No risk to humans from recalled polio vaccine, government says
Fri Jul 5, 8:37 AM ET

LONDON - The British government said Friday that there had been almost no risk to the public from a polio ( news - web sites) vaccine that was withdrawn over fears about mad cow disease.

Public Health Minister Hazel Blears said the decision by the Medicines Control Agency to withdraw the vaccine had been "the correct one on a precautionary basis."

The agency recalled Medeva oral polio vaccine in October 2000 after ruling that the manufacturer had breached safety measures that prevent transmission of mad cow disease.

The government said at the time that British bovine products had been used in a growth medium used in the manufacture of the vaccine, in violation of European guidelines.

Blears told lawmakers in the House of Commons that studies of the episode confirmed that "there are no transmissible spongiform encephalopathy ( news - web sites)-related safety issues arising from the use of relevant animal derived material in the production of vaccines authorized in the U.K."

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, or TSE, is a family of brain-wasting diseases that includes both the sheep ailment scrapie and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.

Mad cow disease is believed to spread through recycled meat and bones from infected animals used in cattle feed. The disease first surfaced in Britain in the 1980s. It is linked to a human disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease ( news - web sites), which has killed about 100 people in Europe and is believed to spread through eating infected meat.

Blears said factors including dilution and purification during the vaccine manufacturing process meant that the risk of the vaccine transmitting CJD to humans was "incalculably small."

She said research had "found no source for concern in relation to TSEs about the safety of vaccines used in this country."

(jl-bg)

News Resources Message Boards: Post/Read Msgs News Alerts: spongiform encephalopathy | polio | Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease