Safety & Immunogenicity of Tgaac09, A Recombinant Adeno-Associated Virus Type 2 HIV-1 Subtype C Vaccine in India (Report‪)‬

The Joint United Nations Program for HIV/ AIDS has recently reported that the number of people living with HIV worldwide continued to grow in 2008, reaching an estimated 33.4 million (31.1-35.8 million). The total number of people living with the virus in 2008 was more than 20 per cent higher than the number in 2000, and the prevalence was roughly three-fold higher than in 19901. Over 80 per cent of the new HIV infections are believed to be occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa and South and South East Asia. The HIV epidemic has spread to all parts of India in the past two decades following the first report of HIV infection in Chennai in 1986. According to National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) of India, approximately 2.31 million people were living with HIV as of end of 2007 and the current adult HIV prevalence in India is estimated to be 0.34 per cent 2. The epidemic has been spreading from high risk to low risk populations and from urban to rural areas (3-6). Classical prevention approaches like ABC of prevention (abstinence, behavioural change and condom use) have demonstrated success only in a few intervention studies and there are some limitations to acceptance of these prevention strategies (7).