20/07/05

Abandoned HIV trials indicate urgent need for dialogue

Activists in South Africa Copyright: Ketan K. Joshi/Photoshare

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Abandoned HIV trials indicate urgent need for dialogue</h1>
<h4></h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><P>One way to help stem the global HIV/AIDS epidemic is to give sex workers a drug that reduces their chances of infection. Tenofovir is one such drug, but the past year has seen two important clinical trials of the drug — one in Cambodia and one in Cameroon — disrupted by activists who alleged they were unethical.</P><br />
<P>In this article in <em>PLoS Medicine</em>, Jerome Singh and Edward Mills — HIV/AIDS researchers in South Africa and Canada — argue that these disruptions emphasise the need for stakeholders to engage with one another throughout a clinical trial.</P><br />
<P>Singh and Mills believe that activism can play an important role in ensuring that researchers and sponsors act ethically, but insist it should be “based on informed opinion and communication”. </P><br />
<P>Irresponsible activism and reporting may result in the drug under study being rejected by patients if it is eventually licensed, they say.</P><br />
<P>All stakeholders must keep sight of the ultimate goal, they say, of combating HIV/AIDS. This requires better communication early on in planning such trials, they add.</P><br />
<P><a  href="http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020234" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full article in <em>PLoS Medicine</em></A> <BR></P></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/opinions/abandoned-hiv-trials-indicate-urgent-need-for-dial/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/opinions/abandoned-hiv-trials-indicate-urgent-need-for-dial/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

One way to help stem the global HIV/AIDS epidemic is to give sex workers a drug that reduces their chances of infection. Tenofovir is one such drug, but the past year has seen two important clinical trials of the drug — one in Cambodia and one in Cameroon — disrupted by activists who alleged they were unethical.

In this article in PLoS Medicine, Jerome Singh and Edward Mills — HIV/AIDS researchers in South Africa and Canada — argue that these disruptions emphasise the need for stakeholders to engage with one another throughout a clinical trial.

Singh and Mills believe that activism can play an important role in ensuring that researchers and sponsors act ethically, but insist it should be “based on informed opinion and communication”.

Irresponsible activism and reporting may result in the drug under study being rejected by patients if it is eventually licensed, they say.

All stakeholders must keep sight of the ultimate goal, they say, of combating HIV/AIDS. This requires better communication early on in planning such trials, they add.

Link to full article in PLoS Medicine