MORE than 220 children and teenagers must undergo a new set of childhood vaccinations after it emerged the original jabs they received were not properly administered.
The error, which involved a number of vaccines and dates back to the late 1990s, may have left them without full protection against potentially serious diseases such as meningitis.
The 220 families, who were patients of the GP practice in Newcastle in west Dublin, were notified of the error by the Health Service Executive (HSE).
A HSE spokeswoman said: “The vaccines have not been prepared correctly and they may not have been effective.”
She stressed that there are “no known safety issues” with the original vaccines.
The vaccines were given at one GP’s surgery and the situation only came to light after a query by one of the children’s parents. The HSE did not name the doctor involved or the location of his practice.
However, it is understood the doctor named in the letter received by parents is Dr Derek Graham, a GP in Newcastle. When contacted by the Irish Independent yesterday evening, a family member said Dr Graham would not be commenting.
Children receive a range of vaccines at different stages to protect against meningitis, mumps, whooping cough, pneumococcal disease, polio, German measles and tetanus.
The drug companies which make the vaccines have set out a series of stages which must be followed to ensure their effectiveness. They said they can only stand over vaccines which have been administered within the terms of the licence.
Source: The Independent, 28th August 2012 – http://www.independent.ie/national-news/vaccination-error-means-new-jabs-for-220-children-3213314.html
VAN UK’s Comment: Vaccinations given in the 1990’s would no longer be ‘effective’ anyway since vaccine induced antibodies are only present for 3 to 6 years and doctors know this!
Examples of vaccine antibodies waning are here:
Whooping cough vaccine only ‘lasts’ 3 years:
MMR only lasts 5 to 6 years: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8578850
Meningitis C vaccine only lasts 2 years and is not effective in children under 2 years old: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=193450
