Community Permission for Medical Research in Developing Countries

• Published in: Clinical infectious diseases Vol. 41; no. 2; pp. 255 - 259
• Main Authors: Diallo, Dapa A., Doumbo, Ogobara K., Plowe, Christopher V., Wellems, Thomas E., Emanuel, Ezekiel J., Hurst, Samia A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago, IL The University of Chicago Press 15-07-2005; University of Chicago Press; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical Research - ethics; Biomedical Research - methods; Communities; Community; Developing Countries; Diplomatic protocol; Healers; HIV/AIDS; Human protozoal diseases; Humans; Infectious diseases; Informed consent; LDCs; Malaria; Malaria - prevention & control; Malaria Vaccines - immunology; Mali - epidemiology; Medical research; Medical sciences; Parasitic diseases; Political ethics; Professional ethics; Protozoal diseases; Research ethics; Respect; Third-Party Consent - ethics; Vaccines; Mali; Infection; Medicine; Ethics; Protozoal disease; Organization; Malaria; Scientific research; Developing countries; Parasitosis
• ISSN: 1058-4838; 1537-6591
• DOI: 10.1086/430707

The realization of the need for community consent, or more accurately community permission, for research has occurred relatively recently. Practical experience with it is scarce. This article describes the Malian experience at a malaria vaccine study site. We describe a process that we used to obtain community permission. The process had 6 steps: (1) a study of the community, (2) an introductory meeting with leaders, (3) formal meetings with leaders, (4) personal visits with leaders, (5) meetings with traditional health practitioners, and (6) recognition that obtaining permission is a dynamic process. We discuss documentation of community permission for research and outline the reasons why the community-level process we used was practically necessary and ethically appropriate. Far from competing with the individual informed consent process, the process of obtaining community permission both initiated and facilitated the process of disclosure for individual informed consent.