Disease dilemma: Sudanese researchers are falling victim to a US trade embargo. Credit: WHO/TDR/CRUMP

Fears of breaching US export controls have forced a centre that was set up as an international resource for malaria researchers to refuse requests for reagents from scientists in Sudan and Cuba.

The Malaria Research and Reference Reagent Resource Center (MR4) in Manassas, Virginia, was established in 1998 to supply information and reagents to malaria researchers across the globe. But scientists at the centre realized last month that they risk fines of $11,000 for each reagent sent to Cuba or Sudan. Both countries are covered by a US trade embargo on the grounds that they pose an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security.

Sudan and Cuba are not the only nations subject to US trade embargoes, but they are most relevant to malaria research because of their geographical location. Although there are only a handful of malaria labs in each country, they are potentially important sites for clinical trials. Both countries have ongoing international collaborations.

David Walliker of the University of Edinburgh, who lobbied for the MR4's creation, says that had he realized the centre would be subject to US trade controls, he would have sought to have it funded by the World Health Organization, rather than the US government. “The embargo is contrary to the whole spirit and raison d'être of the MR4's establishment,” he says.

The centre intends to ask the US Department of Commerce for an exemption from the embargoes. Research reagents do not at present qualify for exemptions granted to items such as food and medicine. Scientists fear that the MR4's future is at risk if the situation cannot be resolved. Alexandra Fairfield of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, which funds the centre, fears that researchers may become reluctant to donate reagents to the centre — something the MR4 relies on to fulfil its functions.

Sudanese researchers have found their work hampered in other ways. In February, Moawia Mukhtar of the Institute of Endemic Diseases at the University of Khartoum had a paper on the parasitic disease onchocerciasis rejected by the US journal Clinical Immunology, which said: “Given the complexities of dealing with the export restrictions imposed by the United States government ban on trading with Sudan, and the severe penalties for running afoul of the law, we are not accepting contributions from Sudan.”

Walliker wrote to the journal, protesting that the decision was contrary to the interests of international science. After taking legal advice, the journal decided this month that it could publish articles from Sudan, and has asked Mukhtar to resubmit. “It was so sad and humiliating for us,” Mukhtar says.

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