sábado, março 12, 2005
Novo ensaio controverso com tenofovir na Tailândia
Thai Aids campaigners question new clinical trials
US and Thai researchers gearing up to launch ground-breaking clinical trials on Aids prevention in Bangkok have found themselves torn between US administration restrictions and Thai activist hostility.
Thai authorities this week approved a trial co-ordinated by the US-based Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on 1,600 intravenous drug users designed to see whether tenofovir, an anti-retroviral medicine already used successfully in treating HIV positive patients, could also be applied as a prophylactic.
But Thai Aids campaigners have raised questions about researchers' decision to study drug users in Thailand, where in 2003 the government waged a bloody "war against drugs" during which several thousand suspected drug peddlers were gunned down. No one has been held accountable.
Aids campaigners have also accused researchers of breaching international ethical guidelines by failing to provide those participating in the study the full gamut of other confirmed HIV prevention tools.
(...)
US and Thai researchers gearing up to launch ground-breaking clinical trials on Aids prevention in Bangkok have found themselves torn between US administration restrictions and Thai activist hostility.
Thai authorities this week approved a trial co-ordinated by the US-based Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on 1,600 intravenous drug users designed to see whether tenofovir, an anti-retroviral medicine already used successfully in treating HIV positive patients, could also be applied as a prophylactic.
But Thai Aids campaigners have raised questions about researchers' decision to study drug users in Thailand, where in 2003 the government waged a bloody "war against drugs" during which several thousand suspected drug peddlers were gunned down. No one has been held accountable.
Aids campaigners have also accused researchers of breaching international ethical guidelines by failing to provide those participating in the study the full gamut of other confirmed HIV prevention tools.
(...)
