Caused by a parasitic worm carried by a tiny black fly‚ the disease brought about visual impairment and skin lesions to millions of people. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated in 1978 that some 340‚000 people were blind because of onchocerciasis‚ and that a million more were suffered from various degrees of visual impairment. At the time‚ 18 million or more people were infected with the parasite‚ though half did not yet have serious symptoms (Donaldson & Werhane‚ 2008). Although
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of Contents Section 1…………………………………………………………………………………3 Section 2…………………………………………………………………………………4 Section 3…………………………………………………………………………………6 Section 4…………………………………………………………………………………9 Section 1: Introduction and Situational Analysis Onchocerciasis‚ known as river blindness‚ is caused by parasitic worms that live in the small black flies that breed in and about fast-moving rivers in developing countries in the Middle East‚ Africa‚ and Latin America. The disease‚ if untreated causes extreme
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drug to fight against dangerous intestinal bugs and insects in bugs. One particular researcher‚ Dr. William Cambell‚ noticed a characteristic in ivermectin showing that it might also be able to fight against the parasite that causes the disease onchocerciasis commonly known as river blindness. He reported this observation to the head of Merck research labs‚ Dr. P. Roy Vagelos. River blindness is a disease that affects over eighteen million people in Third World countries. It is caused by a parasitic
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that may produce conflicting results. Ethical dilemmas require compromising ethical principles regardless of which option is selected. As such‚ the decision made is never classified as being perfect (Allen‚ 2012). One such dilemma arose from Onchocerciasis‚ also known as river blindness. River blindness is a disease that affects one’s skin and eyes causing skin infections and permanent blindness. This disease mainly affects persons living in Africa as well as South and Central America. Statistics
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Ethics Case Study Merck & Company invested millions of dollars to develop a treatment for river blindness‚ a disease of the developing world that has infected 18 million people and poses a risk for 127 million people. River blindness is caused by the bite of black flies that deposit larvae of a parasite under the skin of their victims. When the larvae mature into adult worms‚ the adults reproduce millions of the immature forms of the parasites that migrate throughout the tissues of the body causing
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Onchocerciasis is a filarial infection that leads to blindness and debilitating skin lesions. Onchocerciasis is found associated with the river system of tropical African regions. According to WHO this diseases occurs in 37 countries affecting 17.7 million people‚ out of which 500‚000 were visually impaired and 270‚000 were blind. Africa is the most affected country (95% ) from this disease in terms of the allocation and the severity of its clinical manifestation. Moreover‚ this disease also pose
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Think about the definition of stakeholders—any parties with a stake in the organizations actions or performance. Who are the stakeholders in this situation? How many can you list? On what basis would you rank them in importance? The stakeholders in the Merk case is the people infected with river blindness‚ the community affected by river blindness‚ the employees of Merk‚ the company itself‚ and the Stockholders. In order of importance: 1. The infected people 2. The company 3. Stockholders 4. The
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contact‚ a clear indication that he is blind. You approach the lizard man and ask his age‚ he replies “Cuarenta y tres.” You wonder to yourself how could a man who is 43 years old have lost his vision and aged so prematurely? The simple answer is Onchocerciasis or more commonly known as River Blindness. Desowitz (1981) discusses the history‚ causes‚ and possible treatments of River Blindness in his book “New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers. Tales of Parasites and People.” Desowitz mainly focuses
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Merck Ethics Study In developing a drug to combat river blindness‚ pharmaceutical company Merck discovered an opportunity to treat millions of affected peoples around the world that probably would never see commercial use. The drug in development‚ ivermectin‚ was unaffordable to the primary victims of river blindness‚ Third World peoples. Thus‚ Dr. Vagelos‚ the head of research at the time‚ treaded upon a ethical quagmire; he could either choose to scrap the drug and its further research or
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10/6/2014 Case 3: Merck and River Blindness 1. Why was Merck hesitant about developing a human version of Ivermectin? Merck considered this opportunity as a high risk investment. The cost of developing the drug was estimated at $100 million. Even if it was successful to cure river blindness the victims were too poor to afford the drug. There was no way to distribute it in these rural areas were the victims were located. In addition‚ there was a possibility that people would misuse the drugs‚ which
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