China trials new HIV vaccine on humans

China which has 840,000 people with HIV, a conservative estimate say experts, will carry out the very first trials of a new virus on human guinea pigs.

The Chinese government says 80,000 of its 1.3 billion population have developed full-blown AIDS. Fortynine volunteers aged between 18 and 50 will take part in the tests which will be carried out over three stages.

A 20-year-old man became the first volunteer to receive the vaccine a few days ago and seven others, four of whom are women will shortly follow suit.

Chen Ji, director of the disease control agency in southern China's Guangxi region, says the first stage of the test will last 14 months, very little detail of the test has been given, but the second stage is expected to cover "immune nature and safety of the vaccine". All taking part in the tests have had physical check-ups and signed waivers.

The tests were approved by China's drug regulators last November. The UN has warned that the number of people affected by HIV and Aids in China could rise to 10 million by 2010 unless much more is done to fight the disease. Over 43 million people around the world have been infected by the HIV/Aids virus and around 25 million people have died.