Britain Introduces 5-In-1 Vaccine for Babies
Date: 11-Aug-04
Country: UK
Campaigners say they need more reassurances about the safety of the new inoculation, which will offer protection against whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus, polio and Hib - Haemophilus influenza type b.
Health officials say the new product is safer than the current 4-1 vaccine because it replaces the separate oral polio vaccine, which contains live virus.
The new vaccine is also safer because the whooping cough component will no longer contain mercury, they say.
But Jacquie Fletcher of Jabs (Justice, Awareness and Basis Support), a campaign group for families of vaccine-damaged children, said many parents were concerned about giving babies jabs that contain multiple vaccines.
"With 5-in-1 vaccines we would want to know what safety trials have taken place," she told BBC television. "Increasing the combination increases the potential for an adverse reaction and restricts choice for parents, when the government wanted to improve choice."
Parents have already raised much concern about another vaccine, the triple vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and its possible link with autism.
The decision to scrap mercury from inoculations came after research in the United States suggested that a mercury-based preservative in some childhood vaccines could be linked to autism-like damage in the brains of mice.
The Department of Health has said there is no evidence of such a link.
"Immunization is the best way to protect children from serious disease and the routine childhood program has been extremely effective in achieving this," Health Minister John Sutton said in a statement. "The changes set out today will further improve the program and benefit children."
The changes are expected to take place next month when sufficient stocks of the new vaccine have been amassed.
