US Foster Children Used in AIDS Drugs Tests

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28 Jun 2005 21:42:02 -0000

US Foster Children Used in AIDS Drugs Tests

press-release

 

 

 

The Institute of Science in Society

Science Society Sustainability

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press-release ISIS Director m.w.ho

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ISIS Press Release 28/06/05

 

US Foster Children Used in AIDS Drugs Tests

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Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

 

Sources for this report are available in the ISIS members

site. Full details here

 

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded anti-HIV

drugs trials on hundreds of foster children over the past

two decades, often without the legal protection for the

children required in some states, exposing the children to

the risks of research and serious side-effects of toxic

drugs. This major scandal is being unveiled over the past

six months [1]. Most of the trials took place in the 1990s,

but some have continued to this day.

 

Trials were conducted in at least seven states - Colorado,

Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina and

Texas - and involving more than 48 studies run by top

research institutions. The foster children ranged from

infants to late teens. Side effects reported include

vomiting, rashes and rapid declines in their CD4 T-cells.

Some children died during the studies, although state or

city agencies could not find evidence that any of the

children's deaths were caused by the experimental drugs.

 

These drugs trials first came to light in New York under the

auspices of the Administration for Children's Services

(ACS), the body that looks after the welfare of children in

New York City [2]. (See " Guinea pig kids " , this issue). The

ACS has an agreement with the Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials

Group, supported by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and other drug

companies to test treatments on HIV-positive children. No

test can take place on children without parental consent and

drug companies have had great difficulty obtaining such

consent.

 

However, the ACE is deemed to be the legal guardian for many

HIV-positive children. According to an influential BBC2

documentary, Guinea Pig Kids , first screened 30 November

2004, the ACS has forced children to be involved, removing

them from foster homes if the foster parent did not comply

and even physically making the children take the drugs,

through a peg-tube inserted into their stomachs [3]. About

465 HIV-positive foster children were involved in a series

of clinical trials, some as young as 4-months old, virtually

all of them African-American or Hispanic [4]. These

experiments continue to be carried out on the poor children

of New York City and elsewhere; the exact number of children

and the long-term effects of the drugs trials on their

health are still unknown.

 

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) admitted it supplied drugs for four of

the trials conducted in New York, and also supplied drugs

and funds for another trial run by Columbia University

Medical Centre. It said the US regulator, the Food and Drug

Administration, encouraged the studies. " Clinical trials

involving children and orphans are therefore legal and not

unusual. " GSK said in a statement [2].

 

These revelations have triggered a congressional

investigation into whether the government has adequate

safeguards to protect foster children used in federal

research [5]. But the problem goes far deeper.

 

A spokesperson from GSK has stated openly at a workshop I

attended recently that " development follows the most

efficient pathway in low cost/low tax locations and access

to patients " (emphasis added), complaining that European

regulatory standards are set far too high relative to the

United States, and singled out India as a country for ease

of access to patients.

 

The NIH has also been involved in funding AIDS drugs trials

in Uganda and elsewhere, with deaths and thousands of severe

reactions that went undisclosed ( " NIH-sponsored AIDS Drugs

tests on mother and babies " , this series).

 

For the most complete information on HIV/AIDS, look out for

Unravelling AIDS: The unexamined science and the alternative

therapies (by Mae-Wan Ho, Sam Burcher, Gala Rhea and Veljko

Veljkovic, Vital Health Publishing, 2005), which also

documents the toxicities of conventional anti-HIV drugs.

 

 

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