A journal received an account by email from outside Britain of how 14 patients infected with a potentially lethal virus had been treated with an unusual non-pharmacological treatment. The treatment seemed bizarre, and furthermore, there was no mention of approval by an ethics committee or of informed consent. The author was twice emailed to ask if he had ethics committee approval and if he had obtained informed consent. There was no response. There were no contact details apart from the email address and the name of the institution was not known. Does the journal have any responsibility to pursue this any further?
_ The editor is right to pursue this, but as the authors have not replied, and there is no information as to their whereabouts, it cannot obviously be taken any further. _ This is a case for the record.