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Kevin Trimell Jones is part of a
“small army” of university and hospital professionals in Philadelphia working
to help end HIV. Locating and recruiting research participants is part of his
job as a research coordinator and ethnographer at the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine’s HIV/AIDS Prevention Research Division.
Jones currently is working to find
volunteers, especially gay black men in the city, for an upcoming HIV vaccine
trial that is taking place at multiple sites across the country, including at
Penn Medicine.
“We’ve known since the early days
that the rates were disproportionately affecting black people,” Jones said.
“We’re still seeing young people becoming infected, particularly young black
males, and there’s not enough people that care about this issue.”
“You have to seek people out,” Jones
said, noting that individuals do not automatically come to research “for the
good it does for society.” “It helps to be an ethnographer, to know how to
observe people and environments, to know the right times to talk to people and
how to talk to people,” he said.
“The reason we have the HIV meds we
have now is because many people rolled up their sleeves and participated in
clinical trials,” Jones said. “There were people taking a chance and
participating in something that, even though they might not see the benefit of
it, future generations would.”
For more information about the HIV
vaccine trial at Penn Medicine, telephone 866-HIV-PENN or visit: http:// www.med.upenn.edu/hiv.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
