Italian Higher Health Institute said on Tuesday that anti-AIDS vaccine developed by top Italian researcher Barbara Ensoli is still undergoing tests, denying that it has been proved safe.

Testing on the vaccine is still under way and results are not yet available, a statement from the Institute said, promising thatfull details would be announced as soon as possible.

Sources at a major AIDS conference in Milan said earlier that test results showed Ensoli's vaccine was safe and that more tests to gauge its effectiveness could now begin.

The Institute stressed that this was not the case.

The first phase of tests on 75 volunteers, many of them HIV positive, began early this year in four research centers in Milan and Rome.

Ensoli's vaccine is ground-breaking because it takes a new approach to fighting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Instead of following the usual tack of trying to bolster the immune system, it attempts to block the spread of the infection and prevent the reproduction of infected cells.

Source: Xinhua