AIDS Vaccine Field Moves Toward Larger-scale Efficacy Trials: Volunteers?

Science Daily — Leading researchers from the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Military HIV Research Program (USMHRP) presented final results from a collection of independent studies reexamining the medical criteria for including African volunteers in AIDS vaccine trials.


The findings, presented at the AIDS Vaccine 2007 Conference in Seattle, suggest that many healthy Southern and East Africans have, in the past, been excluded from participating in trials based on laboratory reference ranges that were developed for Western populations and may not be appropriate locally. Implementation of the results of the studies should improve participation of African volunteers in clinical trials for new drugs and vaccines against emerging infectious diseases currently ravaging Africa, including AIDS, TB and malaria, and enable clinicians to better monitor and define adverse events in trials.read more