Study of HIV transmission sparks ethics debate
Vogel, G.
Science 288(5463): 22-23
2000
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075 PMID: 10766625 Document Number: 518035
A study on AIDS transmission in Uganda has reignited an ongoing debate concerning the ethics of research in developing countries. The New England Journal of Medicine, which published the paper last week, accompanied the article with a strongly worded editorial questioning the ethics of the study. Objections by the journal's editor, Marcia Angell, centered around the fact that uninfected individuals were not told that their partners were HIV-positive and that treatment for HIV infection was not offered to study participants. Wawer and colleagues, the authors of the study, counter that such ethical requirements would make research impossible in the developing world.