Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
It has emerged that
the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has already sanctioned that Ghanaians should
be used for the much-talked-about Ebola vaccines trial.
The FDA’s approval is
coming at a time when some Ghanaians particularly the Volta Region branch of
the ruling NDC are protesting the decision which they said is tantamount to using
the people from the region as “human guinea pigs.”
Students of Hohoe
Midwifery Training School have been selected as volunteers for the test trial
in exchange for GH¢200 each and mobile phones.
Approval letter
An FDA approval is
contained in June 8, 2015 news release signed by Hudu Mogtari, Chief Executive
saying Ghana had joined the likes of the United Kingdom, United States and
others in search for effective Ebola treatment.
“Ghana has joined
other African countries in the global search for an effective vaccine against
the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) which has claimed thousands of lives in
Africa over the past few months,” the statement said.
Safety
It said the FDA had
already had technical discussions with international partners and had granted
approval for “one trial which will test the safety and immunogenicity
(indication of how the body will recognize and defend itself against substances
that are foreign and harmful) of a potential anti-Ebola vaccine in one site in
the country.”
The statement said
the vaccine being tested had been produced by one of the world’s biggest
pharmaceutical companies and the evaluation of the trial protocol included
leading experts in Ghana, who are considering a second application.
Excellent infrastructure
It said Ghana was
selected because of what it called “excellent infrastructure for clinical
trials,” and added that the FDA had joined the US FOA, European Medicines
Agency, Health Canada and the WHO to provide the technical support in the evaluation of the Ebola vaccine
clinical trials for other affected countries.
The statement further
said Ghana was the Regional Centre of Regulatory Excellence (RCORE) for
Clinical Trials Oversight in Africa as designated by NEPAD/Africa Medicines
Regulatory Harmonization (AMHR).
“The FDA in
considering these applications is mindful of its public health protection role
in Ghana as well as its overall contribution to global health,” adding “These
trials are being conducted to the highest ethical standards as operates
globally and the FDA is satisfied that
all measures to ensure complete participant protection are in place.”
Chiefs’ Invitation
The School of Public
Health (SPH) at the newly-established University of Health and Allied Sciences
(UHAS) which has been fingered as being part of the whole vaccine brouhaha
wrote to invite all paramount chiefs and queenmothers at the Hohoe Traditional
Council for a meeting over the issue slated for April 22, 2015.
The letter written on
April 16, 2015 and signed by Dr. Margaret Kweku, Acting Dean of SPH had said
the meeting was being convened to offer the opinion leaders the platform in
discussing “the impending Phase Ebola Vaccine Trial,” to be carried out in the
Hohoe Municipality.
“I am honoured to
inform you that approval has been granted for the commencement of the project
hence our invitation to you,” the letter told members of the Gbi-Traditional Council.
Fiery protest
A Coalition for
Ghana’s Independence Now (CGIN), a pressure group recently revealed that the
project was expected to kick off at Hohoe in the Volta Region soon and added
that health officials had already approached students of the Hohoe Midwifery
Training School to volunteer for the trial.
According to the
coalition, the students had been promised GH¢200 each and mobile phones. They
will also receive other compensations such as transport fares among others
depending on how the trial goes.
“We want to say
without fear or favor that, Ebola is not just a disease but rather a
well-planned business. A business where people have created an artificial
problem and now looking for a market to sell the solution and we are telling
Ghanaians beforehand that there is and will be no way by which Ghana can go
through this Ebola virus human experiment without Ebola being spread country
wide.”
“We also would want
Ghanaians to know that, since there is no a single case of Ebola or patient in
Ghana, healthy people would have to be infected with the Ebola virus before the
said vaccine is administered to them for a gamble.
“It is therefore from
the above illogical scenario that we consider the intended human
experimentation of Ebola in Ghana as criminal, human right abuse, thievery and
a total disrespect of Ghanaians as human beings.”
NDC concerns
The Volta Region NDC asked
the Ministry Of Health to immediately call off the Ebola Vaccine trial in the
region.
The Regional
Executives described the exercise in a statement as “unfortunate” and said it
is tantamount using them as “human guinea pigs.”
“We are not going to
sit down for our people to be used as guinea pigs in a needless experiment.”
“We want to state that Ghana has no evidence
of Ebola outbreak to warrant Ebola vaccination trials. We have cases of
malaria, cholera and HIV AIDS among others. We need vaccines or remedies for
these diseases. Why should a country that is not threatened by Ebola, risk the
lives of its citizens for an unnecessary experiment?”
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