Controversial African vaccine trial likened to Tuskegee is “cancelled”—but US funders insist it will continue

The fate of a controversial US funded trial of a neonatal hepatitis B vaccine remains unclear, with different authorities claiming it is cancelled, suspended, or going ahead.The study aimed to look for any negative effects of the vaccine and would have been led by two Danish researchers, Peter Aaby and Christine Stabell Benn, whose work has been cited by the US health secretary and vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy Jr.However, the Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC) says it has now been cancelled. The organisation said this was because it exploited shortages of vaccine in Guinea-Bissau, the west African country where the trial was to be conducted, to find a study population in whom the shot, normally given at birth, was delayed to six weeks.Despite Africa CDC’s statement the US health department, the principal funder of the trial, told The BMJ it was proceeding.However, Guinea-Bissau’s health minister has now…