Friday, February 7, 2003 at 09:30 JST TOKYO — As many as 1,900 children may have been given shots of a
measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine that had already passed its expiry date
during the seven months up to the time such vaccinations were banned April 1993,
Kyodo News learned Thursday.
The Health and Welfare Ministry, the predecessor of the current Ministry of
Health, Labor and Welfare, apparently did not disclose the use of the expired
vaccine or report it to a sub-panel of the ministry's Council on Public Health
that had been discussing rampant cases of the MMR vaccine's side effects.
A group supporting victims of the vaccine's side effects alleges that the
government deliberately covered up the expired vaccine's use.
An expired vaccine "will not lose its effectiveness immediately or raise the
risk of side effects," a ministry official said, but added, "The use of expired
vaccines is naturally a problem. We would like to look into the case to find out
why that happened."
The vaccine was introduced in 1989 to protect children from the three
diseases in a single shot.
Production of the stock used for the MMR vaccine was banned in 1991 after it
caused side effects in a large number of children. The expiry date for the
vaccine was September 1992.
According to vaccine reports that prefectures submitted to the health
ministry at the time and other materials, 1,829 people were given the vaccine in
eight prefectures between October 1992 and April 1993.
Kumamoto Prefecture saw the largest number of people who had the expired
vaccine at 801, followed by Hokkaido at 318.
Data gathered by members of the predecessor body of the National Institute of
Infectious Diseases show that in Tokyo and Kanagawa, two prefectures with no
existing records on MMR vaccine use, a total of 104 people were given the
vaccine.
In all, 1,933 received the vaccine over the period from October 1992 through
April the following year.
The health ministry said, however, that the figure may include people who had
the vaccine before September, the month it expired, noting that some reports may
have come in late.
The ministry recently found an in-house document showing it had received
reports on five boys aged between 1 and 4 who developed aseptic meningitis after
receiving the expired MMR vaccine, but it had kept the fact concealed.
A court ruling is expected in March on a suit filed by people who remain
disabled due to the vaccine's side effects and the families who lost their
children because of the side effects. (Kyodo News)
ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND
MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION
PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS
OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR
LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND
COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH
YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.
"A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth."
-- Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1901
"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820
"What's the point of vaccination if it doesn't protect you from the unvaccinated?"
-- Sandy Gottstein
"Who gets to decide what the greater good is and how many will be sacrificed to it?"
