Covid-19 vaccine trial in SA by Wits given green light

The first Covid-19 vaccine trial to be greenlighted in Africa has officially begun in South Africa.

Wits University in collaboration with Oxford University and the Oxford Jenner Institute are focusing on developing a vaccine that will also be safe to use for people living with HIV.

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.

Professor Sabhir Madhi is the principal investigator in the study being led by South African scientists with assistance from Oxford University.

“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

The trial is being funded by the South African Medical Research Council and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Madhi said the first phase has started in the United Kingdom with 4,000 participants, with 2000 people in the second phase in SA and the third phase being in Brazil. The trial will also be taken to other countries such as the United States.  

Madhi said the trial is being monitored by the ethics committees from Wits and Oxford as well as the department of agriculture, forestry & fisheries which has to greenlight the vaccine being shipped here.

The trial includes 50 people who have HIV. 

The participants will be monitored over a period of 12 months by doctors. 

"The total cost of the South African study is about R150-million," Madhi said.

He said the outcome of the study could be available as early as the end of the year.

"It will probably be ready in the third quarter of 2021," he said.

However, this does not mean there will be enough of the vaccine for everyone by then.

“It is essential that vaccine studies are performed in southern hemisphere countries, including in the African region, concurrently with studies in northern hemisphere countries,” says Professor Helen Rees, Chair of SAHPRA and Executive Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI).

“This allows evaluation of the efficacy and safety of candidate vaccines to be assessed in a global context, failing which the introduction of many life-saving vaccines into public immunization programmes for low-middle income countries frequently lags behind those in high-income countries.”

Director-general of the department of health Dr Sandile Buthelezi said they are excited about the prospects of the possible vaccine. 

"We are very proud SA has been placed at the centre stage of science," he said.