Guinea-Bissau halts US-funded hepatitis vaccine trial for babies

Guinea-Bissau stopped a United States‑funded hepatitis B vaccine trial involving infants after the government barred the study in January and judicial police raided the research group’s premises in Bissau in mid‑October, seizing vaccine batches while investigations continue.

The trial, financed with $1.6 million from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy, was planned by the Danish‑run Bandim Health Project of the University of Southern Denmark, chaired by Christine Stabell Benn and Peter Aaby, and aimed to enrol about 14 000 babies to compare vaccination at birth with vaccination at six weeks, with health outcomes to be tracked for five years.

Health Minister Quinhin Nantote said, "We were surprised to learn from media reports that the study might proceed," and added, "We are outraged because even I, as the minister responsible for this sector, was not informed." Dr Gavin Yamey, a professor of global health at Duke University, told the BBC, "The proposed trial reeks of neocolonialism," questioning why the research was not conducted in Denmark. SDU dean Jakob Grauslund said the trial had never started, that no babies had been enrolled and no vaccinations administered. A researcher involved in the project called the termination a “significant setback” for African science, and former health minister Magda Robalo told Al Jazeera, "It is unethical to deny children an intervention that we know works, that will contribute to improving their lives and save them from a disease that we know they will likely acquire."