Journal of Vaccines & Vaccination

Ethical challenges with conducting vaccine trials in Africa

6^th Euro Global Summit and Expo on Vaccines & Vaccination

August 17-19, 2015 Birmingham, UK

Olubukola T. Idoko

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Vaccines Vaccin

Abstract:

Introduction: Several clinical vaccine trials are currently being conducted in diverse settings in sub-Saharan Africa; many as
part of global North-South collaborations. The diversity of the region and difference between the cultural and regulatory settings
in the global North and South creates often complex ethical situations. Timely and attentive attention to these differences is a
key to ensure an ethical review process and trial conduct that meets international and local needs.
Methods: Some of the ethical challenges encountered in these situations include age for consent/assent, provision of trial
information to trial participants in an understandable format, minimizing coercion in low resource settings with poor health
care and the non- existence or poor functioning of regulatory authorities in many of these settings.
Results: Strategies being employed or proposed to circumvent some of these challenges includes the need to understand the
study setting and interaction with whatever formal or informal regulatory systems obtain; the need to innovate to provide
standards that are acceptable locally and internationally, while thinking outside the box and the need for constant dialogue
between partners.
Conclusion: The complex landscape of vaccine trials in sub-Saharan Africa requires innovative thinking and constant dialogue
to circumvent the ethical rising dilemmas.

Biography :

Olubukola T. Idoko is Paediatrician and Clinical Trial Coordinator at the Medical Research Council Unit in The Gambia. She trained in Medicine and subsequently
paediatrics at the Jos University Teaching Hospital in Nigeria and in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She also has training in
vaccinology. Her current research interests centre on vaccines for paediatric infectious disease and infectious disease epidemiology. She has been involved in and
led the conduct of several clinical trials and is author of several articles and book chapters