Report of the Health Committee of Parliament on the controversial Ebola vaccine trials in the country which was put before the plenary on Thursday says that volunteers for the vaccine trial would be adequately compensated.
The trial is starting in the Volta Region.
According to officials of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) led by their Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Hudu Mogtari, who appeared before the committee, the amount to be paid to volunteers must not be too small to exploit them and not too big to also coerce them.
The officials, however, denied that volunteers were being offered GH¢200 and a mobile phone each, adding that volunteers were not to be induced but rather compensated in the study for the loss of time and for transport each time they visited the clinic.
According to information from the Vice Chancellor of the University of Health and Allied Sciences, Prof Fred Binka, potential volunteers would be required to fill application forms, out of which a strict selection process would be employed to select would-be volunteers.
The FDA officials explained that Ghana was selected among four other African countries, Nigeria, Senegal, Cameroon and Mali because they share borders with affected countries of the Ebola disease.
“Another reason canvassed was that residents in countries with recorded cases of Ebola virus disease may have developed some form of anti-bodies that would affect the outcome of the trial and that the standard practice is to undertake the trial in a country with no track record of the disease,” the report said.
The report indicated that the technical committee of the FDA selected the Oncho Research Centre in Hohoe in the Volta Region and the Kintampo Health Research Centre in the Brong Ahafo Region for the trials because the two institutions are well-equipped with clinical trial facilities of international standards and well-recognised qualified biomedical scientists and clinical vaccine studies.
According to the report, Ghana stands to benefit greatly from the vaccine trial.
The report did not mention any financial benefit to the nation as was being speculated by a section of the media.
From Thomas Fosu Jnr