Previously criticized study verified as valid
A review conducted by the Institute of Medicine requested by the National Institutes of Health last year has concluded that a controversial study on Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) by American researchers in Africa was scientifically valid and ethically sound.
Some critics questioned the validity of the study because of some procedural lapses they had found while the researchers performed the experiment.
The study, conducted by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and Makarere University in Kampala, Uganda, concluded that singled doses of the drug nevaripine could protect newborn babies from inheriting the AIDS virus from their parents.
The study was conducted in Uganda from 1997 to 1999, and the conclusions were tested in a later trial in South Africa.
According to the panel, there were some instances where deaths or hospitalizations of the 49 infants involved in the study were not reported in a timely fashion or were under reported. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the review concluded that the safety results of the study are meaningful in a Ugandan context but may not be applicable to different settings and locations.
Brooks Jackson, one of the researchers and Chair of Pathology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said he was pleased with the findings but acknowledged that his team did miss some events in the course of the study. However, they were not significant to the overall conclusion of the report.
Virgina university ends relations with Baptist association
The Baptist General Association of Virginia (BGAV) and Averett University in Virigina both agreed to cut ties after a 145-year partnership after Averett's decision to allow a campus gay-pride week to occur in February.
Averett President Richard Pfau said that permitting the Gay-Straight Alliance, an organization at the university, to hold the gay pride week was the last straw for the BGAV in already strained relations between the two institutions. Pfau agreed, however, and said that allowing the group to conduct gay-pride week was the right thing to do, even if it did kill relations.
As a result of the breakup, the BGAV will no longer nominate members to Averett's Board of Trustees and will no longer give money to Averett to run the Southwest Virginia Christian Leadership Network, a minister training program. Averett must also return the $250,000 it was given to be in charge of the program.
In 2003, the BGAV temporarily withheld $300,000 from Averett after a religion teacher wrote a column supporting an openly gay episcopal bishop, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Most students and faculty supported Pfau's move to sever ties with the BGAV.
-- Compiled by Brian McPartland from the Chronicle of Higher Education
