Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Oct 10;22 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):10.
doi: 10.11694/pamj.supp.2015.22.1.6216. eCollection 2015.

Ethics, emergencies and Ebola clinical trials: the role of governments and communities in offshored research

Morenike Oluwatoyin Folayan  1 , Kristin Peterson  2 , Frances Kombe  3
Affiliations

Ethics, emergencies and Ebola clinical trials: the role of governments and communities in offshored research

Morenike Oluwatoyin Folayan et al. Pan Afr Med J. .

Abstract

The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa has stimulated investments in EVD research. While these research efforts are most welcome, we are concerned about the potential to ignore effective community ethics engagement programmes and critical government regulatory agencies in light of the urgency to conduct clinical trials for EVD therapies and vaccines. We discuss the reasons why community engagement with various research stakeholders is essential, how community engagement should be conducted, and the potential consequences of failing to engage both communities and regulatory agencies by drawing on past experiences in the field of HIV research. We highlight the importance of a) capacity building to enable local researchers design and implement EVD research for future epidemics, b) the need to support community research literacy, and c) the need to build the competency of research regulatory agencies on the continent to address EVD therapy and vaccine research.

Keywords: Ebola; Ethics; community engagement; government.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Peterson K, Ukpong M. Ethical misrecognition: reframing community perspectives and debates on clinical trial conduct; Poster Abstract presentation at the XVII International AIDS conference; 3rd – 8th August, 2008; Mexico City. 2008. (Poster Presentation - MOPE1088)
    1. Ukpong M, Fatusi O, Peterson K. Community vs researcher's perspectives on community demands from trials; Oral abstract presentation at the Microbicide 2008 Conference; February 24th to 27th, 2008; New Delhi. India: 2008. (Oral abstract 123)
    1. Ukpong MO, Peterson K. Review of the reports from the community voices in the field involved with the tenofovir controversy; Poster abstract presentation at the AIDS IMPACT conference; 22nd to 24th September, 2009; Gaborone, Botswana. Abstract no 7.43.
    1. Ukpong M, Peterson K, Akanni O. Common decimals on community perspectives of the ethical conduct of clinical trials: a review of the oral tenofovir controversy; Poster discussion at the Microbicide 2010; May 22nd to 25th, 2010; Pittsburgh, USA. 2010. Poster discussion 386.
    1. Chigwedere E, Mkunthi M, Ukpong M, Peterson K, Nthete E, Obileye O. Saying ‘no’ to clinical research: Malawi's denial to study tenofovir (TDF) PreP; Poster presentation at the 18th IAS AIDS Conference; 18th to 23rd July, 2010; Vienna, Austria. 2010. Poster ThPE0249.

MeSH terms