Next week, the University of Pennsylvania’s HIV Research Division, in cooperation with the SafeGuards Project, will do its part to heighten awareness about efforts to develop an HIV vaccine.
From 5-6:30 p.m. May 18, HIV researchers, activists and members of the LGBT community will come together for HIV Vaccine Awareness Day at 260 S. Broad St.
The event will feature remarks by the city’s director of LGBT affairs Gloria Casarez, who will read a mayoral proclamation recognizing the day, along with the Rev. Jeffrey Jordan-Pickett and individuals who have participated in HIV vaccine trials, as well as live performances.
Annet Davis-Vogel, coordinator of the Penn Center for AIDS Research’s Community Advisory Board, said the community-building event — themed “Celebration of Hope” — represents a new direction in promoting HIV vaccine awareness.
“We’ve taken a different approach to the community-education effort,” Davis-Vogel said. “Many of the previous years, we went around and hung doorknob bags of information throughout our recruitment communities about vaccine research and trials, but we decided to do something different this year.”
Deb Dunbar, clinical director at Penn’s HIV Research Division, said the event is meant to do exactly what its moniker describes: raise awareness.
“We’ve spent quite a bit of time getting the word out about vaccine trials going on here in Philadelphia, but people still aren’t really talking about this like they should be,” she said.
Dunbar said the agency’s efforts to enhance education about HIV vaccine trials could be falling on deaf ears, as some in the LGBT community have become complacent about the disease.
“In the gay community, there is so much positive to be focused on right now, as opposed to in the past: Adoptions are more feasible, civil unions and marriages are happening in some states, there’s ENDA and it looks like ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is on its way out. The gay community has all these great things to focus on and the focus has changed from HIV,” Dunbar said. “It had been this galvanizing force, where people in the gay community thought, ‘We need to come together to beat this HIV thing,’ and it’s not so much anymore. But HIV is still a big deal, and some people don’t recognize that.”
During the event, Dunbar will outline the current HIV vaccine trial Penn is working on, called HIV Vaccine Trial Network 505.
HVTN 505 is a five-year study for HIV-negative men, ages 18-45, who have sex with men.
HVTN 505 is not a single vaccine but rather a regimen and, as such, in the first three months of the trial, participants are given three injections of a naked DNA vaccine, administered through a Biojector — which uses air pressure to shoot the vaccine through the skin into the muscle, as opposed to a needle. At month six, the participant is given a booster with both similarities and differences to the original vaccine.
Dunbar said the first year is the busiest, with participants — half of whom will receive placebos — coming in periodically for the injections and follow-up monitoring, and that, in the ensuing four years, participants will take part in HIV testing and counseling every three months.
Participants receive $5 for every visit and are also given SEPTA tokens for their time. Dunbar noted that while there isn’t significant compensation for participants, those enrolled in the trial should benefit from knowing they’ve done their part to fight HIV for future generations.
“The primary incentive is that people feel really good to be able to be giving back to their community,” she said. “Most people who choose to participate end up finding that they’ve become part of a clinic that’s focused on the shared goal of trying to prevent HIV to make the world a better place.”
For more information about HVTN 505, call (866) 448-7366.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].