Chris Nelson

Biology 1610/1615
Tillack & Pearson
HIV-Vaccine Article
I chose the article on HIV-Vaccine mainly because it was a new
concept to me that I did not know existed. This article is based on
research done by a team of 10 supposed scientists. The research done
was performed to determine if fishing communities of areas in and
around Uganda make for viable places for future HIV-vaccine efficacy
trials. The scientific method was probably used in their research and
will be discussed in this paper. Perceptions were that the mobility of
persons in these fishing communities might not make for a valuable
resource for future efficacy trials.
Prior to this article multiple efficacy trials had been done on the
HIV-vaccine with only one having any proof of efficacy of the vaccine.
So with the assumption that an effective HIV-vaccine still eludes the
world this research team wanted to find an area that would prove to be
beneficial in figuring the efficacy of the vaccine. The fishing
communities around Uganda were chosen for the high incident rate of
HIV, one that is 3-7 times higher than the national general population
rate for the age groups that were tested (18-49). With the high incident
rate of HIV and hopefully a high willingness to participate the fishing
communities could prove to be a valuable place for future trials of the
vaccine.

The use of the scientific method is not abundantly clear but it is

assumed that their hypothesis would have been that the fishing
communities around Uganda would prove to be a valuable resource for
efficacy trials for the HIV-vaccine. The research team performed a
cohort study over 2 years to determine the best possible candidates
for the study. They were able to get consent from 2191 persons out of
2200 who were chosen from the cohort study. Participants received
community based health education prior to any testing. During
subsequent visits the participants would give blood to be tested and
receive free counseling and education of HIV/AIDS. All communication
was done through information sharing and during community
education. Participants were never individually contacted in any way.
All testing was performed in a laboratory and HIV results were
available in a short period of time.
The research team reported favorable results. They found that
despite the perceived mobility of the persons living in these areas that
were tested that they had a high willingness to participate with high
retention rates. Persons living in the areas for more than 3 years and
those that were above 30 years of age had some of the highest
retention rates. The research team concluded that the fishing
communities in and around Uganda proved to be of great value for
future HIV-vaccine efficacy trials.