The District Chronicles

Issue date: 2/7/10 Section: Health

When Kymone Freeman decided to become a volunteer for an HIV vaccine trial, he realized he was putting his name, face and possibly body at risk for social backlash. But he knew the potential for advances in HIV vaccine research were far more important than a jeopardized reputation.

"Right now developing a vaccine for HIV is our only hope," said Freeman, a 39-year-old Washington, D.C. native. "There's a lot of fear and ignorance regarding an HIV vaccine but you have to do something different if you want to see something change."

Freeman became a volunteer for the Vaccine Research Center in 2007 in Bethesda, MD. ?While the primary goal of this research is to develop an HIV vaccine, the center also does studies on Ebola and Influenza.

Freeman got involved with the center as director of the National Black L.U.V. Festival, which hosts an annual event in D.C. educating the community on health disparities and other social issues affecting the Black Diaspora.

"When I went to the orientation for the trial, a representative from the research center was speaking about how there was no progress towards a cure for HIV because it wasn't in the financial interest of pharmaceutical companies," said Freeman. "There are treatments, but no cure. The only hope for ending the pandemic would be a vaccine that prevents people from contracting the disease."

According to a 2009 study, the D.C. Department of Health reported that 3% of D.C residents are living with HIV, the highest in the nation. Freeman says the District's alarming HIV rate and the death of his uncle from AIDS complications motivated him to volunteer.

"When my uncle passed my entire family acted like it didn't happen, they acted like he just randomly got sick and died," said Freeman. "But we all knew he had HIV. I think ignoring the situation helps in the spreading of the disease. It's a stigma in our community that nobody wants to talk about."

The Vaccine Research Center, located in the Medical Center in Bethesda, MD, looks for healthy people, ages 18 and up, to participate in their clinical trials. Although older adults can volunteer, the center would like to get more college-aged students involved.

"Young people tend to have better immune responses so we'd be able to learn a lot more," said Dr. Barney Graham, director of clinical studies at the center. "Our philosophy is: more is better. There's a limit in terms of who we can see but in general we never have enough volunteers." Few college students have volunteered, he said.

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