Like sugar and honey

The embedded ethics of a larval control project in The Gambia

Bibliographic Data

ID4598034
AuthorsAnn H Kelly (0000-0003-4658-2133, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), David Ameh (MRC Unit the Gambia), Silas Majambere (0000-0001-8070-1488, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine), Steve W Lindsay (0000-0002-3461-9050, Durham University), Steve Lindsay, Margaret Pinder (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)
Year2010
Volume70
Issue12
Pages1912-1919
Publication date2010-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Science & Medicine (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0277-9536 • E-ISSN: 1873-5347
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.02.012
PMID20362381
PMCIDPMC2877793
OpenAlexW2048173715
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited30

This paper describes a malaria research project in The Gambia to provoke thinking on the social value of transnational research. The Larval Control Project (LCP) investigated the efficacy of a microbial insecticide to reduce vector density and, ultimately, clinical malaria in Gambian children. The LCP's protocol delineated a clinical surveillance scheme that involved Village Health Workers (VHWs) supported by project nurses. Combining insights from ethnographic fieldwork conducted at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratories in Farafenni from 2005 to 2009, open-ended interviews with project nurses, and eight focus group discussions held with participant mothers in October 2007, we consider the social impact of the LCP's investigative method against the backdrop of several years of research activity. We found that while participants associated the LCP with the clinical care it provided, they also regarded the collaboration between the nurses and VHWs added additional benefits. Organised around the operational functions of the trial, small-scale collaborations provided the platform from which to build local capacity. While ethical guidelines emphasise the considerations that must be added to experimental endeavour in southern countries (e.g. elaborating processes of informed consent, developing strategies of community engagement or providing therapeutic access to participants after the trial concludes), these findings suggest that shifting attention from supplementing ethical protocols to the everyday work of research -embedding ethics through scientific activity - may provide a sounder basis to reinforce the relationship between scientific rigour and social value

Alternative medicine · Clinical trial · Focus group · Informed consent · Participant observation · Pathology · Political science · Public relations · Research ethics · Rigour · Social science · Sociology · Ethics in Clinical Research · Medicine · Mosquito-borne diseases and control · Nursing · Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research