Guinea-Bissau Halts $1.6 Million Hepatitis B Vaccine Trial as Approval Lapses Amid Misinformation
Updated
Updated · POLITICO · Oct 22
Guinea-Bissau Halts $1.6 Million Hepatitis B Vaccine Trial as Approval Lapses Amid Misinformation
3 articles · Updated · POLITICO · Oct 22
Summary
A hepatitis B vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau was stopped after it failed to secure the government approval needed to proceed, lead researcher Frederik Schaltz-Buchholzer said.
Schaltz-Buchholzer said inaccurate English-language media coverage and misinformation inside Guinea-Bissau about the study’s purpose helped derail the trial, which was designed to test long-term effects of vaccination at birth.
Days earlier, Guinea-Bissau police searched the Bandim Health Project’s premises and seized a batch of hepatitis B vaccines intended for the study, while saying the seizure did not mean the shots were unsafe.
The CDC awarded $1.6 million last year to Danish researchers behind the project; Guinea-Bissau does not yet give hepatitis B shots at birth but plans to introduce the dose by 2028.
The halt lands amid wider political fights over hepatitis B vaccination after U.S. advisers appointed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. moved to drop universal birth-dose recommendations, a step later blocked by a Boston judge.