http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20020107/hl/vaccine_2.html

Monday January 7 10:18 AM ET

Families Seek Compensation for Alleged Vaccine Harm

By Richard Woodman

LONDON (Reuters Health) - More than 1,000 British families have joined a legal battle for millions of pounds compensation for harm they claim was caused to their children by measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines, their solicitors said on Monday.

The case--which is scheduled to come to trial in February 2003--follows controversial research findings suggesting that use of the vaccines could be linked to inflammatory bowel disease and autism.

Two firms of solicitors, Alexander Harris and Freethcartwright, have been appointed as the joint leading firms in the generic litigation against Aventis Pasteur MSD, GlaxoSmithKline and Merck.

A spokeswoman at Alexander Harris said that the firm represented about 1,000 families while the total number involved was probably around 1,500. She said likely levels of compensation varied but could be worth several million pounds for children with serious brain damage.

The firm's Web site says that the case is being brought under the Consumer Protection Act--part of the European Union (news - web sites)'s Product Liability Directive that imposes liability on manufacturers of products for any injury caused by an unsafe product. The families had been granted public funds to pay for the legal action.

The firm said that the UK Department of Health stopped using SmithKline Beecham's Pluserix and Aventis Pasteur MSD's Immaravax in 1992, two years after a similar vaccine containing the Urabe strain of mumps vaccine virus was withdrawn in Canada after reports of meningitis.

``After we had been contacted by several hundred families a clear pattern began to emerge,'' the solicitors said. ``Children who were developing well, both physically and intellectually, before the vaccine, regressed after vaccination, often accompanied by other symptoms and a gradual decline into autism.''

They added: ``It is important to stress that we appear to be dealing with cases where the children, who were fit and well before being vaccinated and were developing normally in every way, are now chronically ill and as a result many are seriously mentally or physically disabled.''

A spokesman for GlaxoSmithKline said that all the manufacturers were still trying to clarify exactly what was being alleged by the families. He added that numerous studies had failed to show a link between MMR vaccination and autism, and that the legal action would be defended.

The Department of Health and the Medical Research Council have also dismissed reports by researchers at London's Royal Free Hospital suggesting that the triple vaccine may trigger autism.

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.