Irish priest in South Africa participating in AIDS vaccine trial

Published: 2003-11-07

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- An Irish priest who lives and works in a South African township volunteered to receive a trial vaccination of an AIDS vaccine. "I feel proud and privileged to be a part of this," said Passionist Father Kieran Creagh of St. George's Church in Pretoria. Father Creagh, a missionary from Belfast, Northern Ireland, is one of 24 volunteers taking part in South African clinical trials to assess the safety of the vaccine and measure the immune response it generates. The international HIV Vaccine Trial Network is conducting trials in South Africa and the United States. The first phase of U.S. trials began in July. Father Creagh said in a Nov. 7 telephone interview from Atteridgeville, a black township outside Pretoria, that he was injected with the vaccine Nov. 4 at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto. The volunteers were told that there is no possibility that the vaccine could cause HIV infection.

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