Open AccessEthical and Practical Issues Associated With the Possibility of Using Controlled Human Infection Trials in Developing a Hepatitis C Virus Vaccine
Author(s) -
Andrea L. Cox,
Mark S. Sulkowski,
Jeremy Sugarman
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
clinical infectious diseases/clinical infectious diseases (online. university of chicago. press)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.44
H-Index - 336
eISSN - 1537-6591
pISSN - 1058-4838
DOI - 10.1093/cid/ciaa640
Subject(s) - deliberation , hepatitis c virus , medicine , intensive care medicine , hepatitis a vaccine , virology , immunology , hepatitis a virus , virus , political science , politics , law
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 article, 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.