South Africa: Only a vaccine will break the back of HIV – Health Minister

Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, says South Africans should welcome any initiative aimed at finding an effective HIV vaccine, adding that many battles against diseases were won using vaccines. He was reacting to the announcement that South Africa is set to launch a ground breaking AMP study or Antibody Mediated Prevention study soon, the biggest in seven years. Speaking to SAnews on the side-lines of the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban, on Thursday, Minister Motsoaledi said any study that could lead to a possible effective vaccine to prevent HIV should be welcomed. An example of such diseases that were eliminated using vaccines are small pox in the 1970s as well as polio. “Nobody ever talks about those diseases today and there was never a cure found for them but we used vaccines.” For the past four days, delegates at the AIDS conference have been debating the issue of ensuring that there is enough funding...