Come again?

I was on Metro this afternoon when I noticed an interesting and somewhat unusual ad.  It was an ad looking for volunteers to participate in a medical trial.  A medical trial for a vaccine.  A vaccine for HIV.

This piqued my curiosity, and I started wondering how ethical a medical trial for an HIV vaccine might be.  I may be wrong, but aren't most vaccines made from a live virus?  So isn't there a (substantial) risk that these volunteers may end up with HIV?

When I got home, I decided to Google HIV vaccine trials in the DC area to see if my questions could be answered.  The short answer is no, although I did find some pretty interesting stuff.

First I was directed to the NIH Vaccine Research Center homepage.  From there, I made my way to the HIV Vaccine Study volunteer page.  Sure enough, I found the exact same ad that had first caught my eye on Metro:

"HIV knows no borders.  That's why we all need to be part of a solution.  If you're 18-50, healthy, and HIV-negative, consider becoming a volunteer in an investigational preventive HIV vaccine research study.  You won't run the risk of infection from the vaccine, and you'll be paid for your contribution."

Really?  There will be no risk of infection?  Interesting.  Then how do you explain the Participants' Bill of Rights and Responsibilities?

Let's start with the rights.  Like the participant's right to:

• "A referral to available counseling, support, medical and treatment services if you become infected with HIV during the study."
  
• "Free and accurate testing for HIV infection during the study."

The responsibilities section is pretty hardcore too.  Particularly that one that forbids the volunteer to give blood during the trial.  And the one that requires him or her to go straight to the study-associated lab if he/she thinks they've gotten HIV from the vaccine.

Hmmm.  Really?  Are people actually going to sign up and volunteer for this trial?  What kind of compensation is NIH offering?  A gazillion dollars?

So, I'm still not clear exactly how the vaccine will work — if it will be a live or dead virus and how researchers will measure its effectiveness at the end (that's if all the test subjects don't come down with HIV during the trial).  I mean, most people don't go around intentionally exposing themselves to HIV/AIDS, so how will we know if the vaccine keeps them from getting it?

My guess is on the antibodies.  That's what vaccines do, right?  They give us antibodies against a disease, so if we ever are exposed to said disease, our immune system kicks in and keeps the disease away.  But that's how HIV is diagnosed — with positive antibodies, hence the term HIV-positive.  So how will that work?

I have no idea.  I'm not a scientist, doctor, or infectious disease expert.  But I think I'm right about the antibodies.  The rights and responsibilities section also states that participants have the responsibility to not get an outside HIV test to try and determine if they're getting the vaccine or a placebo.  So I'm guessing that it's all about the antibodies.

Y'all don't need to worry — I have absolutely no intention whatsoever of entering this trial (not that they'd take me if I was), but that ad just got me interested.  And honestly, after reading up a bit on the trial, I don't know who in their right mind would volunteer for this thing!  Don't get me wrong — I'm all about finding a cure/prevention for every chronic/disabling/deadly disease out there, but isn't this the sort of thing animal testing was designed for?  I'd much rather lose a lab rat for the sake of science than an actual human being.