PLoS Releases Article on Challenges of Enrolling Women in HIV Vaccine Trial Studies

• "Enrolling Women into HIV Preventive Vaccine Trials: An Ethical Imperative but a Logistical Challenge," PLoS Medicine: Edward Mills, director of the Center for International Health and Human Rights Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues discuss the cultural barriers to enrolling women into HIV vaccine trials, such as the difficulties in obtaining informed consent from women who do not have "decision-making freedom" or fear they could contract HIV through participation in the trial. Mills says that to overcome these barriers, "researchers must be sensitive to the needs" of these groups, but he adds that by "implementing strategies" to enroll women into clinical trials, "we can appreciate the enormous contributions they are making to science" (Mills et al., PLoS Medicine, 2/21).