Opinion: A challenge trial can streamline testing of hepatitis C vaccines
Trade-offs in medicine can be harsh, even when clearly necessary. Chemotherapy can save people from cancer, but the side effects can wreak havoc on their bodies for months or years. These trade-offs aren’t limited to the clinical world. They are also part of research.
For half a decade, I oversaw a clinical trial testing a new vaccine against the hepatitis C virus, a slowly progressing and usually silent infectious disease that damages the liver over decades, and can cause cancer and even death. The trade-off in this research meant that our team intervened to try to prevent the very hepatitis C infections that were needed for the trial to succeed.
Read Original Article: Opinion: A challenge trial can streamline testing of hepatitis C vaccines »
