- http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/jan102006/foreign172354200619.asp Nepalese soldiers used as guinea pigs by US? From Sudeshna Sarkar DH News Service Kathmandu: The fate of the volunteer soldiers is also not known. Medical researchers in the US and Nepal are now raising concerns that the US intended to use Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world, as a guinea pig to find a drug that would help US soldiers. It could be a plot straight out of a Robin Cook medical thriller but it really happened. Between 1995 and 2003, the US government carried out the trial of a new vaccine for Hepatitis E on Nepal soldiers and now, that the vaccine is reported to be successful, questions are being raised about how ethical the test was. The story goes back to September 1995, when Peter Bodde, then deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Nepal, sought the permission of Nepal’s Ministry of Health to establish a Nepal unit of the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS), the foreign branch of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research that conducts military-related biomedical research in the US. GlaxoSmithKline was developing a Hepatitis E vaccine and the US government wanted to test it on humans to see how safe and effective it was. The Nepal government allowed a trial on about 8,000 “volunteers” in Lalitpur city, declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco, but the plan had to be shelved when the deal triggered protests from NGOs, media and local government officials, who said the mayor had not consulted them before giving his approval. ‘Bribes for consent’ The then deputy mayor Ramesh Chitrakar also alleged he and other members were offered watches and other items to consent. After headlines like “Belgium drugs to be tested on Nepalese bodies” began to appear in the media, AFRIMS approached the Royal Nepalese Army, who agreed to provide 2,000 soldiers to “volunteer”. At that time, the US government was providing Nepal with substantial military aid and training to fight the Maoists and activists say the RNA was not in a position to say no. The trial ended in 2003 and recently, Glaxo said the vaccine was found effective. However, the US government is yet to announce any plans for making the vaccine available in Nepal. The fate of the volunteer soldiers is also not known. Medical researchers in the US and Nepal are now raising concerns that the US intended to use Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world, as a guinea pig to find a drug that would help US soldiers.