Black Triangle

One of the public health successes of recent years, has been the vaccination campaign for meningitis C. Here is a graph of laboratory confirmed cases of serogroup C disease for England and Wales between 1998-99 to 2007-08.

Last April I noted here that there are around 500 people alive now, who would not have been if the vaccine had not been extensively administered, and pointed out some of the misreporting by the media of reported vaccine reactions at the time of its launch. