London doctors are seeking couples where one partner is HIV-
positive and the other is HIV-negative, to take part in a new
global study to discover how some people remain uninfected with
HIV despite exposure to the virus. The research, launched today
on the eve of World AIDS Day, is part of an international
programme that will see scientists, clinicians and volunteers
across the world working together with the ultimate aim of
creating a new vaccine against HIV. The researchers, from
Imperial College London and King's College Hospital NHS
Foundation Trust, are looking for couples where one partner has
remained HIV-negative, in spite of having been exposed to HIV
through unprotected sexual contact with their HIV-positive
partner. The researchers are encouraging both heterosexual and
homosexual couples, who have been together for a year or more,
to volunteer to take part. They are also seeking monogamous HIV-
negative couples who sometimes have unprotected sex, to act as
controls. The clinics for volunteers are ba