Culture, Health & Society
drug experiments n secret
that Zimbabweans are not subjected to unauthorised experimentation, it does appear, however, that such experiments have been carried out. In fact, Ms Mahlangu acknowledged that due to the economic hardships in Zimbabwe, particularly in the last decade, people were sometimes so desperate for care and treatment that they often enrolled themselves in multiple studies M C A Z
they a r e serious. Large phar maceutical companies are widely accused of sponsoring illegal clinical trials of drugs in poor countries, particularly in Africa. Vulnerable people like the terminally ill, orphans and under-age children are normally targeted. During the mid 90s in South Africa, a German doctor was accused of conducting illegal drug trials where he advised patients to abandon their regular medication in favour of vitamins which he claimed cured HIV/Aids. Media reports indicated that two patients died days after they started taking his medication yet the doctor was not arrested. In 2008, police in Malawi arrested a health worker at St Luke’s Hospital near Mount Malosa in southern Malawi for using unauthorised drugs on 20 patients and again some of the patients had HIV/ Aids. Social commentators believe that African countries are targeted in part because of the lax laws governing the conducting of these drug trials as well as the poverty afflicting the majority of its populace.. TP
believes that such practices are dangerous for individuals, particularly when they do not reveal this fact to investigators. People might also not say if they have adverse effects for fear that they may be taken off a study, yet there are safeguards and alternatives already built into the studies. There is also compensation that can be legitimately claimed by individuals who suffer any study related adverse effects. These adverse effects are monitored and reported,
so that studies can be terminated or adjusted in the event that
The Parade - Zimbabwe’s Most Read Lifest yle Magazine
February 2013
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