Effective Vaccine against and Immunotherapy of the HIV: Scientific Report and Ethical Considerations from Cameroon

In this paper, the scientific results, of biomedical research on a therapeutic vaccine for HIV carried out by V. Anomah Ngu since the 1990s in Cameroon are presented and some relevant ethical considerations and implications raised. The initial results of the research were first orally presented to the Cameroon Academy of Sciences on 2 December 1999 in a paper titled: ‘Vaccines for the HIV: Past Efforts and Future Prospects’. The problematic that set off the research was the puzzle as to why the natural HIV infection provokes immune responses that fail to kill and eliminate the virus from the body. The intuitive hypothesis of the research was the conviction that the key to an effective vaccine against the infection lay in identifying, understanding and eliminating the reason for this failure. Given the gravity of the HIV/AIDS, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and other poor regions of the world, some of the ethical imperatives motivating the research include finding a simple and effective vaccine that can be cheaply and affordably produced, using traditional rather than high technology methods. A candidate vaccine that fits this description has been discovered through V. Anomah Ngu’s research. The vaccine, tentatively named VANHIVAX, has so far been tested on a very limited scale (on HIV-positive persons) in Cameroon with what we consider very hopeful and promising results.Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Therapeutic Vaccine, VANHIVAX, Cameroo

What Led to the Nigerian Boycott of the Polio Vaccination Campaign?

Jegede discusses the recent controversy surrounding polio immunization in Nigeria, in which three northern states boycotted the immunization campaign

Small is beautiful: demystifying and simplifying standard operating procedures: a model from the ethics review and consultancy committee of the Cameroon Bioethics Initiative

Abstract Background Research ethics review is a critical aspect of the research governance framework for human subjects research. This usually requires that research protocols be submitted to a research ethics committee (REC) for review and approval. This has led to very rapid developments in the domain of research ethics, as RECs proliferate all over the globe in rhyme with the explosion in human subjects research. The work of RECs has increasingly become elaborate, complex, and in many cases urgent, necessitating supporting rules and procedures of operation. Guidelines for elaborating standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the functioning of RECs have also been proposed. The SOPs of well-placed and well-resourced RECs have tended to pay much attention to details, resulting, as a consequence, in generally long, elaborate, intricate and complex SOPs; a model that can hardly be replicated by other committees, equally under ethics review pressures, but working under much more constraining conditions in resource-destitute environments. Methods In this paper, we looked at the content and length of SOPs from African RECs and compared them to the World Health Organization (WHO)’s guidelines as the gold standard. We also looked at the SOPs from the Ethics Review and Consultancy Committee (ERCC) of the Cameroon Bioethics Initiative that we elaborated in a simplified way in 2013, and compared them to the WHO’s guidelines and to the other SOPs. Results Sixteen SOPs from 14 African countries were collected from various sources. Their average length was of 30 pages. By comparison to the guidance of the WHO, only six of them were found acceptable with more than 70 % of the criteria from the gold standard that were fully described. Among those six, two of them were very long and detailed (65 and 102 pages), while the four remaining SOPs ranged from 16 to 24 pages. The ERCC SOPs are seven pages long but maintain all that is of essence for the rigorous, efficient and timely review of protocols. Conclusions We are convinced that, because of their brevity, simplicity, clarity and user-friendliness, the ERCC SOPs recommend themselves as a model template to, at least, committees similarly situated and/or circumstanced as the ERCC of the Cameroon Bioethics Initiative is. In fact, brevity, clarity, simplicity and user-friendliness are recognized values. Whatever is brief and clear is better than what is not and saves time. What is simple and user-friendly is better than what is not even though the two have the same aims because it saves both time and mental energy. And if this be true in general, it is even truer of the context and its peculiar constraints that we are addressing

Mapping suitable great ape habitat in and around the Lobéké National Park, South-East Cameroon

Abstract As a result of extensive data collection efforts over the last 20?30 years, there is quite a good understanding of the large-scale geographic distribution and range limits of African great apes. However, as human activities increasingly fragment great ape spatial distribution, a better understanding of what constitutes suitable great ape habitat is needed to inform conservation and resource extraction management. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) and gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) inhabit the Lobéké National Park and its surrounding forest management units (FMUs) in South-East Cameroon. Both park and neighboring forestry concessions require reliable evidence on key factors driving great ape distribution for their management plans, yet this information is largely missing and incomplete. This study aimed at mapping great ape habitat suitability in the area and at identifying the most influential predictors among three predictor categories, including landscape predictors (dense forest, swampy forest, distance to water bodies, and topography), human disturbance predictors (hunting, deforestation, distance to roads, and population density), and bioclimatic predictor (annual precipitation). We found that about 63% of highly to moderately suitable chimpanzee habitat occurred within the Lobéké National Park, while only 8.4% of similar habitat conditions occurred within FMUs. For gorillas, highly and moderately suitable habitats occurred within the Lobéké National Park and its surrounding FMUs (82.6% and 65.5%, respectively). Key determinants of suitable chimpanzee habitat were hunting pressure and dense forest, with species occurrence probability optimal at relatively lower hunting rates and at relatively high-dense forest areas. Key determinants of suitable gorilla habitat were hunting pressure, dense forests, swampy forests, and slope, with species occurrence probability optimal at relatively high-dense and swampy forest areas and at areas with mild slopes. Our findings show differential response of the two ape species to forestry activities in the study area, thus aligning with previous studies

Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Cameroon: A statement from the Cameroon Bioethics Initiative

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused devastating consequences across economies in the world, with substantial effects on lives and livelihoods. Cameroon has been one of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa with an increasing number of cases and fatalities from the disease. In an effort to support the government’s response to the epidemic, the Cameroon Bioethics Initiative (CAMBIN); a not-for-profit, non-governmental, non-political, non-discriminatory, multidisciplinary association issued a statement on COVID-19, primarily targeting the government and the general public. In this article, we situate the context within which the statement was issued and present the statement in its entirety

Addressing ethical issues in H3Africa research – the views of research ethics committee members

In June 2014, the H3Africa Working Group on Ethics organised a workshop with members of over 40 research ethics committees from across Africa to discuss the ethical challenges raised in H3Africa research, and to receive input on the proposed H3Africa governance framework. Prominent amongst a myriad of ethical issues raised by meeting participants were concerns over consent for future use of samples and data, the role of community engagement in large international collaborative projects, and particular features of the governance of sample sharing. This report describes these concerns in detail and will be informative to researchers wishing to conduct genomic research on diseases pertinent to the African research context

Voluntary medical male circumcision: responding to Brian Morris

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