1. As many others have mentioned, VISP has been an issue for vaccine trial participants in the past. I don’t believe we have had anyone attempt to donate blood or organs, likely because of effective education during the informed consent process that this will no longer be an available option for them. However, people may test outside of the approved sites in the national registry, and then the consequences may be problematic and stigmatizing if this results in folks believing they are HIV-positive based on a false positive antibody reading of a rapid test.
2. These and other trial participants, as well as some local providers, HIV/AIDS organizations, and members of our Community Advisory Group, have spoken up about concerns regarding VISP, and we have attempted to weave significant education into the informed consent for all HIV vaccine studies. Sometimes we post articles to our HIV vaccine studies Facebook page (called SFisReady) that have to do with VISP and other side effects or social stigmas associated with experimental HIV vaccines, which includes not just study participants but also other stakeholders and community members in its audience for increased reach of this education and awareness. Increasingly, health providers who would run HIV tests and discover these cases of VISP are becoming more aware of the existence of VISP from being in an HIV vaccine trial, which is also helpful; there could definitely be more presentations done on this topic, especially in health clinics and other health provision locations to spread knowledge of VISP further in the community.
