meningococcal vaccine trial - would you do it??

We got a letter via Medicare asking if we'd consider volunteering DS for a new Meningococcal vaccine trial. As we all know, meningococcal is a horrible illness and it would be fantastic if there was a way to prevent it, but I'm in a quandary, because
it's DS - if it were me, I'd happily volunteer my body because I believe that this type of research is for the greater social good and if I could in some way contribute to eradicating a nasty disease from society I'd be happy. But it's not me, it's DS, and what if it goes wrong?

I haven't got all the info yet, but do know that it has already undergone trials in Canada, so we're not the first country to offer children as guinea pigs, but I'm interested in other people's thoughts....have you heard about it? have you done it? what questions would you want answered before you gave the go ahead?

I agree with you, if it was for me I'd be happy to do but just not willing to offer DD as a tester.

i thought it was already here.. well i went to the doctor and got it. mayb he pumped me full of water lol.. but i got it done, our whole school did as 2 kids got the horrible thing and were in a coma. tho we didnt get it done at school, we had to get our parents to take us to the doctors.. this was about 3 years ago.

Janno, that's a really tough one. I'd probably lean towards no, for the same reasons as you. GL with your decision.

Hollye, the existing one isn't for all the strains. Maybe this is a new one which covers the other strains.

I got a letter today from medicare as well. I dont think I could do it, I'm too scared of something going wrong. :( It would be so good to find a vaccine against it though, meningococcal is horrible.

What they're testing isn't whether it's safe but whether it works - vaccines have to be approved before they can be tested on humans. I'm considering having it done for DD but am undecided because of course we think it's safe at the moment, but who knows the long term effects. Not to mention that some people have adverse reactions to vacinations.

I'm probably going to enrol our DS in this trial.

Currently, kids get a vaccine for only one strain of meningococcal disease...the study is looking at vaccines that will cover 4 other strands of the disease.

I understand the argument about not wanting to involve someone without their consent, but I also think it's really important that medical research be completed...and for it to be completed, they do need volunteers.

The ethics committees to allow these sort of trials to occur are very strict...

I guess it just comes down to personal preference.