| Follow us on:
|
![South Africa's clinical tests are the most serious effort to find a vaccine in a decade [Xinhua]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/261080752_8-e1480610696748.jpg)
South Africa’s clinical tests are the most serious effort to find a vaccine in a decade [Xinhua]
The announcement came on the eve of World AIDS Day – an international commemoration to mark the millions of deaths of people who succumbed to AIDS, and the ongoing efforts to find a cure.
It is hoped that the new trials involving more than 5,400 sexually active men and women aged 18-35 in South Africa will lead to cure that prevents infection and helps the 6.3 million people in the country already living with HIV.
The trials will take over over four years to complete.
UNAIDS says there are about 36.7 million people living with HIV today; 60 per cent of those live in sub-Saharan Africa. There are currently 1.8 million children who have HIV and most contracted the disease through their infected mothers.
Thirty-five million people are on record to have died from AIDS since 1984. About 1.1 million died of the disease in 2015.
UNAIDS says there are 18.2 million people with AIDS using antiretroviral therapy to halt the disease in its tracks. UNAIDS has set a target of raising that number to 30 million by 2020.
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies
