Guinea — Bissau Hepatitis B Vaccine Study Suspended Amid Ethical Concerns. City, Country — The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) announced the cancellation of a controversial US-funded study on hepatitis B vaccines for newborns in Guinea-Bissau, according to Yap Boum, a senior official at the Africa CDC.
The $1.
6 million study, which was to be conducted under the purview of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
A vaccine skeptic and former secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), faced intense criticism over ethical concerns regarding the withholding of vaccines proven to prevent hepatitis B in a country with a high disease burden.
“The study has been cancelled,” Boum told journalists at a press conference on Thursday morning.
The Africa CDC cited the study’s design as a major concern, noting that it did not meet ethical standards. “It’s of importance for Africa CDC to have evidence that can be translated in policy, but this has to be done within the norm.
So we are glad that at this point the study is being cancelled,” Boum.
Guinea — Bissau officials have indicated that the trial will still take place, although Africa CDC officials emphasized that it will only proceed once it has been redesigned to address ethical issues. There are ongoing discussions between Guinea-Bissau officials and the US regarding the ethical conduct of such trials.
The cancellation of the study was welcomed by experts, including Paul Offit, an infectious diseases physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Offit compared the trial to the Tuskegee experiment, arguing that it was unethical to knowingly deprive children of a vaccine that could save their lives. “This administration did not see people in Africa as valuable,” Offit.
“You can’t treat children like this, you can’t treat people like this. We were able to stand up for them. We were able to convince people about the fact that this was unethical.
” The study’s proponents argued that the trial would make the vaccine available to 7,000 newborns who would otherwise not receive it.
However, critics, including Offit, pointed out that the other 7,000 children in the trial would be denied access to the vaccine, effectively using them as guinea pigs. Guinea-Bissau currently recommends the hepatitis B vaccine to all babies at six weeks of age.
However, the recommendation is set to change to all newborns at birth in 2027, when more doses are expected to be available.
The cancellation of the study could signal a turning point for Guinea — Bissau and other countries where researchers are conducting work that critics say is unethical. It highlights the growing strength of institutions in pushing back against unethical and exploitative studies in Africa.
