Synopses & Reviews
Efforts to halt the spread of AIDS have failed so far, and the creation of a vaccine seems the best hope for controlling the disease. Yet the process of developing and testing an HIV vaccine raises a host of difficult ethical issues. These concerns are the focus of this timely and important book. Describing the role of vaccines in controlling infectious disease, this study surveys the guidelines, regulations, and attitudes concerning human-subjects research. There is current information on the state of HIV research and the challenges facing scientists. Vaccine research differs considerably from drug research, and Grady explores the current wisdom governing research with human subjects. Proposing a model for the ethical conduct of vaccine research in general, this book applies it to the complex case of an HIV vaccine. Clinical trials are already ongoing, and the next step, field trials to determine efficacy, involves another set of issues - and a call for new strategies for ethical conduct. The Search for an AIDS Vaccine is essential reading for everyone interested in ethics and the conduct of HIV vaccine research.
Synopsis
"The book is a balanced and comprehensive treatment of an important social issue. It is accessible to the general reader and belongs in public as well as academic libraries." --Religious Studies Review
"Painstaking analysis of the knotty ethical problems involved in human-subjects research, and a well-thought-out proposal for a community approach to conducting field trials for an HIV vaccine.... Highly recommended for medical ethicists and anyone concerned about the AIDS epidemic and how HIV research is conducted."
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [163]-185) and index.
About the Author
CHRISTINE GRADY, R.N., Ph.D., is Acting Clinical Director and Research Associate at the National Institute of Nursing Research, the National Institutes of Health and has served as a member of the staff of the President's Commission on the HIV Epidemic.
Table of Contents
Dedication and Acknowledgments
Introduction
ONE Vaccines and Their Development: Historical, Social, and Scientific Perspectives
TWO Human-Subjects Research and the Regulation of Drugs and Biologicals
THREE Human-Subjects Research and HIV Vaccines
FOUR The State of HIV Vaccine Science
FIVE Planning Phase III HIV Vaccine Efficacy Trials
SIX Summary
Glossary
Notes
References
Index