AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC)

AVAC works to provide independent analysis, policy advocacy, public education and mobilisation to enhance AIDS vaccine research and development. A key channel for these efforts is the AVAC website, which is designed to support a network of individuals by sharing research, policy alerts, and strategies for action. Various links and resources designed to inform and engage vaccine advocates are offered.

As that handbook title suggests, in carrying out outreach and mobilisation activities, the engagement of AIDS-affected communities is AVAC's key strategy. The thought is that "Community members need to be involved to assure ethical conduct of studies, protection of clinical trial participants, and equitable access to AIDS vaccines when they become available."

One specific example of AVAC's advocacy work concerns mobilisation for the public and government to cooperate to meet the deadline set by then-President Bill Clinton in 1997, who urged the development of an AIDS vaccine in 10 years' time. To that end, each May AVAC publishes an annual report on the global status of the effort; click here for access to these reports. AVAC also puts out various calls for activism, such as one asking the public to get involved by "becoming informed about HIV vaccine research, joining trials if eligible and willing, participating in Community Advisory Boards, working with AIDS prevention and treatment groups to incorporate vaccine awareness, and donating time or money to AIDS vaccine groups or AIDS groups that contribute to vaccine research." By providing specific guidance on its website - e.g., information about and contact details for trials currently being carried out - and through its e-newsletter, AVAC hopes to galvanise the global community to work to meet Clinton's challenge by 2007.

While AVAC works to foster community involvement and activism, the ethical lens of its efforts means urging care with regard to certain types of participation, namely, trial volunteering. "These must be individual decisions, guided by as much open information, consultation, and discussion as possible. This is especially true when dealing with vaccines for healthy people who are at risk for acquiring HIV infection...In addition, the conduct of fruitful and ethical research must always be safeguarded by the involvement of informed community members at all levels and stages of the research process."

HIV/AIDS, Immunisation & Vaccines.