The first AIDS vaccine created by a developing nation will undergo safety trials in 36 healthy South African volunteers this month, Anthony Mbewu, president of the country's Medical Research Council, announced Sunday on the sidelines of an international AIDS conference in Cape Town.

Despite nearly a decade of political denial and neglect of South Africa's growing HIV/AIDS epidemic, scientists there have forged ahead with an HIV/AIDS vaccine initiative. In 1999, the ministries of health and of science and technology funded the effort with 250 million rand (US $31.7 million) over nearly 10 years. Some 250 scientists and technicians worked on the project, serving as a model for continued biotechnology development in the country. It is hoped the knowledge and expertise gleaned by the South African scientists can be used next to address tuberculosis and novel influenza strains, Mbewu said.

"Every emerging country is trying, wants to develop their own capacity to design and develop vaccines," Mbewu noted.

"We have the biggest problem," Mbewu said of South Africa, which has the highest HIV/AIDS caseload of any country in the world. "With 5.2 million already infected and with hundreds getting infected every day despite all the condom distribution and behavioral education programs, we know that a vaccine really is what we need."

The vaccine was designed at the University of Cape Town, with technical assistance from the US National Institutes of Health. A trial of 12 US volunteers began earlier this year.

Kgalema Motlanthe, South Africa's vice president, emphasized the clinical trials are being performed "under strict ethical rules." The US trials may have been started first to allay any criticism that the United States was collaborating on a vaccine that would use Africans as the only test subjects.