Subject: Six-In-One Vaccine Safe And Effective

Safe and effective? 2 died of "SIDS" in the study out of 423 total (1/2%). That's way out of line with "SIDS" frequency in the population. Junk statistics again, vaccine manufacturer gets away with murder.

MB
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"Two children in the Hexavac group died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) during the study, but an outside review concluded that the deaths were not related to the vaccine. Both children had been placed down to sleep on their stomachs, a practice that increases the risk of SIDS."  I CAN'T believe this statement - it is always everything but a vaccine!
Sheri

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010126/hl/vaccine_1.html

Friday January 26 10:21 AM ET
Six-In-One Vaccine Safe And Effective

By Merritt McKinney

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new vaccine designed to protect children against six different illnesses appears to provide similar immunity as a combination of two separate vaccines, according to results of a trial that compared the two regimens.

The new vaccine did cause a few more mild side effects after the first dose, but the benefits of the vaccine heavily outweigh its drawbacks, one of the study's authors told Reuters Health.

``Reducing the number of injections will...be much welcomed by infants and parents,'' according to Dr. Luc Hessel, the executive director of the medical department of Aventis Pasteur MSD, the manufacturer of the new vaccine, Hexavac.

Hexavac, which is approved for use in the European Union (news - web sites) but not in the US, provides immunity against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae B (Hib).

In a study funded by Aventis Pasteur MSD, Hessel and his colleagues compared Hexavac to two of the company's other vaccines, a hepatitis B vaccine and Pentavac, which is designed to prevent the other five illnesses. At 2, 4 and 6 months of age, 423 children were immunized with Hexavac while 425 received the two other vaccines.

Based on 667 infants whose blood samples were available for analysis, the single vaccine induced similar immune reactions as the two vaccines, suggesting that it provided children with comparable protection against illness, the authors report in the December issue of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

The effects of the vaccines were not identical, however. Hessel's team observed that antibodies that protect against hepatitis B and Hib disease rose more slowly in the children immunized with Hexavac. But, according to the researchers, the differences should not have an effect on a child's immunity against the illnesses.

``The unique advantage of Hexavac is that it can protect against six diseases...with a single ready-to-use injection,'' Hessel said. What may take up to 12 injections if vaccines are given separately, can now be accomplished with just three to four injections, he explained.

The vaccine ``will also make it easier for countries that have not yet incorporated all these (vaccines) into their national immunization programs to adopt these vaccine recommendations more widely,'' Hessel said.

Despite the convenience of the single-dose vaccine, the researchers found that mild side effects and reactions at the site of the injection were more common in children who received Hexavac, but, overall, the differences were not statistically significant. Irritation at the injection site and mild side effects including irritability or unusual crying were significantly more common in the Hexavac group after the first dose, but not after the
second and third doses.

Two children in the Hexavac group died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) during the study, but an outside review concluded that the deaths were not related to the vaccine. Both children had been placed down to sleep on their stomachs, a practice that increases the risk of SIDS.

SOURCE: Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal 2000;19:1119-1127.
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