Are there nonmedical risks to participating in a vaccine trial?
Some volunteers have reported that others have treated them poorly when they learned about their participation in a trial. Some people erroneously believe that a trial participant must be infected with HIV, even though volunteers must be HIV-negative to participate. On rare occasions, you may have difficulty obtaining health insurance and/or traveling outside of the country. However, there are ways to assist you with this in the rare event it happens. It is important to note that other than the study site staff, no one will be informed that you are an HIV vaccine trial volunteer unless you make the decision to tell them yourself.
