Nepali soldiers used as guinea pigs?

[Rajiv]

It could be a plot straight out of a Robin Cook medical thriller but it really did happened. Between 1995 and 2003, the US government carried out the trial of a new vaccine for Hepatitis E on Nepal soldiers and now, that the vaccine is reported to be successful, questions are being raised about how ethical the test was.



The story goes back to September 1995, when Peter Bodde, then deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Nepal, sought the permission of Nepal's Ministry of Health to establish a Nepal unit of the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS), the foreign branch of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research that conducts military-related biomedical research in the USA.

GlaxoSmithKline was developing a Hepatitis E vaccine and the US government wanted to test it on humans to see how safe and effective it was. The Nepal government allowed a trial on about 8,000 "volunteers" in Lalitpur city, which was declared a world heritage site by Unesco.
The trial plan had to be shelved when the deal triggered protests from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), media and local government officials, who said the mayor had not consulted them before giving his approval.

The then deputy mayor Mr Ramesh Chitrakar also alleged he and other members were offered watches and other items to consent.
After headlines like Belgium drugs to be tested on Nepalese bodies began to appear in the media, AFRIMS approached the Royal Nepalese Army, who agreed to provide 2,000 soldiers to "volunteer".

At that time, the US government was providing Nepal with substantial military aid and training to fight the Maoist insurgency and activists say the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) was not in a position to say no.
The trial ended in 2003 and recently, Glaxo said the vaccine was found effective. However, the US government is yet to announce any plans for making the vaccine available in Nepal.

Medical researchers in the USA and Nepal are now raising concerns that the USA intended to use Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world, as a guinea pig to find a drug that would help US soldiers. Given the poor rights record of the RNA, it is also being asked if this was ethical on the part of USA.



By Sudeshna Sarkar The Statesman

Source

[Rajiv]

It is unbelievable, I cant imagine to which extent the states can undervalue a poor country. It is really heart breaking. They simply took advantage of poverty and weak government. Don't the researcher of US Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences have a course called medical ethic? And the us gov certainly knew that. For them american lives are everything. they would ruine whole world to secure american identity. How can they do such an inhuman deed? They did it intensionally.

[Angel]

Trial is done with every drugs and hence for every drug a group of people are made guinea pig.

But they are selected after they are well informed of what is being done to them and its possible consequences. So, if those Soldiers had given the consent then it's not a new thing, but if it wasn't done according to the medical ethics (explaning the procedure and its likely risks) then it is really a serious crime.

Our Govt. has to check its authenticity and investigate the reality.

[Japanese]

Ethics are the things much talked in the developed country.But I simply can imagine that Nepali solidiers where chosen because they were "NEPALI". I rarely can imagine ethics came in front in this case.Why don't they test it to the small batallion of US Army?Why Nepalese? Coz to test it for US soldiers you have to inform all of them..all the soliders going through the test cycle should be informed...
But if you test it in Nepal...Army Attache of embassy simply gives information to Army chief..Army chief gets informed..that is all and ethics are followed from USA side..Our Army chief gives order...than process goes on ..I think poor nepali soliders don't know either they are getting vitamin or pain killer or cetamol or any others...What we say "SAMANTI" is the common "SANSKAR" of nepalese army...They are used in washing clothes of "JARSAHEBS's BUDHI" to shopping basket of of "KAR SAHEBS's Chhori"...They take wheather you give Orange or apple,cetamol or vitamin,Juice or poision..Because that is "MATHIKO ADESH"....If there is lack of ethics than,i think,responsibility goes to the side of Nepal.....USA also wanted to test in NEPAL coz they know that ETHICS are rarely followed in nepal and the test cycle of drugs goes without any hurdle...

[Rajiv]

Why don't they test it to the small batallion of US Army? Why Nepalese?

That is the point.

[peace]

More to this..
I heard that No. 1 Condom lunched in Nepal is a trial Lunch..
Its official Lunch had not be done yet and To evaluate its efficiency Nepal was choosen a Test Country