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RATIONALE: Vaccines may make the body build an immune response to kill tumor cells. It is not yet known whether vaccine therapy is more effective than observation alone for melanoma. PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying vaccine therapy to see how well it works compared to observation alone in treating patients with primary stage II melanoma.

The purpose of this study is to see if it is effective to give HIV positive patients recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2) in addition to anti-HIV therapy. Patients will be followed over a minimum of 4 years to study the long-term effects of rIL-2 on their HIV disease progression. Anti-HIV therapy has been very successful in treating HIV positive patients and in keeping viral load (level of HIV in the blood) low. However, anti-HIV drugs cannot completely rid the body of the virus, and the immune system is never completely restored in HIV positive patients. Doctors hope that giving patients recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2) in addition to their anti-HIV therapy will help improve their immune systems and keep them healthier over a longer period of time. rIL-2 is a hormone naturally produced by the body during an immune response to a microbial infection.