The Bangui operation: A story of blood, science and biomedical exploitation

The Bangui operation: A story of blood, science and biomedical exploitation

In the early 1990s, a secret HIV vaccine research project was carried out in the Central African Republic. The project didn’t yield results and was hidden for many years. Today it sheds light on debates over clinical trials, access to treatment and, more broadly, a specific form of exploitation rarely discussed: biomedical extractivism. I tell this story in my recently published book, Opération Bangui. Promesses vaccinales en Afrique postcolonia…