TaMoVac Project.

This is an EDCTP funded project aimed at exploring DNA prime, MVA boost HIV vaccine strategy, as well as building the capacity to perform HIV vaccine trials in Tanzania and Mozambique. It is a North-South collaborative effort involving institutions in sub-Saharan Africa (Tanzania and Mozambique) and in Europe (Sweden, Germany and the UK).

Involved Tanzanian institutions are the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), NIMR-Mbeya Medical Research Programme (MMRP), and the Tanzania Police Force.

In Mozambique, the institutions are National Institute of Health (NIH), and the Maputo Central Hospital, where subsequent trials are planned.

European institutions are the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (SMI) and the Karolinska Institute (KI) in Stockholm, Sweden; the University of Munich (LMU) in Germany, and the Imperial College (IC) of London, United Kingdom.

TaMoVac project builds upon the earlier HIV Vaccine Immunogenicity Study (HIVIS Project), a study in the United Republic of Tanzania that received support from the European Union (EU) and Sida/SAREC as a collaborative project involving the KI in Sweden, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) in USA, LMU of Munich, Germany, and the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Study Sites.
The clinical sites will be MNH/MUHAS in Dar es Salaam and NIMR-Mbeya Medical Research Programme (MMRP) in Mbeya, TANZANIA.

Study Volunteers.
In Dar es Salaam: Healthy Police and Prison officers and volunteers including young adults from the general population.
In Mbeya: Healthy volunteers from the general population in Mbeya Municipality.
A minimum of 30 women will be recruited. Study volunteers should indicate low risk for HIV acquisition and we shall apply a questionnaire to exclude high-risk volunteers.

Study Design.
Randomized, controlled, double blinded study.