A vaccine trial is finally on the horizon in South Africa, starting this week.
The news was announced by University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits) today during a virtual press conference.
In South Africa more than 100 000 people have already been diagnosed with COVID-19, since March when the president declared a state of disaster and national lockdown.
The South African Ox1Cov-19 Vaccine VIDA-Trial aims to find a vaccine that will prevent infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Shabir Madhi, Professor of Vaccinology at Wits University and Director of the South Africa Medical Research Council (SAMRC) Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit (VIDA), leads the South African Ox1Cov-19 Vaccine VIDA-Trial.
Wits University is collaborating with the University of Oxford and the Oxford Jenner Institute on the South African trial.
“This is a landmark moment for South Africa and Africa at this stage of the Covid-19 pandemic. As we enter winter in South Africa and pressure increases on public hospitals, now more than ever we need a vaccine to prevent infection by Covid-19,” said Madhi.
“We began screening participants for the South African Oxford 1 Covid-19 vaccine trial last week and the first participants will be vaccinated this week,” says Madhi.
The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) approved import of the investigational vaccine for use in the trial.
The vaccine is already being evaluated in a large clinical trial in the UK where more than 4,000 participants have already been enrolled.
In addition to the South African study, similar and related studies are about to start in Brazil. An even larger study of the same vaccine of up to 30,000 participants is planned in the USA.
By vaccinating volunteers, scientists hope to make the human body recognise and develop an immune response (i.e., develop antibodies) to the spike glycoprotein that will help stop the SARS-CoV-2 virus from entering human cells and causing COVID-19.
