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November 15, 2002
INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Report Criticized French Hepatitis B Vaccination Campaign" Reuters Health Information Services (www.reutershealth.com) (11/14/02)
Dr. Marc Gerard has criticized the French government for failing to properly assess beforehand any possible side effects of a hepatitis B vaccination plan in the mid-1990s. Gerard also asserted that Pasteur Merieux MSD (now Aventis Pasteur-MSD) and SmithKline Beecham (now
GlaxoSmithKline) overstated the number of hepatitis B carriers and patients in France, and that they exaggerated the risks surrounding the virus to justify mass vaccination for more than just high-risk categories. Gerard's report was requested by a judge presiding over a negligence case filed by the families of eight individuals who say they have experienced neurological problems as a result of responding to the vaccination effort. The World Health Organization has said there does not appear to be a causal relationship between the hepatitis B vaccine and multiple sclerosis, as some have suggested; however, a February 2002 memo from the General Directorate for Health said that the hepatitis B vaccination campaign had the largest series of adverse effects noted by pharmacovigilance since it was developed in 1974.
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