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LOCAL RESEARCHERS QUESTION USE OF ANIMALS IN RESEARCH
Various medical researchers, also in South Africa, have now questioned the fallacious use of animal models to study essentially human diseases, e.g. Alzheimer's, AIDS, etc.
In response to scientists' excitement over the reaction of monkeys injected with an AIDS vaccine similar to that which was due to be tested in South Africa soon, Prof. Salim Abdool Karim, deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Natal and co-chair of the protocol committee overseeing the AIDS vaccine initiative, said: "While the response is exciting, we cannot extrapolate the findings to humans as monkeys and humans have different immune responses."
Dr. Koos Smit, a former medical researcher who, for 28 years at the Wits Medical School, was involved in 1000 liver and kidney transplants using primates as experimental models, is of the opinion that "in retrospect the application of this research was not of much use."
Dr. James A. Temlett, of the neurology unit of the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School in South Africa, stated: "Acute parkinsonism models (animal models) have limitations when compared with chronic disease states, and caution should be present when comparing parkinsonism data with human disease. (Animal Models) do not reflect the complexities of the human basal ganglion." (Current Opinion in Neurology 1996;9:303-7)
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