Medical officials yesterday responded with caution to international media reports on the success of clinical trials for a new HIV vaccine.

A US-funded study that was carried out on 16,000 people in Thailand recently revealed that a combination of two vaccines has cut HIV infections by 31.2 percent – a discovery that has been branded "a breakthrough” by many scientists.

The President and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Seth Berkley said: "The outcome is very exciting news and a significant scientific achievement.”

"It’s the first demonstration that a candidate AIDS vaccine provides benefit in humans. Until now, we’ve had evidence of feasibility for an AIDS vaccine in animal models. Now, we’ve got a vaccine candidate that appears to show a protective effect in humans, albeit partially”.

Thai health experts have also said that the vaccine is a breakthrough citing that it is the first effective trial of an HIV/AIDS vaccine.

The Director General of TRAC plus, Prof. Michael Kramer however noted that although this could be a step forward in vaccine research, Rwandans should remain vigilant.

"It is not really the first time we get such results for HIV vaccine trials, so we need to be cautious. We will study other developments elsewhere and once a major breakthrough comes up, the whole world will benefit from the good news,” Kramer told The New Times.

Anne Jellema, ActionAid’s International Policy Director also said in statement that, "Vaccine breakthroughs, although hugely exciting, must not distract attention from the lives being lost every day to existing infections.

"Already, in the wake of the global recession, our partners are reporting ARV stock-outs and caps on enrolling new patients in treatment programmes.”

The vaccine is made of ALVAC made in France and AIDSVAX, a product of VaxGen Inc. of South San Francisco.

The AIDSVAX shot contains an HIV protein called gp120 that’s used by the virus to enter human cells. It is designed to encourage the body to produce neutralizing antibodies to destroy HIV viruses before they can infect healthy cells.

"This is the first concrete evidence, since the discovery of the virus in 1983, that a vaccine against HIV is eventually feasible,” the senior vice president of research at Sanofi Pasteur, the French drugmaker’s vaccine arm, Michel DeWilde said in a statement.

With regard to testing, the Senior Director of Communication in the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), Rachel Steinhardt, told The New Times, that the vaccine was tested on uninfected volunteers.

According to her, this was aimed at checking if the vaccine would prevent acquisition of HIV and or lower the viral load of those who became subsequently infected. 

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