Chinese researchers say they have obtained satisfactory results through preliminary clinical testing of the safety of an AIDS vaccine developed by China.

The test concluded as the last 15 people of the 49 volunteers who were injected 15 months ago with the AIDS vaccine, China's first, on Sunday passed health checkups at Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional Center of Diseases Control.

"Currently, data based on clinical observations have shown everything is normal and we are confident that the AIDS vaccine is safe," said Chen Jie, deputy head of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional CDC.

A panel of experts will make a further assessment into the experimental outcome and decide whether to carry out the second phase of the AIDS vaccine test, Chen said.

The assessment will cover the dose and safety of the AIDS vaccine, immunization procedures and whether the safety of the experiment accords with the targets for clinical research set by the state, Chen said.

The Ministry of Science and Technology and the State Food and Drug Administration will decide whether to go ahead with the second phase of the test based on the assessment outcome.

The first phase of the test was launched in Nanning, capital of Guangxi, on March 12 last year, and the 49 volunteers, all Chinese and aged between 18 and 50, had received vaccine rejection by October 20 last year.

They were divided into eight groups. Six groups received a single AIDS vaccine and two other groups were injected with a combined AIDS vaccine.

If the test enters the second phase, more volunteers will be recruited from larger groups, especially from the high-risk groups, Chen said.

The State Food and Drug Administration approved the first clinical phase research of the new AIDS vaccine on Nov. 25, 2004.

China currently has approximately 650,000 HIV carriers, including approximately 75,000 AIDS patients, according to recent official estimates.

Source: Xinhua