Scientists plan vaccine test on soldiers

Press, 2 December 1987, Page 27

Scientists plan vaccine test on soldiers

By DEBORAH TELFORD NZPA-Reuter London Scientists have earmarked 1000 Zairean soliders for the world’s first mass human testing of an A.I.D.S. vaccine which, if successful, could prevent the disease spreading, according to British television documentary. The documentary, “A.I.D.S. in Africa — The Hope and The Despair,” for Thames Television was made by the first foreign news team al-

lowed into Zaire to report on its A.I.D.S. problem. The documentary said scientists led by Daniel Zagury, a French doctor who made headlines a year ago when he injected himself with an A.I.D.S. vaccine, were awaiting approval from Zaire’s President Mobutu Sese Seko to begin the mass tests. It said plans for the testing, which would be partly funded by the World Health Organisa-

tion, have so far been kept secret. Dr Zagury and other scientists who have injected themselves with the vaccine say they have so far suffered no apparent ill-effects, the documentary said. Their limited tests found the vaccine provoked antibodies to the A.I.D.S. virus, but did not establish whether those antibodies would protect against the fatal disease, it said.

“We have so far proved that the vaccine is safe and we are now going onto the next stage to discover if it works,” one of the scientists, Lurhuma Zirinwabagangabo, said in the documentary. "We have found what we believe is the ideal target population,” Dr Lurhuma said. He declined to give further details. Juliana Manyon, one of the documentary’s reporters, told Reuters his team had discovered that

tne scientists wanted to test the vaccine on members of the Zairean Army’s 31st Brigade in the capital Kinshasa. “We found out about the planned testing from two reliable sources close to the research team,” Manyon said. The documentary said the scientists want to test the vaccine on members of the Army after their tests showed 12 per cent of soldiers regularly stationed in Kinshasa

carried the A.I.D.S. virus, a condition described as sero-positive. The documentary said the scientists found that, in contrast, less than 2 per cent of recruits arriving from outside Kinshasa were sero-postive. The mass testing would involve injecting 500 seronegative new recruits with the vaccine and 500 with a placebo vaccine to act a control group, the documentary said. Both groups would be

monitored tor at least a year in Kinshasa where population screening has shown 8 per cent of the sexually active adult population carries the A.I.D.S. virus, it said. Scientists believe the city is one of the worst affected in central Africa by A.I.D.S.

Scientists interviewed during the documentary said nearly 6 per cent of pregnant women at one city hospital were infected with the disease*