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HIV Prevention Trials-Creating Effective Partnerships: the West and Central Africa Experience

HIV Prevention Trials-Creating Effective Partnerships: the West and Central Africa Experience. Dr Baafuor Opoku SAVVY Project, Kumasi, Ghana. Topics. The regional meeting Processes Report. The Abuja meeting. West and Central Africa Regional consultation. June 1-3, 2005,

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HIV Prevention Trials-Creating Effective Partnerships: the West and Central Africa Experience

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  1. HIV Prevention Trials-Creating Effective Partnerships: the West and Central Africa Experience Dr Baafuor Opoku SAVVY Project, Kumasi, Ghana

  2. Topics • The regional meeting • Processes • Report

  3. The Abuja meeting • West and Central Africa Regional consultation. • June 1-3, 2005, • Ladi Kwali Conference Centre,Abuja Sheraton Hotel in Nigeria • Participants were from Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, and Senegal

  4. Participants • Investigators/researchers involved in new HIV prevention research • IRB chairs/ members, • Community advocates, ethicists, • People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWAs), • Civil society groups.

  5. Objectives • To share experiences and lessons learnt in scientist- civil society partnerships in HIV prevention trials in the Region. • To define and develop mechanisms for establishing and maintaining meaningful scientist- civil society partnerships to build consensus on design and to ensure that emerging issues are addressed

  6. Processes • Presentations from researchers, advocacy groups and civil society at plenary sessions (listed under ‘Acknowledgements’) • Group work, which used papers, including the following as background documents:

  7. Gaps and Inconsistencies in Ethical Guidance for HIV Prevention Research – A UNAIDS background document • Report on the Debate( 21st of April 2005) at the Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam organised by Share-Net and Ministry of Foreign Affairs with support of IAVI • Online consultation: Ethical frameworks for HIV Prevention Trials. Summary report. African Microbicides Advocacy Group (AMAG) • International AIDS Society Stakeholder Consultation to Address Issues Related to Tenofovir Prophylactic Research. 19-20 May 2005, Seattle, Washington, USA

  8. Group work 2 formats • Researchers alone on one hand, vrs others (advocates, ethicists, civil society) • A mixture of both groups

  9. Plenary sessions Experiences and lessons learnt included • Little knowledge on the issue of clinical trials both in academia and the general public • Mistrust between scientists and community • Coaching of recruits by earlier recruited trial participants to fit into eligibility criteria • The powerful place of female advocacy groups

  10. Negative publicity for trials by media • The role of research programmes in managing participants who seroconvert during research • Civil society is so diversified because of so many stakeholders; so they fight among themselves rather than partner each other for common goals.

  11. Group work Reports 1. Our recruitment strategies re-enforce gender stereotypes • Women and male condoms instead of female ones • No direct male involvement in such trials • Increased stigmatization of women recruits. 2. Partnership with community; the need to clarify the definition of community; the need to involve the community (opinion leaders and advocacy groups) at an early stage; have their inputs reflected in protocol and inform them on research outcomes. 3. Trial participants; informed consent must be obtained in language understood by participants in presence of trained witnesses (if necessary); autonomy and intelligence of participants not to be under- estimated, however.

  12. 4. Ensuring meaningful civil society involvement in HIV prevention research • creation of platform for engagement; (NGOS,CBOS, etc). • communication systems in the community that will allow information sharing. 5. National HIV/AIDS plans and policies should facilitate, not hinder HIV prevention research. • Reorganisation of HIV research as a priority. • Set guidelines on areas of importance that will create enabling environment • use of institutions like NEPAD to set guidelines

  13. 6. Ethical committees; • capacity of some IRBs questioned. Need for standardized and ongoing training for IRBs which must be evident before their approval of any study is accepted. • The need to put in place a national coordination committee for IRBs.

  14. Acknowledgements • The basics of clinical trials-Scientific and ethical review challenges-(Morenike Ukpong) • Ethical Frameworks for HIV Prevention Trials: An Online Consultation (Olayide Akanni) • Creating Effective Partnerships for Clinical trials. (Shaun Mellors) • Community involvement in new HIV prevention technologies (Olayide Akanni) • Experiences and Challenges in HIV Prevention Research in Ghana. (Dr. Baafuor Opoku) • Regard furtif sur le monde a travers l’essai tdf:lecons apprises et leurs implications futures ( Dr Henriette MEILO) • Lots of talking – moving us where? Recommendations, Lessons & Gaps from other meetings (Manju Chatani) • Gaps and Inconsistencies in Ethical Guidance for HIV Prevention Research (Shaun Mellors).

  15. Thank you

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