For the first time, German scientists will begin testing a vaccine against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, on humans.

The first phase of a clinical trial will start at university hospitals in Hamburg and Bonn, where 50 healthy volunteers will receive injections of the vaccine later this month.

Participants do not run a risk of getting infected with the virus, according to Jan von Lunzen, who leads the team of scientists involved in the experiment.

The vaccine named tgAAC09 was especially made to combat the HIV virus variant that is most spread in Africa and Southeast Asia, scientists say.

That's why later phases of the trial will take place in those countries, according to von Lunzen. The whole trial will last eight years.

The vaccine can also be developed within a short time into a new one to protect against the variant spread in Europe and North America, said von Lunzen.

Should the vaccine prove to protect against infection, it will become available within seven to eight years. About 30 vaccines are currently being tested around the world.

(Xinhua News Agency February 18, 2004)