இந்தியாவில் மருத்துவ சோதனையில் இறந்த குழந்தைகள்
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இந்தியாவின் முன்னணி மருத்துவ ஆய்வு நிலையம் ஒன்றில் கடந்த இரண்டரை வருடங்களில், மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்ட மருத்துவ பரீட்சார்த்த நடவடிக்கை ஒன்றின்போது குறைந்தது 49 குழந்தைகள் உயிரிழந்துள்ளன.
நோய்த்தடுப்பு மருந்துகளின் பாதுகாப்பு குறித்த கேள்விகளுக்கு விடை காணும் முகமாக தொடர்ச்சியாக நடத்தப்பட்ட சோதனைகளின்போது இந்த மரணங்கள் இடம்பெற்றதாக, அனைத்து இந்திய மருத்துவ விஞ்ஞான ஆய்வு நிறுவனம் ஒப்புக்கொண்டுள்ளது.
ஆனால், நடந்த அனைத்து உயிரிழப்புகளுக்கும் மருத்துவ சோதனையைக் காரணம் கூறமுடியாது என்றும், சில குழந்தைகள் உயிர்கொல்லி நோய்களால் பாதிக்கப்பட்டிருந்ததாகவும் அந்த அமைப்பு கூறியுள்ளது.
இறந்தவற்றில் பல ஏழைக் குழந்தைகள் என்றும், இந்த மருந்துவ சோதனையின் பிரதிபலன்களை புரிந்துகொள்ள முடியாதவர்களைக் கொண்ட, படிப்பறிவு இல்லாதவர்களைக் கொண்ட குடும்பங்களைச் சேர்ந்தவை என்றும் விமர்சகர்கள் கூறுகிறார்கள்.
BBC News | HEALTH | Unicef denies Assam vaccine deaths (19 November, 2001)
The United Nations says it is confident that reports that several children have died in the Indian state of Assam as a result of a UN-sponsored anti-blindness campaign are false.
Hundreds of thousands of children in Assam were given syrup containing Vitamin A in a campaign organised by the UN’s children’s organisation, Unicef, to prevent blindness.
Shortly after, thousands of children were reported to fallen ill because of the syrup and now the Assam state government says at least 16 children have died.
India Gets $521 Million World Bank Funding For Polio, Malaria (Friday, August 1, 2008) |
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“India was given almost $521 million of funding from the World Bank to fight infectious diseases, including polio and malaria, which kill thousands of people in the South Asian nation and risk spreading overseas.
The funding will help the government and UN agencies prevent, diagnose and treat parasitic infections and increase polio vaccination, the Washington-based bank said in a release yesterday. …
‘India, along with Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, remains the only country still affected by the scourge of polio that shatters the future of hundreds of people, mostly young children,’ said Isabel Guerrero, World Bank Vice President for South Asia, in the release. ‘With this operation, we hope India will take the final step towards eradicating polio.’ …
The National Vector Borne Disease Control and Polio Eradication Support Project aims to help India cut illness from malaria by 50 percent and eliminate Kala azar, a parasitic infection transmitted by sand flies that infects about 40,000 Indians annually, by 2010. The project plans to improve malaria prevention and provide treatment for more than 100 million people. … The World Bank and government of India spent seven months reviewing past health projects marred by fraud and graft, mostly related to the procurement of goods, to adopt measures that safeguard against corruption, yesterday’s release said.” [Bloomberg] |
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R.C. Deka to be new director of AIIMS- Hindustan Times: “Deka’s two years’ as dean of AIIMS and also in a senior administrative post at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, went in his favour.”
49 babies die during clinical trials at AIIMS-India-The Times of India: “Nod from ethics panel: AIIMS”
Responding to a Right to Information (RTI) query on clinical trials on babies, the AIIMS administration admitted that of the 4,142 babies — 2,728 of whom were below the age of one — who were enrolled for clinical trials by the institute’s department of paediatrics, 49 had died since January 1, 2006. The department conducted 42 sets of trials on babies during this period.
In its reply, AIIMS said the deaths amounted to a 1.18% mortality rate. The RTI query was filed by Rahul Verma of Uday Foundation for Congenital Defects and Rare Blood Groups, an NGO.
India recently pipped China to become Asia’s most popular destination for conducting clinical trials. According to the Planning Commission, 139 new trials were outsourced to India recently compared with 98 in China.
The cost of conducting trials in India is 20% to 60% of the cost in industrialized countries. The RTI query also digs out information on the top drugs (according to volume of consumption) made in a foreign country that were used during the trials on the babies.
AIIMS has said five foreign-manufactured medicines were tested during the trials. They were zinc tablets for treating zinc deficiency and serving as a nutritional supplement, olmesartan and valsartan for treating blood pressure-related problems, rituximab for treating chronic focal encephalitis and gene-activated human glucocerebrosidase for treating Gaucher’s disease, which affects the liver. AIIMS said it had taken clearance for the trials from its own ethics committee, the health ministry steering committee (HMSC) on ethics and the national ethics committees of ICMR and DBT.
Tamil News 