Anyone for a QUADRUPLE jab???

FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org>


Another Vaccine Added To MMR Jab

http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=120653>

Health officials are preparing to add a chickenpox vaccine to the
controversial MMR jab to create a quadruple vaccine for toddlers in a move
set to create a furore among parents.
Thousands have already chosen to give their children single jabs for
measles, mumps and rubella after reports linking the triple vaccine with
autism.
Although the Department of Health (DoH) insists MMR is safe and no
autism link has been proved, one critic said it "beggared belief" that the
government was considering adding a fourth live vaccine before the existing
controversy had been resolved.
There are also certain to be questions over whether a chickenpox
vaccine is necessary. In Scotland, cases have dropped from 30,381 cases
among children in 1989 to 19,202 cases in 1999. The number of deaths from
chickenpox in Scotland last year was two, neither of them children.
But a single chickenpox vaccine has been in use in the US for five
years - and Dr David Salisbury, the head of immunisation at the DoH, told
The Scotsman he believes chickenpox poses sufficient risk to warrant a
childhood vaccine in the UK.
He said: "This has so far proved very safe and will probably turn out
to be very effective. Giving children the chickenpox vaccine at the same
time as the MMR jab is obviously something we have got to explore very
carefully. There is work going on to combine the MMR with the chickenpox
vaccine."
He added: "Chickenpox is very common and for most people it is mild.
But there are deaths every year, so it is not entirely trivial. And there
are long-term consequences such as shingles which for older people is a
horrible disease. One of the hopes is that the chickenpox vaccine will
reduce shingles."
Dr Salisbury said health professionals dislike administering multiple
jabs because it is "not in the best interests of children".
He added: "We have a real problem in giving parents the assurance that
what we are doing is the best thing for their children.
I understand why parents feel that it's better not to get the vaccine
and take their chance, but that is not in the child's interests either."
Trials that involve combining the chickenpox vaccine with the MMR jab
are already under way at Sheffield Children's Hospital. The results have not
yet been published.
Any decision on including a chickenpox vaccine will be taken at a
UK-wide level with input from the DoH and Scottish executive. An executive
spokeswoman said: "The only way we would introduce a chickenpox vaccine is
if it was recommended for the UK as a whole."
The chickenpox plans met with fury from families who believe their
children have been damaged by vaccines.
Bill Welsh, chairman of Action Against Autism, said: "Quite frankly it
beggars belief that anyone would consider adding another live vaccine to the
controversial MMR jab at this time. One of the largest-ever class action
lawsuits is on-going in the UK courts. Rather than add more vaccines, they
should be providing single vaccines as a choice."
Jackie Fletcher, spokeswoman for Jabs, an action group for parents who
believe their children were damaged by vaccines, described the proposals as
a "backward step".
She added: "The government have adopted this policy because they want
to put more and more vaccines together because it is cheaper and easier for
them to do so.
"They don't want to relent on MMR and allow parents choice because
that would sow further seeds of doubt about its safety and cast doubt over
the safety of future jab combinations."
Chickenpox and shingles are two diseases caused by the same virus,
varicella. Most people catch chickenpox as children and suffer fever, rash
and poxes. Shingles is caused when the chickenpox virus, which the body
never really gets rid of completely, is reactivated after many years.
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