E-DRUG: Help concerning maternal-infant aids transmission

[Sid Wolfe <swolfe@citizen.org>]

studies/treatment
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E-DRUG: Help concerning maternal-infant aids transmission 
        studies/treatment
---------------------------------------------------------

Recently, Peter Lurie and I wrote an article about studies funded by 
the United States government agencies in developing countries in 
which one or more groups of HIV-positive pregnant women were being 
given placebos. The article was published in the New England Journal 
of Medicine. We are interested in finding out, with respect to 
developing countries:

1/ about any open enrollment studies in which all HIV-positive 
pregnant women are being given some course of AZT treatment (and 
what it is) and 

2/ about any developing countries in which as a matter of public 
health policy, those HIV-positive pregnant women who are identified 
during pregnancy are offered AZT without participating in a clinical 
trial.

This information is critical for us to obtain since the argument is 
being made that without randomized, placebo controlled clinical 
trials, we will not know if shorter courses of AZT therapy are 
effective and until then such treatment cannot be public policy. 

Please, if you have any information about this troubling issue, send 
an e-mail to me at SWOLFE@CITIZEN.ORG. Thanks.

Sidney M. Wolfe, MD
Director
Public Citizen Health Research Group
1600 20th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009, USA
Email: swolfe@citizen.org

Note from the moderator:
------------------------

News about the article referred to above was posted in E-DRUG with 
the subject heading "E-DRUG: AZT trials in developing countries" on 
September 22, 1997.

Lurie P, Wolfe SM. Unethical trials of interventions to reduce 
perinatal transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus in
developing countries. NEJM 1997;337:853-6.

See the New England Journal of Medicine's website for the full
article (http://www.nejm.org) and the following accompanying 
editorial:

Angell M. The ethics of clinical research in the Third World.
NEJM 1997;337:847-9.

Syed Rizwanuddin Ahmad
Email: srahmad@essential.org

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