000 people have succumbed to the disease, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Tuesday.
NM/jn/APA