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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – PBS NEWSHOUR Science Correspondent Miles O’Brien takes a look on the use of chimpanzees as test subjects for medical and science experiments on Thursday’s (May 10, 2012) broadcast of the PBS NewsHour (check local listings).
Last December, the NIH said ‘no’ to any new research grants for such work. But questions remain on whether the chimps should still be used to test vaccines for Hepatitis C, since they are the only animals beside humans that can contract the virus. Miles went to Chimp Haven to see animals that had been retired from research labs, talked to scientists involved in Hep C research at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, and interviewed a Hepatitus C sufferer who credits research on chimps with improving his quality of life.
“Over the years, Scientists have put chimps in harm’s way in the name of research that benefits humans” explains O’Brien in tonight’s segment. “But in recent years, Japan, Europe and the UK have all ended the practice – leaving the US and Gabon the only two nations that allow scientists to conduct tests on chimpanzees — but maybe not for long.”
Along with O’Brien’s broadcast report tonight, the PBS Newshour website has an extended interview with the director of Chimp Haven; and a blog post about how the chimps at the rehab center were still having babies, despite having had vasectomies.
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