South Africa's Medicines Control Council has approved the country's first local AIDS vaccine test. A small phase I trial will begin within the next year in the United States, and if the vaccine is considered safe, additional studies will be conducted in South Africa and the United States. The vaccine being studied, developed by AlphaVax of North Carolina, targets the C strain of HIV, which is prevalent in southern Africa. Earlier this week, Seth Berkley, the head of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, said it might be 2009 before an AIDS vaccine is available.