Myron Cohen, University of North Carolina, discusses studies on HIV transmission, with an emphasis on sero-discordant couples.
Interviewed by Yasmin Halima, from ATAC, at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Montreal, February 2009
My question is about the ethics of this study. If Cohen is studying serodiscordant couples in African countries to measure transmission, are these couples offered condoms, or are they just guinea pigs in the name of research? It is never addressed whether these couples are being educated on how to protect the negative partner, and given condoms. I think it would be wrong to study them without providing this. It would only be ethical if they had all that, and chose to go unprotected anyways.
desertartemis 1 year ago