[afro-nets] Kenyan virologist sues Oxford

[Dr Rana Jawad Asghar <jawad@alumni.washington.edu>]

Kenyan virologist sues Oxford
-----------------------------
Researcher files suit in Kenyan court against former colleagues
studying HIV in children

By Robert Walgate
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040624/02

Lawyers for Kenyan primate virologist Moses Otsyula have filed a
civil suit with a Kenyan court against Oxford University and
eight researchers he alleges "stole" blood samples and data he
had taken from orphans for research into viral cofactors and
vaccines against HIV/AIDS.

According to legal papers seen by The Scientist, a lengthy civil
suit detailing the complaints, with Otsyula as plaintiff and Ox-
ford and the scientists as defendants, has been filed with the
High Court of Kenya at Nairobi. The court confirmed the exis-
tence of the suit in a telephone call.

The Oxford scientists to be cited in the action, including Sarah
Rowland-Jones and Rana Chakraborty, are prominent for their work
on HIV-infected prostitutes and children in Kenya whose infec-
tions do not seem to progress to AIDS, thus offering a rare win-
dow on natural immunity.

News of the rift made headlines during recent weeks in the East
African Standard and the United Kingdom's weekly Observer, among
other outlets. Otsyula's writ centers around seven specified re-
search papers­for example, one published in Clinical Infectious
Diseases in 2003­which used samples taken from children at Nyum-
bani Children's Home in Nairobi.

"I should have been first author on those papers," Otsyula told
The Scientist last week. "Everything should have been done with
my consent. First of all, I collected the materials, over 5
years; I built the lab, collected the materials, and developed a
theory on how to develop a vaccine from what I could see in the
kids," some of whom were long-term survivors. "Then I wrote a
proposal and got approval from the national ethics committee.
They didn't do any of those things," Otsyula claimed.

Neither was there approval from the board of the children's
home, Otsyula said.

However, Father Angelo D'Agostino, founder and medical director
of Nyumbani Children's Home, told The Scientist that the virolo-
gist's allegations were "fabrications."

D'Agostino told The Scientist Otsyula previously had a research
consultancy at the home and was supported to take an Eisenhower
Fellowship in the United States, but was dismissed when he set
up his own private lab, Pathogen Diagnostics, causing a per-
ceived conflict of interest. "He has been attempting to dispar-
age us and take the clients away from our lab ever since," said
D'Agostino. "This is more of the same."

Otsyula said, however, that he was never employed by the home,
so he could not be dismissed: "They tried to give me a salary,
but I was more interested in helping the children," he said. It
was while he was away in the United States that the samples and
data went missing, he alleges.

Because of the pending action, Rowland-Jones, Chakraborty, and
the other defendants were not available for comment for this
story. In a formal statement, the University of Oxford said that
it "denies that material has been 'stolen' by its researchers."
The university said that it "regards the allegations as defama-
tory and is concerned that sensational reporting of unsubstanti-
ated allegations may be detrimental to potentially life-saving
research into HIV."

Father D'Agostino granted permission for the team's research,
the university said. "The research included both the taking of
blood samples and the analysis of those samples in the UK. The
team understood that they were undertaking this work in full
collaboration with Dr. Otsyula."

"The University of Oxford is committed to observing the highest
standards of ethics in the conduct of its research," the univer-
sity's statement continued. "Professor Sarah Rowland-Jones and
her colleagues have made it clear that they would not be associ-
ated in any way with work that exploits people, particularly
vulnerable children living with HIV infection."

Peter Kaluma of Lumumba and Mumma, the lawyers acting for Ot-
syula, told The Scientist Monday (June 21) that he was seeking a
law firm in the United Kingdom to join the action and serve the
writ in a British court, which he believed would take "a maximum
of 2 weeks."

"We can either get a UK lawyer to serve it on our behalf, or the
Chief Justice in Kenya can request his UK opposite number to
serve the writ," Otsyula told The Scientist. "I want to have
this matter heard as quickly as possible. It's not too diffi-
cult, as Kenyan laws are basically British laws."

Links for this article Sarah Rowland-Jones:
http://www.imm.ox.ac.uk/groups/molimm/jones.html

K. Guracha, "Kenyan doctor sues Oxford University," East African
Standard, June 3, 2004.
http://www.eastandard.net/headlines/news03060405.htm

A. Barnett, "Oxford scientists accused of stealing AIDS orphans'
blood for illicit research," The Observer, May 30, 2004.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1227883,00.html

R. Chakraborty et al. "Viral coinfections among African children
infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1," Clinical In-
fectious Diseases, 36 922-924, 2003. [PubMed Abstract]

Nyumbani Children's Homes
http://www.nyumbani.org

--
Rana Jawad Asghar MD, MPH
Coordinator South Asian Public Health Forum
mailto:jawad@alumni.washington.edu
http://www.DrJawad.com
Typhoid Net http://www.typhoid.net