In ideal circumstances, the reason to join a clinical trial would be to help yourself and other people with HIV / AIDS find out whether a new treatment works. However, for some people, joining a clinical trial may be the only way to get free access to a treatment or diagnostic test. Although clinical trials provide access to new treatments and provide medication free of charge, you should be careful not to treat the trial as a form of care. Trials are scientific experiments and, can not replace the care you receive from your physician.
If you join a clinical trial to get a new treatment, you should check with trial organizers to make sure you’re in the group receiving that treatment. If they can not guarantee that you will receive the treatment, you can ask to join the compassionate arm of the trial, if there is one.