Did USA use Nepali soldiers as guinea pigs?

Sudeshna Sarkar
in Kathmandu

Jan. 9. — It could be a plot straight out of a Robin Cook medical thriller but it really happened. Between 1995 and 2003, the US government carried out the trial of a new vaccine for Hepatitis E on Nepal soldiers and now, that the vaccine is reported to be successful, questions are being raised about how ethical the test was.
The story goes back to September 1995, when Mr Peter Bodde, then deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Nepal, sought the permission of Nepal’s Ministry of Health to establish a Nepal unit of the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, the foreign branch of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research that conducts military-related biomedical research in the USA. GlaxoSmithKline was developing a Hepatitis E vaccine and the US government wanted to test it on humans to see how safe and effective it was. The Nepal government allowed a trial on about 8,000 “volunteers” in Lalitpur city, declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco but the plan had to be shelved when the deal triggered protests from NGOs, media and local government officials, who said the mayor had not consulted them before giving his approval. The then deputy mayor Mr Ramesh Chitrakar also alleged he and other members were offered watches and other items to consent.
After headlines like Belgium drugs to be tested on Nepalese bodies began to appear in the media, AFRIMS approached the Royal Nepalese Army, who agreed to provide 2,000 soldiers to “volunteer”. At that time, the US government was providing Nepal with substantial military aid and training to fight the Maoist insurgency and activists say the RNA was not in a position to say no.
The trial ended in 2003 and recently, Glaxo said the vaccine was found effective. However, the US government is yet to announce any plans for making the vaccine available in Nepal. Medical researchers in the USA and Nepal are now raising concerns that the USA intended to use Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world, as a guinea pig to find a drug that would help their soldiers. Given the poor rights record of the RNA, it is also being asked if this was ethical on the part of USA.

Source: The Statesman
URL: - http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=8&id=130369&usrsess=1


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Similar old news from Nepalnews Archive

Army guinea pigs

Jana Aastha, 14 March 2001

“Are people in the armed forces guinea pigs?” The answer should be “no”, but it seems that personnel of the Nepali army are to be used as such, because of the greed of higher-ups in the army and some army doctors. A hospital in America has invented a new vaccine for hepatitis C and is going to test this new drug on the armed forces of Nepal. The army has agreed. Surprisingly, this very drug was tested on some people in Patan exactly a year ago. In the earlier experiments, the testing was started secretly but later, to get more people involved, the authorities announced that they were testing a new drug and people who wanted to be experimented on could contact the authorities. People came to know of the side effects and so no one volunteered. Public outrage was vocal, and the tests were stopped. A person who had come to study this new drug while it was being tested said that a total of 44 people were tested and two of them exhibited side effects—their faces started to swell up slowly. The company carrying out the tests agreed to compensate those volunteers, and also provide help to people manifesting side effects. Now the company has agreed to provide treatment free of cost to all army people who develop side effects. Army sources state that although the company has promised to treat all army personnel who develop side effects, it most probably will not.

Sources say that prior to carrying out these tests in Nepal, they had been carried them out on 88 very poor Americans, and 44 people in Patan. The questions now arise, “How could an experiment stopped a year ago be carried out again? What are the benefits to the army? On a personal basis, who benefits?” Sources in the army say that the army chief was also in favour of using his people as guinea pigs. Four doctors at the army hospital are preparing to carry out the tests. They have not told army personnel on whom these experiments are to be carried out.

When asked about the earlier experiments, the reason they were stopped, and the resumption of testing, this time on the armed forces, Dr Kishor Jung Rana of the army hospital completely evaded the questions and said if more information was required, the army hospital should be contacted. In fact, he did all he could to evade the questions and referred all enquiries to the hospital. The army chief, as his reward for permitting the tests, will be treated to a long vacation in America very soon.

Source URL
- http://www.nepalnews.com.np/ntimes/march23-2001/nepalipress.htm