Mumps outbreak fear as single jab runs out

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http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/health.cfm?id=660432003

 

Scotland on Sunday
Sun 15 Jun 2003
 

Mumps outbreak fear as single jab runs out

TOM CURTIS
 

THE Scottish doctor who championed single vaccines for children has admitted he cannot protect his own daughter against mumps after supplies of the jab dried up.

Around 1,000 Scottish children will have to wait for months before getting the single mumps vaccine because worldwide stocks have been used up.

Peter Copp’s GP Plus practice in Edinburgh is the biggest single vaccine service in Edinburgh, but even he cannot get the pre-school booster mumps jab his four-year-old daughter is due for.

The pre-school booster is normally given as a triple vaccine but continuing parental fears over the MMR triple vaccine have contributed to the shortage of mumps single jabs.

Supporters of single vaccines fear there could be a serious outbreak of mumps, which is infectious and can cause long-term health damage, because so many children are not being vaccinated.

They accuse the authorities of deliberately dragging their feet over allowing new single vaccines into Britain because they do not want them to be widely available.

The news follows a controversial ruling in England in favour of two fathers who want their daughters to be given the MMR vaccine against the wishes of the children’s mothers.

Copp’s practice caters for parents who are worried about conflicting reports on the safety of the MMR vaccine, which combines immunisation for mumps, measles and rubella in one go.

He said: "There is plenty of single measles and single rubella vaccine, but we used our last single mumps vaccine about three weeks ago. The number of children waiting for it will increase by about 200 a month if the situation continues."

Single mumps vaccine became scarce last year after the American company Merck stopped making its version. But until now doctors have been able to source small quantities of single vaccines from stockpiles in Europe.

Copp said: "Six months ago I was in a similar position, but I managed to find and import 1,500 doses stored around Poland. Now there is nothing. I’ll keep looking but it could take months."

Copp claimed last night that nothing appeared to have been done to check out another single mumps vaccine which is currently banned in the UK.

He said the Medicines Control Agency (MCA), which polices the use of drugs in Britain, had promised to investigate Pavivac.

Although Pavivac is widely used in Czechoslovakia, the Committee on the Safety of Medicines said last year it had doubts about its safety.

But Copp said he had been told by Sevapharma, the Czech company which makes Pavivac, that it had still not had any contact from the MCA.

Copp, who charges £320 for each course of three single-dose vaccines, said: "I don’t have a problem with the company. What I do have a problem with is the Medicines Control Agency doing absolutely nothing about this."

A spokeswoman for the MCA said: "There never has been evidence of a link between MMR and autism.

"The Department of Health’s advice remains that the best way to protect your child against these three diseases is through MMR."

Asked about Pavivac, she said: "The position remains unchanged."

John Garner, chairman of the Scottish council of the British Medical Association, said: "Our view is the same as that of the vast majority of medical experts: that MMR is the most effective and safest form of immunisation for children."


©2003 scotsman.com

 

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