The food and drugs Authority (FDA) has officially given an international pharmaceutical company approval to commence Ebola Vaccines trial here in Ghana.
[contextly_sidebar id=”dxXxgrY7bs7JIPipoOdOlxrJhm8wMhdU”]The approval which was secured on Monday, according to the FDA, was because, the development of the vaccine will benefit the country.
Several civil society organizations including the Ghana Academy of Arts and Science and the Volta regional branch of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) have all kicked against the exercise which is expected to be done at Hohoe in the Volta Region and called on government to stop the trial immediately.
But in an interview with Citi News, Public Affairs director at the FDA, James Lartey insists the trial will not pose any health hazards to Ghanaians.
“If a vaccine has been developed in Mali, will you expect that Ghanaians will benefit from it? You will say because we will go for it. What is wrong if Ghana also allows itself to be used? The most important thing is to establish whether the vaccine is safe and that has been established. It’s also been established that this vaccine is not going to cause any Ebola diseases. There is no way we are going to get Ebola because of the trial,” he added.
The leadership of the NDC in the Volta Region has asked the Ministry of Health to immediately abort plans of Ebola Vaccine trial in the region.
In a statement, the NDC Regional Executives described the exercise as “unfortunate” and said it is close to using them [people of the Volta Region] as “human guinea pigs.”
“We are not going to sit down for our people to be used as guinea pigs in a needless experiment.”
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana