Helsinki Declaration: 2024 edition upholds ethical access to treatment
23 October 2024. Related: Treatment access, HIV prevention and transmission.
Simon Collins, HIV i-Base
On 19 October 2024, the latest edition of the Helsinki Declaration was published online in JAMA.
This international declaration from the World Medical Association sets out a series of ethical principles for conducting medical research.
The Declaration has been updated several times since it was first published in 1964 and the previous edition was in 2013.
The format of the principles is still close to the original version although the text has generally become longer to go into more detail for each principle.
JAMA also includes several editorial and opinion responses to the latest update.
comment
It is important that principles 19 and 20 continue to uphold that vulnerable people and groups need to be able to benefit from any new treatments that are developed as part of the research carried out in their communities.
This should cover people in low-income countries, many of whom are already marginalised, to stop them being exploited for cheaper research.
The Helsinki principles should therefore cover access to injectable ART and PrEP for the wider populations of low- and middle-income countries, not just study participants.
References
World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Participants. Principles 19 and 20. (19 October 2024).
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2825290