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close this bookA Media Handbook for HIV Vaccine Trials for Africa (UNAIDS, 2001, 45 p.)
close this folderSection 5 - Identifying your public and partners
View the document(introduction...)
View the documentThe media, editorialists and opinion-shapers
View the documentThe scientific community
View the documentHIV/AIDS organizations
View the documentWomen's groups
View the documentStudent groups
View the documentHuman rights organizations
View the documentVaccine trial workers (primary and secondary)
View the documentReligious organizations
View the documentTraditional authorities
View the documentCommunity-based organizations (CBOs)
View the documentPolicy makers

The scientific community

This should include scientists and researchers working on HIV/AIDS, vaccine development and vaccine trials. Also target professional bodies in the health sector, science faculty members in local universities and accredited research institutes/centres, especially professors who push alternatives to vaccine treatment or who have written or made adverse remarks on any aspect of the vaccine and the trial protocol.

Use the Internet to search for and enlist the cooperation of international organizations such as the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care (IAPAC), the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Do an Internet search of keywords such as 'vaccine trials', 'vaccine development', 'HIV/AIDS vaccine', to obtain reliable accounts of the work of such organizations locally and internationally. If you have no access to the Internet, contact local offices of the organizations or obtain the contact information for these organizations from foreign embassies and initiate your contact by mail.