Poland investigates deaths of homeless in vaccine trial

Polish officials are investigating the deaths of a number of homeless people who were recruited to take part in a clinical trial of a new avian flu vaccine trial. According to some of the officials, about 350 homeless people were lured to participate in the trial, told they were being given a conventional flu vaccine and paid only one or two euros. The director of the homeless shelter in the area said that he recorded 21 deaths last year, well above the annual average of eight. The three doctors and six nurses at the center of the investigation say all the homeless people were told they were being given an H5N1 vaccine.

The Polish authorities are also trying to determine if the medical staff deceived the pharma company they had mounted the trial for. As the Telegraph points out, Poland's health service has a shoddy reputation. Several years ago a group of ambulance medics were found guilty of killing patients in order to gain commissions from funeral homes.

- read the article in The Telegraph