Help Sitemap Home Skip Navigation Contact Us Disability Statement


Infants to receive new life-saving vaccinations

Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image

Published Date: 28 August 2006
By LIANNE GUTCHER
A VACCINE protecting children from meningitis and pneumonia is set to be added to Scotland's routine immunisation programme despite ongoing controversy over the existing MMR jab.
The new jab will be routinely administered to infants at two months, four months and 13 months from next week.

Health experts yesterday predicted that the vaccination will save lives by protecting children from illnesses including septicaemia and
blood poisoning.

The vaccine was introduced in the US about six years ago.

Figures showed that cases of severe pneumococcal disease caused by the seven strains targeted by the jab had dropped by 94 per cent in children under five in the USA by 2003.

However, concern about the cost has delayed its introduction in the UK. The vaccine costs £34.50, more than all of the other childhood inoculations put together.

Children under two who have started their vaccinations will also be eligible for the jab under a "catch-up" programme.

Dr Jim McMenamin, a consultant epidemiologist at Health Protection Scotland, said: "This is a significant advance.

"It offers children protection against yet another form of severe meningitis and further reduces the number of cases that would occur each year from the disease."

Dr McMenamin said that since the introduction of the meningitis C vaccine there has been a "drastic reduction" in childhood cases of meningococcal meningitis.

Figures show that children under two are at the highest risk of pneumococcal disease, which kills more than 50 children across Britain each year.

Pneumococcal meningitis is the most life-threatening form of meningitis and septicaemia, with the highest death rate.

Parents are not obliged to have their children immunised. Many parents have refused to let their children have the MMR vaccine amid reports suggesting a potential link with the rise of autism. But a spokesman for the Scottish Executive said: "This is an important addition to the childhood immunisation schedule and we recommend all parents of children of the relevant ages take advantage of it."

Philip Kirby, chief executive of the Meningitis Trust, added: "Vaccination is the only way to prevent meningitis and we welcome these changes as it will help save lives.

"Pneumococcal meningitis is a devastating disease - 20 per cent of those who get it will die and a further per cent will suffer severe after-effects.

"This vaccine will help save lives and will significantly reduce the burden of the disease."

Children in the under-two age group are the most likely to catch these illnesses. Of those that survive, 50 per cent are left with permanent disabilities such as brain damage, deafness and cerebral palsy.

Meanwhile, a vaccination programme against cervical cancer in primary schools is also being considered. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which advises the Department of Health, is examining the possibility of vaccinating young girls against the human papilloma virus, which is spread by sexual activity.



Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 27 August 2006 8:32 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: MMR vaccine , Autism
 
1

Crank Parent,

Livingston 28/08/2006 07:24:17

Phil Kirby should be very carefull about making sweeping comments like "Vaccination is the only way to prevent meningitis…" At most vaccination may help to reduce levels of one particular type of meningitis. So we might expect that some of the 50 children the article claims have died to be saved but how many children will suffer severe side effects from the jab or actually contract meningitis from having the jab. My guess is that it will be substantially more.

Read The Vacciantion Bible (available from Amazon) and make an informed choice over whether to have your child vaccinated.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0953473406/026-1096623...

2

Ginster's Pastie,

28/08/2006 12:09:22

Vaccination is a victim of it's own success.

As diseases become increasingly uncommon (eg. measles, TB, whooping cough, etc), the side-effect profile of vaccines becomes increasingly important.

All it takes is a few years of parental complacency and vaccine avoidance to help strengthen the case, as we'll find out with a few more measles deaths in the months to come.

I seem to recall several states in the US stopping routine BCG vaccination just before HIV brought TB back into the population.

Pretty much every health centre will have a small number of patients missing limbs/sight/hearing following surviving meningitis. Not many have patients maimed or dead through the vaccination programme.

3

Crank Parent,

Livingston 28/08/2006 16:50:15

Graham

These diseases have become less common in the West due to better diet and sanitation, not vaccination. They are still rife in countries that have neither of these luxuries.

I have 5 children – 2 vaccine damaged and 3 healthy ones who have not been vaccinated. I have chosen this path through informed choice not complacency. Vaccine damage is far more common than you think.

Vaccines are not tested for safety or efficacy amongst the agegroups which they are used. Herd immunity is a myth. Vaccines often don't work, hence the need for boosters. They don't protect against all the strains of the disease. Immunity wears off after a few years. Teenagers and adults are now getting these diseases instead and the effects are much worse than if they had them when they were children. Most of these childhood diseases have not, in fact, disappeared due to mass vaccination, they are either misdiagnosed as "just a virus" (GPs believe children can no longer get measles, so have no idea what they are looking for) or the names of the diseases have been changed (e.g. polio has been renamed aseptic meningitis and there are still as many cases.) Finally, most of these diseases come in cycles (usually about 20 years) – has anyone spotted that it's about 20 years since MMR etc started and the government keeps panicking that there will be an outbreak of measles or mumps any day. And has anyone spotted that these outbreaks usually occur amongst vaccinated children!

4

Crank Parent,

Livingston 28/08/2006 17:41:58

P.S.

