Last month, Cameroon’s Minister of Public Health, Andre Mama Fouda, announced that clinical trials for a vaccine against the Ebola virus will begin in Cameroon and that the Centre Pasteur, Yaounde and the Bamenda Regional Hospital will be hosting the research. It is expected that the clinical trials will run from October 2015 to October 2016.
However, this news is already stirring up apprehension in the public with messages already circulating on social media and instant messaging platforms, calling on Cameroonians not to participate in the study. The study is expected to recruit a total of 400 volunteers, 200 from Bamenda and 200 from Yaounde.
It is said that the volunteers will receive free, detailed clinical and biological tests, and close medical follow-up throughout the period of the trials. Also, the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline is providing insurance cover to all volunteers. Some sources also have it that one of the volunteers, who was recruited into the study at the Bamenda regional hospital, was also given 10,000 frs as reimbursement for taxi fare to the hospital.
In addition, to Cameroon, the study would also take place in Nigeria, Mali, Ghana, and Senegal and all countries are expected to recruit a total of 30, 000 volunteers as part of the experiment.
Why to do you think there is public apprehension for an Ebola vaccine experiment in Cameroon. Would you like to be part of the research?
