An Oxford researcher has been accused of unlawfully bringing
the blood of HIV infected African orphans back to Britain and
plagiarising another scientist’s work. A leading Kenyan scientist is suing one of Oxford’s top
researchers, Dr Sarah Rowland- Jones, alleging that her team used
stolen blood samples and research data in several of her recently
published papers. Dr Moses Otsyula, head of virology at Kenya’s Institute
of Primate Research, set up a diagnostic lab at Nyumbani
children’s home on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital
Nairobi in 1997. Over the next fours years, he collected over 70
blood samples from orphans who had been infected with HIV. He alleges that the Oxford team stole several blood samples
and copied data from his computer while he was visiting Harvard
University and went on to publish two scientific papers based on
it. Otsulya said that he has no choice but to sue, as “it
was my project, my time, my samples and my ideas. They just came
and stole it all. It was completely unethical.” He also
claimed that Oxford has ignored his protests over the past three
years resulting in a failure to reach an amicable agreement over
the matter. Many of the children rescued from the city’s slums have
survived for more than ten years without medication and seem to
have a natural immunity to the virus. Researchers believe the
orphans’ blood offers vital genetic clues that could lead to
the holy grail of Aids research: an effective vaccine. Rowland-Jones, who works at Oxford’s Institute of
Molecular Medicine, has defended her team’s actions while
admitting that they had made an ‘inadvertent’ error.
According to her, the Oxford team was “invited to Nairobi by
Otsyula to collaborate with the research and were led to believe
by him we had full ethical approval to conduct the research”
and that “at all times we acted in good faith though the
mechanism for getting ethical approval wasn’t entirely clear
cut at the time.” She claims that when her team realised that an error had been
made they applied for ethical approval for their work, which was
given in 2002. Rowland-Jones admitted that this application did
not cover past research but had “a verbal assurance”
that it would be extended to the two papers. It has emerged that a Cambridge professor, Dr Eric Miller, has
also become embroiled in a dispute over HIV research conducted
whilst he was at the same orphanage doing research on a projct
investigating nutrition.ARCHIVE: 5th week TT 2004
AIDS orphans’ blood stolen
