Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - July 24, 2005
Apiradee Treerutkuarkul
The joint survey by the College of Population Studies at Chulalongkorn University and the Bureau of Aids, Tuberculosis and Sexually-Transmitted Infections found researchers on the project were not able to deliver information properly regarding the trial process and the vaccine to health staff and potential volunteers.
As a result, the trial had not gained public attention, despite a campaign having been run for more than two years, the study said. The study was unveiled at the recent national conference on Aids.
The study was undertaken among Aids advocates, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), people living with the HIV virus and residents at the trial sites of Chon Buri and Rayong.
Respondents felt a lack of accurate information on the trial had also discouraged target groups from participating. Public health officials had not clearly understood the process of the human trial and had a negative attitude towards people living with HIV/Aids, the study said.
A team of professionals is to be set up to design a national communication plan for the targeted volunteers in a bid to raise their understanding and help monitor possible moral and rights violations among the volunteers, it said.
The US-funded project aimed to recruit 16,000 volunteers in Chon Buri and Rayong within six months of screening starting in September 2003. The project is 3,000 people short of its target, and its extended two-year recruitment period has passed.
All volunteers, aged between 20 and 30, must live in the two eastern provinces. Half were given a potential vaccine against the virus, while the other half received a placebo during a one-year period. Follow ups would take place every three years to monitor volunteers and check on their condition. Those in the vaccine group have been receiving shots of two combination vaccines _ canary pox vaccine Alvac and a synthesised combination of the B and E subtypes of the Aids virus AidsVax. The two subtypes are prevalent in Thailand.
Disease Control Department director-general Thawat Sundaracharn agreed with the study results, saying the poor campaign leading to problems in finding volunteers had played a part in the delay. The programme's main investigator, Supachai Rerks-ngarm, is still confident, saying there would be enough volunteers by year-end.
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