| Bar on jail trials of HIV remedy
By Debra Jopson Researchers conducting Australia's first scientifically approved clinical
trials on the effectiveness of herbal remedies to combat HIV/AIDS will
complain to the Ombudsman, Ms Irene Moss, that prisoners are not being
allowed to participate. The coordinator of the trial, Ms Jan Kneen-McDaid,
said yesterday that she would complain after her third rebuff in three
years by the NSW Department of Corrective Services in her quest to introduce
the herbal formula, KM1, in jails.
So far, 106 people have been involved in the trial, which was approved
by the ethics committee of the South-Eastern Sydney Area Health Service
before it started in March last year. "We are hoping to prove that it boosts
people's immune systems", Ms Kneen-McDaid said. She has received support
from the AIDS Council of NSW, Gay Pride, the Australian Traditional medicine
Society and prisoners group Justice Action in her attempts to introduce
the trial to inmates.
Because prisoners should have a choice in their medications, as other
people did, they should have access to the herbal formula and complementary
therapies, she said. But, after meeting members of a Department of Corrective
Services internal ethics committee last month, she received a letter from
the Commissioner, Dr. Leo Keliher, in which he said; "The safety of the
herbal formula has not been adequately addressed."
"It's a matter of human rights for prisoners," Ms Kneen-McDaid said,
adding that there was already anecdotal evidence that the mix of four herbs
- Echinacea, St John's Wort, Siberian ginseng and Astragalus - could help
some people living with HIV/AIDS. Although the herbal formula has not been
through the process of being approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration,
all four of its component herbs had been approved and were sold over the
counter separately, she said. "The bottom line is it is safe." Those testing
it were encouraged to take KM1 as well as any other more conventional medicine
they had been prescribed, she said.
A spokesman for the NSW Department of Corrective Services was unable to comment. Sydney Morning Herald
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