Retaining hard-to-reach women in HIV prevention and vaccine trials: Project ACHIEVE

Project ACHIEVE, which conducts HIV prevention research studies, maintains a women's site in the South Bronx in New York City. Owing to a focused retention effort at the South Bronx site, high retention rates were achieved in a vaccine preparedness study for women at high risk of HIV infection. Comparable retention rates have been achieved in HIV vaccine trials with similar cohorts of women at this site. These results suggest that concerns about retaining hard-to-reach populations should not cause these populations to be excluded from HIV vaccine and prevention trials.