Vaccine Vigil

Sexually active gay men in the Boston area are being recruited by the HIV Vaccine Trial Network to participate in a clinical trial of two experimental preventive HIV vaccines. Participants will receive three vaccine or placebo injections and be observed for about four years. Details are online at www.hvtn.org. Officials in China say they've registered and inoculated 49 people for the first stage of a three-part clinical trial of an experimental preventive HIV vaccine. Data will be collected from the volunteers through June, at which point officials will decide whether to proceed with the second stage of the study. Swedish researchers report completing a Phase I study of an experimental DNA vaccine that aims to prevent HIV infection. None of the 40 volunteers participating in the safety study at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm reported vaccine-related side effects. A report released by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative in December says even a moderately effective preventive vaccine could reduce the number of new HIV infections worldwide by one third. The report, titled 'Estimating the Global Impact of an AIDS Vaccine,' also says any available HIV vaccine must be used in concert with'and not as a replacement for'safer-sex initiatives and needle-exchange programs. Merck submitted its cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil to the Food and Drug Administration in December for approval. The vaccine is designed to prevent infection with two strains of human papillomavirus linked with 70% of cervical cancer patients.