Trials on an HIV vaccine aimed at preventing transmission of the virus from infected mothers to their babies through breast feeding are to start soon at Uganda's biggest public hospital in Kampala.

The study at the Mulago hospital is to last two years and the randomly-selected babies shall be monitored by a team of doctors from the best equipped hospital in the eastern African country, reported the state-owned New Vision daily on Monday.

"There is an urgent need to make breastfeeding safe throughout the first year of life for HIV exposed infants. Perinatal preventive HIV-1 vaccine is being considered to see if it could provide the protection against HIV-1 during breastfeeding.

"The first step in evaluating vaccine candidates is to look at the safety of the vaccine in small safety trials," said Francis Miiro, a medical researcher.

The project, which is the first in Uganda and sub-Saharan Africa and the second in the world, was made public last Friday during a meeting organized by researchers under the Makerere University-John Hopkins University (MUJHU) Research Collaboration last Friday.

The doctors said this is a small trial which will assess the safety and immunogenic feature of an HIV vaccine. The vaccines would soon arrive in the country after clearance from the authorities.

Successful trials of the vaccine have been carried out in adults in Thailand and on babies in the United States.

In Uganda, where breastfeeding is the norm, transmission through breastfeeding accounts for a third of all infant HIV infections.

MUJHU research collaboration has primarily focused on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

It has completed a number of trials including the landmark HIVNET 012 trials using a single dose of nevirapine given to the mother during labor and to her newborn, which is now widely implemented around the world.

Source: Xinhua