Rejection of Ebola Vaccine trial a sad day for science – Prof. Dodoo

Associate Professor of the University of Ghana Professor Alex Dodoo has condemned the reaction of politicians to an Ebola Vaccine trial in Ghana after Parliament ordered its suspension.

“People have gotten it so wrong and it is sad. It is sad for the country, it is sad for science” he lamented.

Parliamentarians took turns yesterday to condemn moves to have an Ebola Vaccine trial in the Volta region.

Some parliamentarians condemned the trial and suggested that it be tried on “mice, rabbits and chimpanzees”.

According to an MP, God has protected us from the deadly virus and therefore there was no need for the exercise. MP for Asokwa Kobina Tahir Hammond described the incentive of 200 cedis and a mobile phone for volunteers as “silly”.

Discussing the matter on Joy FM's Super Morning Show Thursday, two experts, Alex Dodoo who is with the World Health Organisation and Certified Clinical research Coordinator , Susan Amankwah explained that there is nothing wrong with conducting the trials because extreme care is being taken to guarantee public safety.

It is undergoing a very rigorous process to meet international standards, she added.

Susan explained that the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) which is the launch pad agency for implementing the trials, is working with highly experienced and qualified lawyers, biochemists, doctors of global repute to ensure that “welfare, rights and safety of participants” are guaranteed.

Susan added that the process to get approval takes considerable time.

“It didn’t happen yesterday the protocol wasn’t submitted to FDA just one day and they came and said it is okay. It was submitted to them last November”, she clarified.

In effect, “nobody is bringing Ebola to Ghana”, Professor Dodoo stressed, dismissing public fears about the potential introduction of one of the most deadly virus in contemporary times.

The FDA, he revealed had only been given a “temporal approval” for the trials in the Volta region.

Reserving his shock for parliamentarians in particular, Professor Dodoo regretted that politics should seep into technical issues and usurp a clinical trial for an Ebola vaccine.

“What shocked me it that, I heard Member of Parliament say that, do we have systems. Does the Member of Parliament not know that we have the FDA which is being regulated by the Public Health Act of 2012 and that, that organization is mandated by our laws to carry out clinical studies? If these members of parliament had just taken the most casual of checks with the body licensed to do this”.

He suggested that the Health Minister on his own cannot suspend the trial without recourse to the technocrats working on it.

If the Minister is able to do this, “then something is very wrong with Ghana. This is the problem with Ghana. The politicians are beginning to usurp what should be technical issues, instead of seeking clarification”

The Professor noted that US and Canada face no threat from the disease that wiped out about 10,000 people in West Africa.

This is because these countries have developed their own vaccine, ZEMA, to fight Ebola.

“If Ebola should be in Ghana, what do we have to use?” Professor Alex Dodoo wondered.

The death toll from West Africa's Ebola outbreak passed 10,000, according to a March report released by the World Health Organization as reported by Reuters.

Reuters explained that Liberia recorded the most deaths with 4,162. Sierra Leone is the second worst-hit nation with 3,655, and Guinea has recorded 2,187 dead, according to the data.

The deadly hemorrhagic fever reached Senegal, Nigeria and Mali but was contained there. A handful of cases has also been recorded in the United States, Spain and Britain.




Source: myjoyonline

Hmmm, This is really annoying. In Ghana here where there is no Ebola, how then do we need to be trialed on a vaccine instead of sending the so called vaccine to the central African countries that have being effected. In fact, just common cholera, we are not able to quarantine people who get infected. They also sit at the OPD with non effected people and here we are wanting to try Ebola vaccines on innocent people. Our leader have no good minds about we Ghanians.
If its good why don't they(FDA) line up and get vaccinated first then if there is a good outcome, then we follow their footsteps

Well, I think we all dont want anymore disaster to plague our dear mother Ghana again after going through one recently... Also,, already we are dealing and suffering from this devastating power crisis which seems to get worse everyday...

And i know both the Associate Professor and the WHO coordinator Know perfectly what the situation is here.. Ghanaians don't want to go through anymore crisis coupled with the current crisis so they have to understand why politics have come into this case and why there is a rejection of the Ebola vaccine trials....

But coming to think of it, i guess both the Associate professor and the WHO coordinator are ghanaians and can volunteer to be tested on.. Or are they different from those who are been targeted to used as "sacrificial lamps"? I dont think so.. I agree with the minister for once on this matter..

For me, i haven't heard whether these vaccines have been tried with success on those Ebola hit countries.... If not, then i guess the best way to start is to try on those who have already experienced the epidemic to see if it will be successful so as to back their claim that its not harmful so that others can also try....

Because you never know what could happen.. What if things go wrong?  If the FDA still claim its harmless, then i guess they can lead by example by being used as test subjects and i guess that way, everyone would follow suit....

Stupid leaders, they have accept bribes so their follow Ghanians are turn to Ginnie pigs and experimented upon, they then went to the deprived area of the Volta region where most people are not educated and have no clue what the vaccine is, how do you know if the vaccine is working when the disease is fighting against is not in the Country.

What most people don't know is,most vaccines contain traces of the virus or bacteria it fight against, in this case the Ebola virus itself can be in the vaccine, what if it goes wrong? its not only enough to steal our taxes but also using us as pigs for experimenting with drugs.

Am confident and happy that the wise leaders came against this stupid idea and have put a stop to it. One can only imaging who stupid idea it was in the first place to accept such stupidity to be carried out in our beloved nation Ghana

I watched some excepts of what transpired in parliament during this Ebola Vaccine debate. I was for once happy to see our leaders speaking in the defense us with such passion. This issue of Vaccines shouldn't be tested in countries where they have had no cases of Ebola. I wonder how whoever accepted that bid to have the virus tested on us thinks of us.

The process as some claim will involve the injection or weaker samples of the Ebola virus into the hosts, then monitor how their systems will counter it. Imagine being told that the person sitting by you in a bus, Church, Class etc has EBOLA running through him or her. This would definitely cause panic or even worse among the Ghanaian population.

Let me not delve too much into the incentive package they intend to offer those who agree (Or are manipulated into agreeing)to go through that test. Its a mockery for someone to go through that Risky experiment only to be rewarded with 200 Cedis and a mobile phone.