A decade-long Aids vaccine project in Thailand has received international recognition with Time magazine ranking it fifth in the year's 50 Best Inventions.
The project, involving a long trial with thousands of Thai volunteers, was part of an international study that yielded promising results for a vaccine against the deadly disease.
Project manager Dr Supachai Rerks-Ngarm, a senior expert in preventive medicine at the Department of Disease Control (DDC), branded the study "a breakthrough". He said the project, now in its third phase, could provide a vaccine to prevent or help minimise the possibility of contracting HIV - with a 31 per cent immunity success rate.
The next phase of the project, to be run from June to December next year, would seek to increase the possibility of not contracting HIV to 50 per cent, once funding is approved by the US government.
The prime objective of the fourth phase was to prolong the period of immunity against the disease to up to three or five years.
"The results in human trials showed that the immunity success rate reached 60 per cent, and then dropped to 31.2 per cent in the next three years. The next phase will study how the immunity period can last five years, with the same immunity rate," he said.
The doctor said the project's test model in Thailand was now being assessed by international health groups and that could help yield a higher chance of success than previous test models. "This is a breakthrough, after 26 years of practice," he added.