Parliament to invite Health Minister over Ebola vaccine trial

The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho has tasked the Business Committee of the House to request the Minister of Health to brief the House on an Ebola vaccine trial next Tuesday.

The vaccine trial was intended to be carried out in the Hohoe Municipality in the Volta Region by the authorities of the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho, the regional capital.

Meanwhile the Ministry of Health has ordered the suspension of the trial.

Concern

He gave the directive following concern expressed by members about the manner in which the trial was being handled without adequate information and sensitisation of the public.

In a statement on the exercise, the member for Ho West, Mr Emmanuel Bedzrah, had on behalf of the Volta Regional caucus told the House that the caucus had noted that the acting Dean of the university had issued an invitation through a letter to the paramount chiefs and queenmothers within the Hohoe Municipality informing them about the phase 1 Ebola Vaccine trial in the municipality.

Members of the House who commented on the statement added their voice to the sentiments expressed by the members of the caucus and impressed upon the Speaker to request the Minister of Health to brief the House on the Ebola vaccine trial.

They are the Second Deputy Speaker and member for Essikadu/Ketan, Mr Joe Ghartey; Ms Laadi Ayii Ayamba (Pusiga); Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Deputy Minister for Education and member for North Tongu; Papa Owusu-Ankomah (Sekondi); Gershon Kofi Bediako Gbediame (Nkwanta South); Mr Dominic Bingab Aduna Nitiwul, the Deputy Minority Leader and member for Bimbilla; and Majority Chief Whip and member for Asawase, Alhaji Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka.

Mr Bedzrah said the Volta Regional executive of the National Democratic Congress had also issued a statement in respect of the same trial and had called for its suspension or at best its total stoppage.

Research institutions

He said the caucus was not against research institutions undertaking research and medical trials, but could not accept the situation where the proposed trial was carried out without proper communication and interaction with major stakeholders in the region.

He told the House that members of Parliament from the region had been inundated with phone calls from panic-stricken constituents who said they believed the trial was aimed at spreading the dreaded Ebola disease to the Volta Region.

He said no one could blame these constituents about their fears because there was no proper sensitisation and community engagement before the investigators started recruiting persons to be used for the trials.