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288 A Preliminary Look at What Prevention and Outreach Workers Know about and Can Contribute to HIV Vaccine Awareness and Trials
S. Wakefield and R. A. McCullough*
HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) and AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), Seattle, WA, USA and AVAC, Washington, DC, USA
Background: The AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition recognized a need to provide information about HIV vaccine research and trials to community-based organizations that provide prevention counseling and other AIDS services and to learn from these organizations their knowledge level about HIV vaccine research and trials, their concerns and needs for information.
Methods: To explore what techniques would be effective in reaching these groups and to learn from them, AVAC organized 5 community meetings in New York City, Miami, Boston, Atlanta, and Chicago and developed 3 workshops for delivery at national treatment and prevention meetings. A survey on demographics and attitude on medical interventions was provided to workshop participants in 5 cities; 126 individuals from 31 organizations completed this questionnaire. In 4 of the 5 workshops, participants were asked to respond to 2 scenarios: (1) a client saw a VaxGen recruitment ad and asked the prevention worker if he should consider participation; and (2) a vaccine researcher contacted the agency or organization and asked for a collaboration on recruitment for a vaccine trial.
Results: A majority (60%) of these prevention workers were women, diverse (47% African American and 17% Latino), and well educated (50% college degree and 34% education beyond college degree). Most of the prevention workers (84%) indicate that their organization or agency offers HIV testing. Fewer prevention workers (56%) indicate that their organization or agency recommend Hepatitis B vaccine to clients. Most prevention workers say that they would not be able to answer a question about HIV vaccine development (36%) or are unsure if they could answer such a question (34%), whereas 30% of these prevention workers say they are prepared to answer questions about vaccine development. Twelve themes emerged as participants discussed the 2 scenarios, including distrust of government, a sense that vaccine researchers are "in it for the money," the benefits of vaccine research are unlikely to be fairly or equitably distributed, concerns about how vaccine researchers reach high risk populations, vaccine development may cause some to think safer sex is no longer needed, and others.
Conclusions: Prevention workers can provide a valuable window into concerns about HIV vaccine research and trials. If prevention workers and organizations are going to help identify and advise individuals about HIV vaccine trials, they will need information from trusted sources about HIV vaccine research and trials, venues to raise issues, discuss them, and explore ways to discuss vaccine issues with their clients.
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