http://www.observer.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,647863,00.html
'This is
just not an issue in France...'
Jon Henley in Paris
Sunday February 10, 2002
The Observer
My son Nathan was one last month and is, according to the handy vaccination
calendar sent to all parents by the French national health service, due for the
MMR jab. The shot is fully reimbursable, and while not compulsory is 'strongly
recommended'.
Chantal Le Henin, Nathan's
paediatrician, was not surprised when I tackled her on the subject. She had
heard about the row in Britain but said she wasn't in a position to judge it.
'All I can say is we have never had the slightest problem with this vaccine in
France. It's a standard jab, available here for a decade and fully reimbursable
for the past two years. Nearly 90 per cent of French children now have it.'
The French have had their
share of health scandals. More than 1,200 people have died and 3,600 diagnosed
HIV-positive since the national transfusion service, ignoring successive
scientific warnings in the mid-1980s, used contaminated blood. More recently, a
four-year national programme to vaccinate schoolchildren against hepatitis B
was halted in 1998 amid panic that it was responsible for hundreds of cases of
multiple sclerosis. No link was established, although the vaccine is blamed for
a variety of illnesses and several dozen adult victims have been awarded
compensation.
So, I reasoned, they're
going to be extra careful. And not even the most virulent anti-vaccination
groups in France, those that fought in the courts to have the hepatitis B jab
withdrawn, have anything to say about MMR.
Chantal Le Henin looked it
up in the medicines guidebook. Inadvisable in the event of an allergy to eggs,
she read. Possible side-effects: a slight reddening of the skin and temperature
of 39-40 deg, very exceptionally convulsions. Manufactured by Pasteur and
Merieux, two leading French laboratories.
'This is simply not a
debate in France, nor in Belgium, Switzerland or anywhere else I know of,' said
Le Henin. 'Maybe in Britain it's to do with the vaccine you use. I don't know.'
She
gave me the prescription. And Nathan is scheduled to have the jab on Wednesday.
The MMR debate
10.02.2002: Autism
screening for all children to end MMR fears
10.02.2002: Focus: An
issue of trust
10.02.2002: MMR: Your
questions answered
10.02.2002: Jon Henley:
'This is just not an issue in France...'
10.02.2002: "I'm
simply bemused": Observer writers on their MMR decisions
10.02.2002: Andrew
Rawnsley: My MMR dilemma - who can we believe?
10.02.2002: Nick
Hornby: Why parents are angry about autism
10.02.2002: Leader:
Dogma on MMR does not work
Live online: MMR debate, Monday 11 February
The MMR debate: put
questions to doctors from both sides
MMR talkboard: have your
say here
Useful links
23.12.2001: To jab or
not to jab? MMR explained
Downing
Street: MMR advice
Department of Health: MMR
advice
MMR
evidence from Public Health Laboratory Service
How safe is MMR? BMJ debate
JABS: Support group for vaccine
damaged children
Guardian
Unlimited Weblog:More on MMR
Special reports
Special
report: medicine and health
SocietyGuardian.co.uk:
Public health special
From the archive: Blair MMR row, round one
23.12.2001: Focus: No
10's fear of needles
23.12.2001: Blair: we
have never discussed our children's health
23.12.2001: Mary
Riddell: Come clean, Mr Blair
23.12.2001: Rod Liddle:
Privacy, or hiding the truth?
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