India: Vaccine trial under probe

April 26, 2010

The health ministry has asked a panel of experts to investigate allegations of ethical violations in a study in which 24,000 girls in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat received a vaccine against a virus that can cause cervical cancer. Several women’s organisations have alleged that the study, conducted jointly by the state governments and a US-based NGO, breached research ethics. They have claimed that health staff provided misleading information to the parents of some of the girls or took short cuts through the procedures for informed consent required for such a study. (The Telegraph)