The Guardian Reported on Tuesday that the Brazilian government has launched an investigation into claims that a University of Florida research project used Amazonian villagers as human “guinea pigs” in a study of feeding patterns of mosquitoes.
The villagers used in the study have contracted malaria. But the chief researcher of the study argues that the villagers contracted malaria because they live in an area where malaria is endemic, not because they were part of the study.
The local prosecutor said that these people (who were paid to take part in the study) were taken advantage of as a result of their poverty and that they were used as “human bait.”
It is illegal for foreign organizations working in Brazil to pay Brazilians to participate in scientific research projects.