Kiekens, Anneleen http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5083-9144
Dierckx de Casterlé, Bernadette
Pellizzer, Giampietro
Mosha, Idda H.
Mosha, Fausta
Rinke de Wit, Tobias F.
Sangeda, Raphael Z.
Surian, Alessio
Vandaele, Nico
Vranken, Liesbet
Killewo, Japhet
Jordan, Michael
Vandamme, Anne-Mieke
Article History
Received: 7 December 2020
Accepted: 8 February 2022
First Online: 7 March 2022
Declarations
:
: This project is not within the scope of the Belgian Law regarding research on human subjects of 7/5/2004 [CitationRef removed]. This study did not involve patients and the interview did not contain personal questions, but rather involved questions about expert opinions on an international scientific problem, therefore, ethics approval was not required. Before the interviews began, all experts were informed about study’s aim and methods and provided informed verbal consent for participation in the study. Participation was voluntary and the experts were free to terminate the interview at any time. Data was collected between October 2018 and February 2020. Face to face interviews were done in Italy and South Africa. We obtained a statement of a local ethical committee confirming that ethical approval in Italy was not necessary. We also refer to the Italian law of 5 June 2019 “garante per la protezione dei dati personali”. None of the four experts interviewed during a conference in South Africa, had the South African nationality. Ethical approval was not needed for this research as the South African Health Act of 2003 covers only research done on South African citizens. The interviewees were not study subjects but rather provided their professional opinion about a complex public health problem. Moreover, both the researcher who conducted the interviews and the principal investigator followed a South African good clinical practice course.
: Not applicable.
: AV declares consultancy fee from Gilead.