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Dec. 3rd, 2004 09:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselkingBBC reports that HIV-positive children in foster care are being used as "guinea pigs" to test experimental drugs
BBC is, in fact, cracked on this one.
Inner-city HIV clinician and blogger Rivka dissects the story
"That didn't seem plausible at all.
So I did some poking around, and instantly hit pay dirt. The documentary filmmakers state that:
We asked Dr David Rasnick, visiting scholar at the University of Berkeley, for his opinion on some of the experiments.
He said: "We're talking about serious, serious side-effects. These children are going to be absolutely miserable. They're going to have cramps, diarrhoea and their joints are going to swell up. They're going to roll around the ground and you can't touch them."
He went on to describe some of the drugs - supplied by major drug manufacturers including Glaxo SmithKline - as "lethal".
Dr. David Rasnick is an AIDS denialist. He doesn't believe that HIV causes AIDS. He doesn't believe that AIDS is contagious or sexually transmitted. He doesn't believe in protease inhibitors, the class of drugs which, since 1997, have caused a dramatic decline in AIDS diagnoses and deaths in the developed world. He thinks HIV drugs are the problem, not the solution."
[...]
"In other words, the vast majority of children who participate in potentially risky medical research are dying and otherwise out of treatment options.
That was particularly true in the late 90s, when many of these disputed studies apparently took place. At that time, participation in clinical trials was the only way to access new life-saving treatments like protease inhibitors. The existing treatments in the late 90s were highly toxic and largely ineffective, as you can deduce from the death-rate table I linked above. For many people, getting into a clinical trial rather than waiting for the protease inhibitors to be approved for release represented the difference between life and death. So, in that context, there's nothing inherently sinister about these children's guardians (the child protection authorities) allowing them to take part in clinical trials."
BBC is, in fact, cracked on this one.
Inner-city HIV clinician and blogger Rivka dissects the story
"That didn't seem plausible at all.
So I did some poking around, and instantly hit pay dirt. The documentary filmmakers state that:
We asked Dr David Rasnick, visiting scholar at the University of Berkeley, for his opinion on some of the experiments.
He said: "We're talking about serious, serious side-effects. These children are going to be absolutely miserable. They're going to have cramps, diarrhoea and their joints are going to swell up. They're going to roll around the ground and you can't touch them."
He went on to describe some of the drugs - supplied by major drug manufacturers including Glaxo SmithKline - as "lethal".
Dr. David Rasnick is an AIDS denialist. He doesn't believe that HIV causes AIDS. He doesn't believe that AIDS is contagious or sexually transmitted. He doesn't believe in protease inhibitors, the class of drugs which, since 1997, have caused a dramatic decline in AIDS diagnoses and deaths in the developed world. He thinks HIV drugs are the problem, not the solution."
[...]
"In other words, the vast majority of children who participate in potentially risky medical research are dying and otherwise out of treatment options.
That was particularly true in the late 90s, when many of these disputed studies apparently took place. At that time, participation in clinical trials was the only way to access new life-saving treatments like protease inhibitors. The existing treatments in the late 90s were highly toxic and largely ineffective, as you can deduce from the death-rate table I linked above. For many people, getting into a clinical trial rather than waiting for the protease inhibitors to be approved for release represented the difference between life and death. So, in that context, there's nothing inherently sinister about these children's guardians (the child protection authorities) allowing them to take part in clinical trials."