Medical Research and the Production of Reliable Data The Difficulties of a Randomised Clinical Trial Confronted with Real Life in Southern Niger

• Published in: Journal of humanitarian affairs Vol. 5; no. 1; pp. 11 - 23
• Main Author: Issoufou, Mamane Sani Souley
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 14.09.2023
• ISSN: 2515-6411; 2515-6411
• DOI: 10.7227/JHA.099

This article describes and analyses the tensions linked to the flaws in the system of a randomised clinical trial conducted by Epicentre, an epidemiological research centre created by the non-governmental organisation Médecins Sans Frontières, in southern Niger. It presents an ethnography of the practice of therapeutic experimentation in the context of a clinical trial in which we observe the meticulousness of a set of monitored practices, framed by a bureaucracy and a hierarchy specific to the medical profession, intended to reduce bias as much as possible in order to produce reliable data. Based on an ethnographic survey with the combined use of participant observations (interviews as part of the real-time follow-up of this clinical trial), this article is part of the literature of Science and Technology Studies (STS), which consists in describing the science in the making (Callon, 1986, 2003; Latour and Woolgar, 2006; Pestre, 2010). It shows the difficulties of a trial that has not taken into account the local contexts of its implementation, the ‘real life’ and its unexpected effects.