The Ebola vaccine trials – my take, part 2

The Cameroon Government should have as a priority the protection of the rights and welfare of its citizens especially those who volunteer to participate in any vaccine clinical trials.

Vaccine trials involving human participants is the mainstay of effective vaccine development but this country’s system or lack of one for the protection of human participants has not kept pace with fundamental tenet of ethical vaccine trial procedures.

Education is the foundation of success that creates an oversight system which is essential for the success of vaccine trials. Over the past several years, the Government has failed to engage the society and criticisms of the system to regulate and protect the interests of human subjects has reached crescendo pitch.

Prior to vaccines and improvements in hygiene, infectious diseases would wipe out entire families and communities at a time. Most people alive today in Cameroon and the entire world do not remember when thousands of children died or were permanently disabled due to polio, measles, diphtheria, smallpox infections and the common cold.

If you think about it, as a whole, other than safe drinking water, vaccines have prevented more deaths than any other prevention method in existence.

In Cameroon, there seems to be a wide gap between the scientific community conducting vaccine trials and the information that is relayed to the public.

This gap should be addressed by initiating a public vaccine trial education campaign locally including the national media, civil society to assure the public involved, the appropriateness of the trials, the methods used to secure informed consent, and the risks and potential benefits of any vaccine trials.

The government, in partnership with academic institutions, professional societies, and the civil society should facilitate discussion about any vaccine trials and develop an agenda that addresses related issues.

The Ministry of Public Health in conjunction with the Ministry of Communication should have initiated a nationwide sensitization program before the onset of Ebola vaccine clinical trial.

This program should have been aimed at educating the public on the nature of the vaccine trials against Ebola and to disabuse their minds against the misconceptions and suspicions associated with the vaccine.

This should have been aimed at assuring the general population that the government would not in any way, at any point put the lives of Cameroonian at risk and that under no circumstances will the Government approve of any clinical trials that will undermine the health and safety of residents of the trial sites and the nation as a whole.

The rational for conducting the trial in Cameroon and in particular, Regions should have been emphasized. Judging from the reaction of the public, it is abundantly clear that there is some misunderstanding about the trial, the dangers it poses and its benefits to Cameroonians and the world at large.

This information void has definitely been exploited by misinformed persons with fixed pseudoscientific opinions about the Ebola vaccine trials who are using unsophisticated tools to disseminate misinformation/disinformation, to create confusion about this exercise. These misguided individuals are far more dangerous than EBOLA itself.

With the trial put on hold in the Northwest region according to media reports, the Government should use this window to raise public awareness to clarify various misconceptions that are emerging from the general public about the trial.

Vaccines have been so successful at preventing diseases, keeping disease outbreaks at bay, and it will be in our enlightened self-interest as a country to contribute to the global quest for an Ebola vaccine. I emphasize that this is a task that requires the mobilization of all disciplines, including strong public engagement.

Preliminary results of this particular vaccine trials in other African countries including the USA has been overwhelmingly positive.

Dr. Ateh Eugene, works at the Animal Model Division of the Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine where he is the Research Lead Specialist.