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Abstract Details
Ethical and Practical Issues Associated with the Possibility of Using Controlled Human Infection Trials in Developing a Hepatitis C Virus Vaccine
Clin Infect Dis. 2020 May 22;ciaa640. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa640. Online ahead of print.
Andrea Cox12, Mark Sulkowski1, Jeremy Sugarman123
Affiliations collapse
Author information
1School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
2Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
3Berman Institute of Bioethics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
Abstract
Despite the existence of established treatments for hepatitis C virus (HCV), more effective means of preventing infection, such as a vaccine, are arguably needed to help reduce substantial global morbidity and mortality. Given the expected challenges of developing such a vaccine among those at heightened risk of infection, controlled human infection studies seem to be a promising potential approach to HCV vaccine development, but they raise substantial ethical and practical concerns. In this paper, we describe some of the challenges related to the possibility of using controlled human infection studies to accelerate HCV vaccine development. The related ethical and practical concerns require further deliberation before such studies are planned and implemented.