Italian professor Vittorio Collizi, a world-renowned HIV researcher, and his Bulgarian colleagues are developing a vaccine against AIDS and tuberculosis simultaneously, reported local newspaper MONITOR on Monday.

The product, designed for the children of Africa, is expected to fight both AIDS and tuberculosis, combining the Bulgarian tuberculosis vaccine BCZ, elements of the HIV virus and the medicine "Respivax", which is used worldwide for effectively stimulating human immune system, said the director of Bulgaria's National Infectious and Parasitic Diseases Center, Professor Bogdan Petrunov.

The laboratory stage has continued for three years since 2004 and is already drawing to a close, said Petrunov, adding the product is expected to be put to epidemical tests.

However, underlined the professor, the phase of clinical experiments will also cost decades of time, as "we have to wait the reaction of the children inoculated with the vaccine till they grow up".

According to the statistics of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, over 45 million people worldwide are infected by HIV virus and 8 million every year by tuberculosis.