Why does NIAID test vaccines, treatments, and therapies on citizens of foreign nations?
Clinical testing (testing in humans) is essential to the development of vaccines, prevention strategies, and treatments. Many diseases exist only in foreign countries or can be studied more easily and effectively abroad, where they are more common. Malaria, Ebola hemorrhagic fever, and dengue fever are examples in a very long list of such infectious diseases. Even diseases that do exist in the United States can often be studied more thoroughly elsewhere. For example, the incidence of heterosexually transmitted HIV/AIDS is higher for women in many parts of Africa than for women in the United States, making research on the management of HIV/AIDS among women more feasible and productive in Africa. Similarly, the incidence of extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is higher in many other countries than it is in the United States. By studying diseases where they are most common, not only will the research benefit these populations, it is more likely the United States will be prepa
