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July 8, 2002
INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"UK Govt: No Risk to Humans From Recalled Polio Vaccine"
Dow Jones Newswire Online (www.djnewswires.com) (07/05/02)
Even though there was almost no public risk for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) from a polio vaccine, the precautionary decision by the U.K. Medicines Control Agency to pull it from distribution was "the correct one on a precautionary basis," said Public Health Minister Hazel Blears. The Medeva oral polio vaccine was pulled from circulation in October 2000, after it was discovered that the manufacturer had broken some safety rules regarding the prevention of BSE by using animal-derived material during vaccine production. Speaking to lawmakers in the House of Commons on Friday, Blears said that studies of the incident showed that "there are no transmissible spongiform encephalopathy-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, a brain wasting disease in the bovine family, has been linked to a new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a similar, fatal human disease.
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