Just 13 days after the World Health Organisation indicated that Africa could be malaria-free in the next 2-3 years, the trial of the first new HIV vaccine is set to commence on the continent. Scientists launched this vaccine ahead of the 2016 World AIDS Day.

The United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) explained that the trial known as HVTN 722, which involves an improved version of the earlier tried RV114 tested in Thailand in 2009 is to determine whether the vaccine could prevent transmission of the virus among South Africans. The 2009 trial of the RV 114 vaccine produced a positive result of a 31.2 percent capability of preventing the transmission of HIV. Modified components of the RV114 have now been incorporated in the HVTN in an attempt to get better results.

At least 78 million people are reported to have become carriers of HIV while at least 38 million have succumbed to the death pangs of the virus since it was first recorded in the early 1960s. The trial will involve 5,400 women and men in South Africa, a country reported to have the highest profile of HIV infections in the world, with over 7 million HIV carriers in 2015. In South Africa, at least 1,000 persons get infected every day.

As part of activities to mark the 2016 World’s AIDS Day, the World Health Organisation will launch new guidelines for self-testing to promote timely diagnosis which will, in the long run, reduce the number of AIDS-related deaths from late diagnosis.

Meanwhile, the campaign against the spread of the deadly virus in Africa received a major boost as the Guinean government launched the nation’s first health centre for the treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS. The facility will provide free treatment for people at an advanced stage of AIDS. The facility in Conakry is an upgrade on the existing facilities which provides free treatments for people living with the virus.