The National AIDS Research Institute (NARI) has already completed two
phases of trials on the first HIV vaccine candidate and now the results
are being evaluated, as part of an international collaborative project
involving the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).

Under
the project, the first HIV vaccine trial was conducted at NARI, Pune
using Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) based HIV-1 subtype C vaccine
candidate and the second trial was completed at the Tuberculosis
Research Centre (TRC), Chennai, official sources said. Modified Vaccinia
Ankara (MVA) based vaccine and the results of the two trials are under
evaluation now.

There is a tripartite agreement between the
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the National AIDS Control
Organisation (NACO) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI)
for carrying out HIV/AIDS vaccine research in India. The first
agreement was signed in year 2000 and was extended further in 2005. The
vaccine development agreement between IAVI and ICMR for the development
and testing of the vaccines and tripartite agreement between NACO (GOI),
ICMR, and IAVI would end by the end of this year.

As per the HIV
estimations 2010, India is estimated to have 23.9 lakh people infected
with HIV in 2009 at an estimated adult HIV prevalence of 0.31 per cent.
Adult HIV prevalence among men is 0.36 per cent, while among women, it
is 0.25 per cent. NACO under National AIDS Control Programme Phase –
III has developed a communication strategy to create awareness about
HIV/AIDS and promote safe behaviours, sources added.

Under the NACP-III, the government had released Rs.623.85 crore during 2007-08 and Rs.653.01 crore during 2008-09. The financial assistance by way of reimbursement slightly went up to Rs.662.52 crore during 2009-10. This year upto middle of November, the Centre released Rs.211.62 crore.