Preparedness for AIDS vaccine trials in India

[Guest guest]

Preparedness for AIDS vaccine trials in India

Jean-Louis Excler, Sonali Kochhar, Sushma Kapoor, Sweta Das, Jyoti

Bahri, Meenakshi Datta Ghosh* N.K. Ganguly**, Anjali Nayyar & Mark

Chataway†

International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), *Ministry of Panchayati

Raj, **Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi, India & †IAVI

Consultant, United Kingdom.

Received October 23, 2007.

Review Article: Indian J Med Res 127, June 2008, pp 531-538

India bears a heavy disease burden of HIV/AIDS infected and affected

people. A safe, effective and accessible preventive AIDS vaccine,

used along with other preventive interventions, is urgently needed

to stem the epidemic. This review highlights the extensive

preparedness activities undertaken from 2002 by the International

AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), its Indian government and non

government partners with the Indian scientific, political, media and

community stakeholders and the capacity building process, before the

conduct of the first ever AIDS vaccine trials in India in early 2005.

Issues addressed included mistrust of clinical research due to past

history of some unethical trials, transparency, community

involvement, stigma and discrimination, provision for care and

treatment of participants, informed consent, gender considerations,

approval process, and operational aspects.

The strong political support along with preparedness activities led

to the successful conduct of AIDS vaccine trials enrolling equitably

healthy women and men from all sections of society. This has paved

the way for future vaccine trials in the country.

http://www.icmr.nic.in/ijmr/2008/june/0605.pdf