Belly Aching? Militants led by ACT UP Paris, holding signs that say "Tenofovir makes me sick," staged protests in Bangkok last summer at the 15th International AIDS Conference.
The Ministry of Health in Cameroon yesterday suspended a study of HIV transmission to uninfected sex workers. The suspension was in response to a campaign by the AIDS activist group ACT UP Paris, which marked the studies "unethical" and accuses researchers use participants as "guinea pigs." But Mark Harrington , a co-founder of the Treatment Action Group based in New York and a former leader of the original ACT UP, turned back, calling the campaign "misleading" and saying it could jeopardize future research AIDS.
the 1-year study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and run by Family Health International (FHI), started in June and has completed enrollment in December. the trial involves 400 participants (mainly sex workers) who are at high risk of being infected with HIV and who are randomized to either take medication daily doses of tenofovir or placebo. All volunteers receive advice on how condoms help to prevent HIV infection. The study received approval from the Ministry of Health, as well as institutional review boards in Cameroon and the United States.
ACT UP Paris, which was joined by the Cameroonian activist group AIDS Reds, complained several aspects of the study. They would all volunteers who become infected during the study to ensure HIV treatment. And attacked the manufacturer of tenofovir - Gilead of Foster City, Calif. - To rely on sex workers, a socially vulnerable group
In response, the Ministry of Health of Cameroon has appointed an independent commission to assess the trial. The committee came up with a list of concerns, including accreditation properly running clinical study and a better definition of the administrative hierarchy. He also requested that Gilead and FHI make access tenofovir available to African countries, although Gilead already offers drugs to poor countries at a cost with no benefit of 85 cents per pill (compared to $ 12 a pill in the USA). The concerns of the Committee have led the Cameroon Health Minister Urbain Olanguena Awono to close the doors of the clinic running the study.
The suspension has amazed researchers. "I am surprised by the decision," said Anderson Doh, an obstetrician / gynecologist who coordinates research for the study in Cameroon. Doh fears that if the department does not lift the suspension quickly, it could affect the study that trial participants may not receive their monthly supply of pills, as well as advice and condoms. Adds Harrington, "It is a shameful day for AIDS activism."
Related Sites
ACT UP Paris statement on tenofovir studies Bangkok meeting
FHI studies of tenofovir
US CDC on studies of tenofovir
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