News

9th August 2004

New five in one vaccine controversy

The Government is set to face new controversy after announcing plans to introduce a new five in onevaccine for children from 2 months old.

Babies are already given a four in one vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and hib - a bacterium that can cause meningitis or pneumonia. Polio drops have until now been taken orally but the five in one jab will vaccinate against polio as well.

The plans were announced yesterday by John Hutton, the health minister, as he confirmed that mercury was to be removed from the whooping cough vaccine. This move has been universally welcomed as being 'long overdue' after US trials suggested a link between mercury and autism.

However, health campaigners have warned of a repeat of the MMR controversy unless more safety assurances are given about the implications of the new jab.

Jackie Fletcher, the founder of Jabs, a group for parents who say their children have been damaged by the vaccine, said "Increasing combinations increases the potential for an adverse reaction and restricts choice for parents, when the government said it wanted to improve choice.

"With five-in-one vaccines we would want to know what safety trials have taken place. How did they find out it was safe to do it in this combination?"

Dr Richard Nicholson, editor of the Bulletin of Medical Ethics, said "It is extraordinary that given all the concerns about the combined vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, we are now introducing combinations of greater numbers of vaccines.

"The trials have involved far too few children and too short a period of observation to ensure that there are no long-term problems."

But Dr David Salisbury, an immunisation specialist with the Department of Health, said the new vaccine had been formulated in consultation with parents and health professionals. It had already been used in Canada for seven years, where follow-up studies had revealed no problem with side effects.

Dr Mary Ramsay, of the Health Protection Agency, suggested the 5-in-1 was safer than the current immunisations. "Instead of having the oral vaccine, which was associated very very rarely with causing a form of polio, this will be a safer form of vaccine, because it will be given in an inactivated form, which doesn't have that risk. This vaccine is less likely to cause adverse effects, there is really very good evidence that it is less likely to do that."

She added that the agency might even consider the use of a six-in-one vaccine, with the addition of hepatitis B. At the moment this disease is not subject to mass immunisation.

In a further development, Dr Salisbury also said the government was looking "very carefully" at the feasibility of introducing a separate, new vaccine for bacterial meningitis which is currently given to all children in the USA.

Where to next?

• Are you wary of this vaccine or confident it's safe?Share your feelings in Discuss, Debate and Deliberate
• Find out all you need to understand why Should I have my baby vaccinated