Report Criticizes French Hepatitis Vaccination Campaign
PARIS (Reuters Health) Nov 20 - A report on France's controversial hepatitis
B vaccination campaign in the mid-nineties has slammed the government for
failing to assess possible side effects properly beforehand.
The campaign was launched in 1994 and over the next 3 years, more than 70
million doses were used and an automatic vaccination programme was set up in
schools. But it was dropped in 1998 after hundreds of reports of side effects
had been logged, and has not yet been re-instated.
The report's author, Dr. Marc Girard, says his investigation "shows the
public powers supported a massive vaccination campaign, costing an estimated 1.5
billion euros, without possessing a reliable enough drug monitoring system to
assess the secondary effects of the medication," according to extracts printed
in the French newspapers Le Parisien and Le Figaro.
Dr. Girard, who had access to numerous documents from the French health
product safety agency and the drug-monitoring centre in Strasbourg, accuses the
health authority of "distortion" and "dissimulation."
The report was ordered by Judge Marie-Odile Bertella-Geffroy, currently
presiding over a negligence case brought by the families of eight people--four
of whom have died--who claim they developed neurological problems as a result of
participating in the hepatitis B vaccination campaign.
In all, some 200 complaints have been lodged over the last few years, mainly
from people with multiple sclerosis.
According to Dr. Girard, "health authorities worked to minimise the
situation." He estimates the number of individuals with neurological problems as
a result of the vaccine to be in the thousands. Officially, pharmacovigilance
centres have reported 900 cases of MS possibly arising from the vaccine.
Following anecdotal reports linking the hepatitis B vaccine with the onset of
multiple sclerosis, the World Health Organisation recently undertook a review of
all data on the subject and determined there was not enough evidence to support
a causal association between the vaccine and MS.
However, a memo from the French General Directorate for Health, dated
February 15, 2002, stated that the hepatitis B campaign produced the "greatest
series of side effects noted by pharmacovigilance since its creation in 1974."
Dr. Girard says the documents he has seen appear to show that crucial
evidence on vaccine tolerance was withheld from doctors so as not to ruin the
vaccination drive. He goes on to slam the health administration for
"collaborating intensively with the vaccine manufacturers."
The pharmaceutical companies Pasteur-Merieux MSD (now Aventis Pasteur-MSD)
and SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline) also are criticised for
exaggerating the number of hepatitis B carriers and patients in France and of
dramatising the dangers of the virus to justify mass vaccination beyond
high-risk groups.
Dr. Girard also alleges that there have been conflicts of interest. He points
out that studies clearing the vaccines of links to neurological problems have
been financed by the industry.
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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.
