Communtiy concerns about ethical conduct of research - standard of care

Between June and September, 2012, the New HIV Vaccine and MIcrobicide Research Advocacy Society conducted 3 community consultations and 2 researcher-community interface to discuss and deliberate on concerns. The groups came up with issues that can be categorised into four (i) informed consent (ii) community engagement (iii)standard of care (iv) specific community related concerns. This second piece will share with you their concerns with standard of care offered in researches conduct in Nigeria

3.0 Concern on standard of care and other concerns
3.1. Observations.
•The standard of care provided for research participants may conform to national standards which are less than global standards.

•Some research participants in hospital based research are made to bear the cost of research related investigations.

•Study participants may be asked to defray the cost of managing chronic illnesses that develop during the course of implementing researches with long duration the onset of which researchers consider not to study related.

•There is minimal government investment in HIV research conducted in Nigeria.

•A number of HIV researches are repeated due to poor coordination of the field.

•Often, researches do not inform intervention and policy formulation

3.2. Recommendations
• Researchers will need to own up to their obligation to pay for all forms of research related injuries: When chronic illnesses are detected during the course of long term researches (those that go on for 2 - 3 years), researchers should be obliged to manage these illnesses.

•The standard of care package for research participants should align with global standards.

•Nigerian government and institutions should support research in Nigeria by setting up foundations rather than leave funding for research in the hand of international partners.

•Researches implemented in Nigeria but initiated by foreign investigators should always benefit the Nigerian community.

•Researchers should make significant efforts to facilitate mechanisms that will increase the translation of their research findings to policies and programmes.

•There is the need to create a national data base on HIV research conducted in the country. This is very critical to avoid repetition and wastage of resources as well as facilitate research driven programming in Nigeria.