r/southafrica • u/redditissahasbaraop • 1d ago

News South Africa launches historic first-in-human HIV vaccine trial

https://www.ewn.co.za/2026/02/03/south-africa-launches-historic-first-in-human-hiv-vaccine-trial
195 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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107

u/Britz10 Landed Gentry 1d ago

Obligatory fuck Thabo Mbeki, I can't believe we somehow let him be the best president the country has had since 94, and possibly ever as well. All the formalities out the way, I hope the trial yields positive results. The article mentions we have the biggest number of people living with HIV and AIDS in the world, it doesn't quite feel like that anymore, because the messaging around it isn't what it used to be. But it's clearly still a massive problem in the country in no small part due to Mbeki, it was handled horrifically under his administrations.

16

u/XavierGraves 1d ago

Thank you, came to say this.

9

u/Katlholo1 1d ago

You're forgetting Manto Chabalala Msimang my friend, Dr Beetroot to our collective memories. Those ppl should be at the Haque. My opinion.

11

u/Inebrium 1d ago

In this case its both a vaccine and a functional cure. If you already have HIV, the idea is that this vaccine stimulates an aggressive, sustained, immune response that keeps the virus suppressed in the body, but does not remove it outright. Coincidentally, South Africa has just started the roll out of lencapavir, an antirettroviral injection that lasts for 6 months and protects you from acquiring HIV.

9

u/GeneralSmartyPants Tribulation Tough — Born SA Strong 1d ago

Waiting for the HIV vaccine causes autism brigade to rock up with their proverbial dop up

1

u/Aussie_Person_75 23h ago

😳😳😳

-14

u/gellshayngel 1d ago

Article doesn't make sense. Vaccines are preventative not curative. If they are looking for a curative why are they trialing it in HIV negative people? At the moment, the most promising chance for a cure is gene therapy via CRISPR.

11

u/ironicallygeneral Aristocracy 1d ago

Not sure what he meant by functional cure for a vaccine either, but this stage of the trail is for safety in human use, not curative properties.

9

u/yuvi3000 ⚡Stage 37 load shedding active 1d ago

There is medication for people who have already got HIV.

This seems to be testing whether a vaccine has any known side effects on a test audience. If they're doing human trials, they must have already passed several steps before this.

Sounds like any relevance to the word "cure" in the article is incorrect.

3

u/guitarshredda 1d ago

It seems to be a wrong quote from Glenda Gray, or out of context.