CSULB's Student Health Center participates in study

By Katie Plourd
Daily Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer

Cal State Long Beach students have the opportunity to help researchers find a vaccine to prevent the spread of herpes.

Herpes affects one of every four women over the age of 12. Over 90 percent of the people that have the infectious disease do not know that they are infected.

Cal State Long Beach's Student Health Center is one of the forty sites nationwide participating in the Herpevac Vaccine Study to find a vaccine for the virus.

Clinical research nurse Kandi Dubrall said the study needs 7,750 participants to be completed. "You have to be enrolled as a student here at Cal State Long Beach," Dubrall said, "in order to participate."

Participants must be females between the ages of 18 and 30, plan to be in the area for the next 20 months, be in good health, have no history of herpes simplex one or two and have not had a vaccine for Hepatitis A.

People that have had a Hepatitis A vaccine cannot participate because the study is double blinded; neither the researcher nor the participant will know if the participant has received the vaccine for herpes or the control vaccine, according to Dubrall.

"For studies they usually have an experimental vaccine and a control vaccine," Dubrall said. "Our control is the Hepatitis A."

The process takes a total of 20 months, but participants only visit the health center eight times, according to Holly Ellison, research associate and health educator of the Student Health Center. These visits include education and counseling about herpes, medical history and eligibility checks, physical exams, urine tests, blood samples, vaccinations and questionnaires.

The Student Health Center is promoting the study by encouraging student to participate in the well-compensated study.

"Final compensation is given to participants," Ellison said, "$350 as long as they're enrolled."

The compensation is not given all at once, but over the 20-month period participants will receive $30 to $40 upon each visit.

"We give little gifts in between as well," Ellison said, "gift certificates to Starbucks, the movies and on your first visit you get a free lunch on us."

There are no risks, according to Ellison, that wouldn't be associated with other vaccines.

Aside from the possibility of swelling or soreness associated with any vaccine, Herpevac has generally been well tolerated with most participants, according to Ellison.

The most important thing that Dubrall and Ellison mention is that participants in the study do not get infected with the virus.

"The vaccine cannot give you Herpes." Dubrall said.

The vaccine that is used in the trial does not contain the live or infectious virus. It uses a piece of a herpes virus protein that stimulates the antibodies in your blood to respond.

This immune response is what fights off the virus. This is why according to Dubrall participants must give monthly blood tests to count the antibody levels in their blood.

According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), the vaccine has not been proven 100 percent effective in other studies. Therefore, a participant is still able to contract the herpes simplex virus if exposed to the virus during sexual contact with someone who has the virus.

There are enormous benefits from participating in the trial according to the NIH. Trials such as the Herpevac trial are the safest and fastest way to find treatments to prevent diseases such as herpes.

CSULB student Elizabeth Collins heard about the study last year from her roommates. "Its good for women to participate in these kind of things," Collins said, "so they can further the studies to find a cure or vaccine."

The NIH advises women to weigh the potential risks and benefits and decide whether the trial is right for them.

For more information on participating in the Herpevac Study contact Holly Ellison or Kandi Dubrall at (562) 985-4874. Or visit www.herpesvaccine.nih.gov.