I actually had all these childhood diseases myself and managed to live through all of them without any side effects. I am also lucky that I can pass long term immunity and antibodies to my children through breastfeeding.

And it's strange that for years the government has been telling us that Chickenpox is a mild childhood disease, encouraging us all to make sure our kids get it while they are young and suddenly they are now telling us it's really a deadly killer disease and we should all vaccinate our children against it.

It is true that Chickenpox has more side effects than Measles but that only shows how mild Measles is not how dangerous Chickenpox is!

5

Ginster's Pastie,

28/08/2006 22:46:21

Sanitation has no effect on measles. Well nourished people, however, are more likely to survive the illness. Measles kills approximately 100,000 to 200,000 kids per year in the (un-vaccinated) world.

Breast-feeding protection ends soon after you stop breast-feeeding.

Measles is fatal in around 1 in 2-3000 cases in the Western World.

Cheers.

6

Ginster's Pastie,

28/08/2006 22:49:55

And I love the comment on measles being mis-diagnosed as "just a virus".

Nice one, and utterly false.

Measles, once in full flow, is pretty unmistakable.

The early stages are, however, pretty much like any other viral infection acquired by inhaling virus-laden droplets, with a few fairly subtle difference.

7

Crank Parent,

29/08/2006 12:43:06

Graham

Get your facts right!

1. My comment on sanitation was in connection to disease/viruses in general. Lack of it was certainly a major cause of Polio in the 50's.

2. Mothers who breastfeed who have had these diseases themselves pass antibodies through their breastmilk that offer long term protection.

2. Measles kills people in developing countries who have been vaccinated but who have poor nutrition. (Low levels of Vitamin A in particular.)

4. You say "Measles is fatal in around 1 in 2-3000 cases in the Western World." This would indicate there are still plenty of cases of measles in the West, even in a mostly vaccinated society, and that it's a mild disease!

5. Measles, Mumps and German Measles are often missed by GPs. My own kids had Measles and our GP was clueless. Last year many of my friends kids (and some of the parents) had Mumps and they had to harrass their GPs into doing blood tests to prove it was Mumps as they refused to believe them.

Finally, which vaccine manufacturer are you paid by or do you really believe the crap fed to you by the governnment.

Cheers

8

Crank Parent,

Livingston 29/08/2006 12:57:54

P.S.

I'd love to hear your view on Chickenpox – mild childhood disease or deadly killer?

9

Manuel,

03/09/2006 18:43:10

SUNDAY EXPRESS
3 September 2006

Report links 'super dose' to thousands of adverse reactions in US children

Fears new 7-in-1 meningitis jab endangers lives

By Lucy Johnston
Health Editor

Babies given a "super dose" vaccine due to be launched tomorrow risk serious side effects and even death, a report claims.

Prevenar, will be added to the childhood immunisation programme containing vaccines against seven strains of meningitis.

The drug is designed to combat bacteria that cause diseases such as pneumonia and blood poisoning as well as meningitis. It provokes the body's immune response to the bacteria without causing the diseases.

But a report, The Next Storm, reveals that the jab, combined with other childhood inoculations, has been linked to breathing problems, brain damage, convulsions, extreme allergic shock and death.

A similar combination of vaccines has been given to babies in the US for more than five years.

The report's author, Dr Edward Yazbak, is an American child vaccination specialist who has analysed reports of side-effects received by the American Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System.

He discovered thousands of reactions linked with Prevenar.

Since March 2000 there has been 11,611 adverse reports following the jab including 362 deaths and 1,347 hospitalisations, although Dr Yazbak pointed out that a report does not prove the jab caused the reaction.

He said: "Such a combination of jabs has been linked with serious reactions and death in this country. The authorities in Britain should be very alert to what happens when all these
vaccines are given together."

His study has led to calls for an overhaul of the UK vaccination programme, which will see babies receiving 25 inoculations by the time, they are 13 months old.

Doctors and health expert say there have been no long-term studies into the dangers.

Liberal Democrat healt

10

Manuel,

03/09/2006 18:56:06

Families should be given a range of options."

In a statement to the Sunday Express, Sir Liam said the new jab had been introduced, "on the best available scientific and medical evidence."

He added: "This will save many babies' lives a year as well as preventing hundreds more cases of serious illness and disability."


The new schedule

At 2 months babies will be given the five-in-one - diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hib meningitis and polio - and Prevenar.

At 3 months they will get a repeat of the five-in-one and a dose of Meningitis C.

At 4 months they will receive a third shot of the five-in-one with Prevenar and meningitis C.

At 12 months hib meningitis and meningitis C.

At 13 months they will get the MMR together with Prevenar, making a total of 25 jabs.

----------------------------------
Also note that the present Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 in the U.K is not applicable to children under the age of 2 years. This is a serious cause for concern considering that the British governments intention is to implement new child vaccinations which may bring the number of vaccinations given to pre-two year olds to 25.


 

Comment on this Story

 

In order to post comments you must Register or Sign In

 
 
RSS Feed of this article's comments
Delivery formats: RSS, Atom, Javascript & Email
 
  

 
 


Sister Newspapers:
Press Complaints Commission

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the PCC by clicking here.