Immunization Newsbriefs (c) Copyright Information Inc., Bethesda, MD. Brought to you by the National Network for Immunization Information (NNii). Visit NNii's new website at http://www.immunizationinfo.org.

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July 19, 2002

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Are Tainted Vaccines Given to Baby Boomers Now Causing Cancer?" Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) (07/19/02) P. B1; Begley, Sharon

The U.S. Public Health Service learned in 1960 that some polio vaccine batches were contaminated with a simian virus, SV40, and ordered the manufacturers to rid the vaccine of the contamination, but contaminated stocks that had already been distributed were used until 1963.  SV40 is a known carcinogen that produces a protein that knocks out two human tumor-suppressor genes, and now the Institute of Medicine's Immunization Safety Review Committee is taking a look at the possibility that the vaccine--which was given to people in several nations--could increase the risk of three rare cancers. The occurrence rates of the cancers has risen, and some evidence points to SV40 as the culprit.  But, except for non-Hodgkin lymphomas, the tumors linked to the vaccine are so rare that even doubling the risk still means very low odds of developing the cancers.  [There has been no vaccine containing SV40 distributed since 1963, and it has never been found in the killed vaccine currently being used.]

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