Placebos are still used in some Phase 2 and 3 trials. When the first AIDS-related clinical trials were done, some people received placebos and nothing else. But now that AZT, ddI, ddC and have been approved to fight HIV, this is no longer done in tests of anti-HIV treatments. If you join a trial using a new treatment to fight HIV, you should get either an approved treatment or the new treatment. But the trial may still use a placebo in this way:
One group would get the new treatment plus AZT, ddI, ddC or.
For some of the illnesses that people with AIDS can get, there are no approved treatments. In trials for treatments for these illnesses, a placebo may be used alone. However, the use of placebos is becoming rare.
A placebo used in a trial has to look - and be given - exactly like the treatment being tested. So if the treatment is injected into your vein for two hours, the placebo will be injected into your vein for two hours.
Many AIDS activists have questioned the use of placebos in clinical trials. They believe that it is wrong for a person to have to give up other treatments in order to participate in a trial and possibly receive no treatment for an existing infection, or to be exposed to infections that might otherwise have been prevented. This is why AIDS activists fight to have treatments in clinical trials available through compassionate access.