Our East Bay Partners

The HIV Research Section is proud to announce a new partnership with the East Bay AIDS Center (EBAC). Based in Berkeley, EBAC is a trusted community based organization serving over 1,200 people with HIV. Based in the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, EBAC offers a comprehensive program of primary HIV care, clinical trials, and access to counseling and support throughout the course of HIV and AIDS.

EBAC is very excited to participate in the HIV vaccine studies to expand their focus to include HIV prevention. “Our community is heavily impacted by HIV and AIDS. We believe that an HIV vaccine will benefit our entire community, and especially the family, friends, and loved ones of our patients,” says Dr. Stephen O’Brien, head of EBAC.

A long-time goal of the HIV Research Section has been to expand our HIV vaccine outreach efforts to the East Bay in order to include the communities there who are affected by HIV. “HIV doesn’t perceive the bridge between us,” says Dr. Jonathan Fuchs, head of HIV Vaccine Studies in the San Francisco Department of Public Health. “This epidemic is a challenge for the entire Bay Area, not just for San Francisco.”

The partnership will kick off with an educational campaign and active outreach based at EBAC to raise awareness about HIV vaccine studies in the East Bay. The second phase of the project may involve study participants attending study visits at EBAC, and only having to come to San Francisco a few times for the actual vaccination visits. Participants will receive a stipend for time and transportation.

The HIV Research Section welcomes other partners into this effort. The Berkeley Free Clinic’s Gay Men’s Health Collective is supporting the vaccine effort during their Sunday clinics, and the AIDS Project East Bay has been conducting HIV vaccine education through an NIH grant for the last two years. “In order to find an HIV vaccine, we’ll need thousands of healthy, HIV negative volunteers stepping up to participate in studies,” says Dr. Fuchs, “we can’t achieve this goal if we don’t work together.”