Kenyan government is set to launch the clinical human trial of a vaccine that has the potential to stop HIV infecting cells.

Scientists involved in the promising trial stated on  Friday during final preparatory meetings that recruitment for the trial would begin in the next three weeks.

The new vaccine being tested will apply a ‘block approach’ in stopping HIV from attaching itself onto cells. HIV is a virus spread through certain body fluids. The virus attacks the body’s immune system, specifically the CD4 cells, often called T-cells.

The clinical trial codenamed ‘IAVI W001 trial. 664gp140. W001’ will test the vaccine candidate dubbed BG505 SOSIP — a molecule cloned to look exactly as the HIV one — on Kenyan volunteers to check for safety and efficacy.

“This is phase one of the first human trial for this vaccine and over the next one-and-a-half years, the trial will seek to answer questions on how safe the vaccine is and how well it can induce the human body to produce antibodies that can neutralise HIV,” said Prof Omu Anzala, the director of Kenya AIDS Vaccine Initiative (KAVI), the site for the clinical trial.