<\/p>\n
U<\/span>S health officials insisted it was still on. African health leaders said it was cancelled<\/a>. At the heart of the controversy is the west African nation of Guinea-Bissau \u2013 one of the poorest countries in the world and the proposed site of a hotly debated US-funded study on vaccines.<\/p>\n The study on hepatitis B vaccination, to be led by Danish researchers, became a flashpoint after major changes to the US vaccination schedule and prompted questions about how research is conducted ethically in other countries.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Quinhin Nantote, a military doctor and the recently appointed minister of health in Guinea-Bissau<\/a>, confirmed to journalists that the trial has been \u201ccancelled or suspended\u201d because the science was not well-reviewed. Guinea-Bissau experienced a coup in November, and top leaders were recently replaced.<\/p>\n A team of research experts at the Africa<\/a> Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, at Nantote\u2019s request, will travel to Guinea-Bissau to help officials review the study. Officials from Denmark and the US have also been invited to review the trial, Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa CDC, said at the press meeting.<\/p>\n The decision to halt the trial is not for international organizations or foreign countries to determine, Kaseya said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the sovereignty of the country,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what will be this decision, but I will support the decision that the minister will make.\u201d<\/p>\n Officials with the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have called into question the credibility of the Africa CDC, after officials with the organization confirmed<\/a> the study was cancelled.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be clear, the trial will proceed as planned,\u201d Andrew Nixon, an HHS spokesperson, said in a statement on Wednesday. He said the Africa CDC was waging \u201ca public-relations campaign aimed to shape public perception rather than engaging with the scientific facts\u201d. When asked by the Guardian, he offered no proof of either claim.<\/p>\n An HHS official also called the Africa CDC \u201ca powerless, fake organization attempting to manufacture credibility by repeating its claims publicly\u201d, adding that the organization was \u201cnot a reliable source\u201d.<\/p>\n Kaseya said he had spoken to senior HHS officials, who were unaware of the statement, and he pointed to the Africa CDC\u2019s key role in responding to outbreaks with global implications.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very important to fund research that Africans actually want,\u201d said Abdulhammad Babatunde, a medical doctor and global health researcher in Nigeria. \u201cAfricans want to solve Africa\u2019s problems, not satisfy the curiosity of the funders.\u201d<\/p>\n The researchers would have given hepatitis B vaccines to 7,000 infants at birth and withheld the vaccines for another 7,000 infants until six weeks of age in order to study the overall health effects of giving the vaccines alongside other shots. Nearly one in five adults and about 11% of young children in Guinea-Bissau have hepatitis B \u2013 putting them at high risk of severe illness and death.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not acceptable,\u201d said Babatunde of the study\u2019s design. \u201cTo prevent things like the Tuskegee study and others, the control group has to get the standard of care, and the intervention group should get [potentially] better care.\u201d<\/p>\n The World Health Organization recommends<\/a> giving the hepatitis B vaccine to all newborns within 24 hours of birth. Infants in Guinea-Bissau currently receive the shot at six weeks of age, but the doses will roll out to all newborns in 2028 in order to close gaps in care standards. \u201cThe current reason why the vaccine is not achieving coverage in Guinea-Bissau is because there\u2019s no funding, and the funding should try to promote the vaccine, not use children as lab rats,\u201d Babatunde said.<\/p>\n Officials in an imbalanced power structure may be intimidated, he said. \u201cIt might be a very tough call for the officials in Guinea-Bissau, depending on what they stand to lose if they restrict the study. At this moment, it\u2019s [time] for other African member states to come support Guinea-Bissau, to maintain their sovereignty and protect the children of Guinea-Bissau.\u201d<\/p>\n When deciding whether a revised version of the study will move forward, \u201cthe most important voice\u201d is that of Guinea-Bissau\u2019s ministry of health, which is responsible for protecting the health of all Bissau-Guineans, said Gavin Yamey, professor of global health at the Duke Global Health<\/a> Institute. \u201cSo hearing from ministry officials today is hugely important.\u201d<\/p>\n The confusion in Guinea-Bissau comes back to how the trial was given the green light, said Nantote, who spoke in Portuguese through a translator.<\/p>\n