z-logo
Premium
COVID‐19, children, clinical trials and compassion: The ethical case for using innovative or compassionate treatments
Author(s) -
Larcher Vic,
Caplan Art,
Brierley Joe
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
acta paediatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/apa.16148
Subject(s) - medicine , compassionate use , pandemic , compassion , covid-19 , clinical trial , intensive care medicine , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , pathology , outbreak , political science , law
Aim Safe, effective SARS‐CoV‐2 treatment has not yet been determined, though some drugs have favourable mortality and morbidity benefits in specific situations. No treatments have been explicitly tested in children, who are, therefore, once again therapeutic orphans. Method We echo calls to enrol patients, including children, into trials but those children recruited to date have largely been additions to adult studies. Few were recruited during the initial pandemic despite the emergence of PIMS‐TS/MIS‐C, which surely demands paediatric‐specific research. Result Must children be proscribed treatments effective in adults until child‐specific data emerges, even in a pandemic? Will appropriately powered dedicated trials ever determine specific child‐COVID‐19 treatment pathways? Is the protracted time frame to assemble such data acceptable to children with severe COVID‐19 today? Such factors are relevant in considering whether children should have access to compassionate, innovative, pandemic‐disease treatment. Conclusion We argue that children should be permitted, indeed have a right, to access innovative treatments early in any future pandemic, following an individual best interests consideration. This will remain the case until formal studies powered to determine children's optimal treatment commence, when the moral duty switches to ensuring children are enrolled, with any preceding innovative‐use data made available to researchers.

This content is not available in your region!

Continue researching here.

Having issues? You can contact us here