Ensuring that human rights and appropriate evidence endure as immunisation cornerstones

摘要

The history of immunisation provides many inspiring examples of pioneers advancing boldly the rigour of the scientific method while innovating with vaccine protection. Two noteworthy examples are Louis Pasteur's administration of rabies vaccine to Joseph Meister on 6 July 1885 and Edward Jenner's inoculation of James Phipps with material from Sarah Nelm's cowpox lesion on 14 May 1796. These brilliancies in the history of medicine and public health offer compelling lessons for those concerned about ensuring that immunisation practice is evidence-based. Pasteur agonised over the ethics of his experiment - an experiment that would likely have been rejected by human research ethics committees if they had existed in his day; lack of informed consent, no respect of individual privacy and providing medical treatment without a license, posing insurmountable ethical barriers.1 Fortunately his passion for potentially saving a child's life overcame his ethical concerns. Certainly in the 21st century these ethical and legal precepts serve as invaluable safe-guards to the community. However, ethics committees have been known to venture beyond their mandate of impartial scientific review to resolute bureaucratic blockade.2 The time has come for the scientific community that is committed to rigorously evaluating potentially life-saving measures to remind such obstreperous ethics committees of their ethical obligation to facilitate promising science rather than stifling it.