YAOUNDE, Feb 3 (AFP) - Cameroon said Thursday it was suspending tests of a controversial antiretroviral HIV/AIDS drug on prostitutes in Douala, the west African country's economic capital, citing failings in their implementation.
The clinical trial was to determine whether Tenofovir, a drug sold under the name Viread by the US drug manufacturer Gilead, can prevent the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or AIDS.
"The suspension will remain effective until the promoter of the trial shows proof that the commitments made in their agreement are rigorously respected and all the conditions of their effective implementation are satisfactory," a statement issued by Health Minister Urbain Olanguena Awono said.
The decision to halt the trial, which was sponsored by Microsoft head Bill Gates' foundation, followed a report by an audit commission of doctors sent to Douala last week to study how it was being carried out.
Members of the French branch of the anti-AIDS activist group Act Up demonstrated outside the Cameroon embassy in Paris last month to demand suspension of the Tenofivir test which they said was to be held in condition that "run counter to ethical norms."
Act Up charges that economic reasons pushed Gilead to use particularly vulnerable African prostitutes for the trial and also denounced the lack of prevention program as well as therapeutic care for those that are contaminated.
In a communique, Cameroonian Health Minister Urbain Awono said that the clinical trial was authorized in January 2003 "only after a long verification process ensuring that all ethical principles governing research involving human beings are respected."
A source close to the case said the trial was to involve "informed consent" procedures and lead to therapeutic care if needed.
The United Nations warned last year that AIDS has hit sub-Saharan Africa so badly that it will cast a shadow over generations to come, even in countries that succeed in the battle against it.
Africans account for some 25.4 million of the 39.4 million people around the world who have HIV/AIDS, the UN's World Health Organisation and UNAIDS said in an annual report.
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