The French medical council has cleared the controversial AIDS researcher
Daniel Zagury of breaching the health code during his trials of an experimental
immune therapy for people with AIDS.
Zagury has acknowledged that one of three patients who died during the
trial probably succumbed to vaccinia disease after being treated with a
genetically engineered vaccinia virus. The disease is a rare complication
of infection with vaccinia (cowpox).
Article 418 of the French health code states 鈥榯he doctor must not allow
the patient to be put at unjustified risk by investigations or intervention
practised or by any therapy prescribed鈥�.
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According to the medical council, Zagury鈥檚 trial was conducted with
鈥榯he required ethical and formal precautions鈥�. It went on to say that 鈥榳ith
AIDS, research is a duty and it is legitimate for him (Zagury) to continue
his work鈥�.
An earlier report by the head of the French National AIDS Research Council,
Jean-Paul Levy, criticised the conditions in which the trial was carried
out, and called for a ban on the use of vaccinia virus in trials. He also
urged strict new proposals for such experiments.
