Mother denied choice of vaccine for baby

Mercury-free jab unavailable despite executive promise

VICKY COLLINS

MEDICAL authorities have refused a parent's request for an alternative to a child vaccine that is feared to be linked to autism, despite assurances from the Scottish Executive that it is available on demand.

Kirsten Haughey, a community nurse in Renfrewshire who regularly works with autistic children, had become increasingly concerned by questions raised about thiomersal, a mercury-based preservative used in the diptheria, tetanus, and whooping cough (DTwP) vaccine routinely given to babies aged between two and four months.

The vaccine is given in three doses, and Euan, her nine-month-old baby, already had had two inoculations.

Mrs Haughey asked her GP in January if she could change to Infanrix, or DTaP, a thiomersal-free alternative to DTwP, for the third dose.

The GP refused and Mrs Haughey delayed a decision on whether to take the third DTwP vaccine until she read in The Herald that a report for the US House of Representatives had recommended that "no amount of mercury is appropriate in a child vaccine".

That report made up her mind, and she took the issue further, contacting a doctor in public health at Argyll and Clyde Health Board.

That doctor again refused her request, contradicting the Scottish Executive's claim in January that parents could receive the alternative.

Mrs Haughey said: "My GP's practice have always been very good before, so I don't really have a complaint with them.

"However, when I went to Argyll and Clyde Health Board I was treated like an idiot. I said I wanted my son to have the alternative and all the doctor kept saying was that there was no proof that thiomersal is contributing to autism.

"I told her I had decided not to take the risk, I do not want my son to get the condition that I have seen so often in my job. She just kept repeating that there was no proof of a link."

Mrs Haughey claimed that she was never told why Infanrix, or DTaP was not available, only that DTwP was safe. However, she felt that questions over a link with autism were enough to merit caution.

"In my day-to-day job I see how awful this condition is and what it does to families and their lives, and I just don't want to take the risk," she said.

"I felt that they were taking away my right to protect my child. I am concerned other parents who are asking for the alternative are also being told that they cannot have it."

When asked if she was refused because her child had already had two doses of DTwP she said this was never mentioned.

John March, who develops vaccines as part of his work at the Moredun Research Institute, Edinburgh, said there would be no problem with swopping vaccines midway through the course.

"There should be no problems at all with regard to changing from a vaccine containing thiomersal to one that does not," he said. "Thiomersal has no role at all in how the vaccine works."

Bill Welsh, of the pressure group Action Against Autism, said he had previously had two parents complaining of similar problems in receiving the alternative and that it was only after they had threatened to go to the press that their doctors agreed to use DTaP.

However, the Scottish Executive reaffirmed its commitment to giving parents a choice.

A spokesman refused to comment on Mrs Haughey's concerns specifically, but said: "If, after fully discussing the benefits and risks of the different vaccines (with their GP) and why one is recommended, in this case DTwP, the parent still decides that they wish their child to have DTaP, and it is available on the NHS, then the GP would have a duty to provide that vaccine for immunisation."

A spokesman for Argyll and Clyde Health Board would not discuss individual cases but said a GP was entitled to make the final decision on such treatments.

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