Gay men recruited
for HIV vaccine trial

Gay men in the Boston area are being recruited for a clinical trial of two experimental vaccines that aim to prevent HIV infections, The Boston Globe reports. Jim Maynard, of Boston's Fenway Community Health Center, which provides health care services to the gay community, says he has been seeking potential trial participants at gay bars and clubs in the city. "To find high-risk gay men, we need to go where they are," he told the Globe.

Sexually active HIV-negative gay men age 18 and older are being sought for the trial to see whether the vaccines offer protection against HIV infection. Study participants will receive three vaccine or placebo injections, and then be followed for four years. If the placebo group has a significantly higher rate of HIV infection that "would be a big breakthrough and this could look...very promising," Kenneth Mayer, an infectious disease physician at Fenway Community Health Center, told the Globe. "We hope this will trick the immune system into making a response to HIV that will bolster the immune system but not undermine it."

For more information about the vaccine trial or to enroll in the study, call (617) 525-7327, (617) 927-6450, or (401) 793-4932. (Advocate.com)