Página 265 - Dimensiones éticas de las regulaciones en salud

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The implementation of this reform program led to the development of a
draft national health bill which was ratified by the senate in 2008(12) and
is now awaiting presidential assent.
Box 1: Seven Thrusts of the HSRP
Improve the performance of the stewardship role of the Federal Government in health t
Strengthen the national health system and its management, t
Reduce the disease burden attributable to priority health problems; t
Improve the availability of health resources and their management; t
Improve access to quality health services; t
Promote effective public-private partnership in health; t
Increase consumers’ awareness of their health rights as well as their health obligations t
Research ethics governance and regulation
Research ethics in Nigeria, like in many African countries, is only recently
been given the attention it deserved. This is exemplified by the fact that
most developing countries that might have had some ethics review mecha-
nism earlier in place are only recently developing guidelines. In South
Africa for example, there has been an ethics committee since 1966(13) but
it was after 31 years that the government issued a guideline for their opera-
tions and functions(14). Similarly, the oldest ethics committee in Nigeria
was established in 1980(15), the National Code for Health Research Eth-
ics was only issued in 2006, 26 years later(16).
Ethics committees in Nigeria have been established over the years largely in
university teaching hospitals and a few research institutes and most prob-
ably in accordance with United States (US) regulations and the Common
Rule. This is probable since this is a requirement for registration of ethics
committees with the Office of Human Research Protection (OHRP) of
the United States(17). Thus far, the OHRP records that there are 39 eth-
ics committees in Nigeria. However local experience suggests that there
indeed might be more as some of these committees have been in existence
for the greater part of the last decade then without any local guidance and
mechanism for coordination of their activities.