© 2004 American Public Health Association
Kathleen M. MacQueen is with Family Health International, Durham, NC. James W. Buehler is with the Center for Public Health Preparedness and Research, Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga. A substantial part of the work for this analysis was completed while both were with the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga. Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Kathleen M. MacQueen, PhD, MPH, Family Health International, PO Box 13950, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 (e-mail: kmacqueen{at}fhi.org).
Ethical issues that can arise in distinguishing public health research from practice are highlighted in 2 case studiesan investigation of a tuberculosis outbreak in a prison and an evaluation of a program for improving HIV prevention services. Regardless of whether such public health investigations represent research or practice, we see a need for ethics oversight procedures that reflect actual risks and enable timely responses to crises. Such oversight should accommodate the perspectives of persons and communities affected by public health threats and by governmental responses to those threats; it should further recognize that public health ethics is a distinct field combining bioethics, political philosophy, human rights, and law. This article has been cited by other articles:
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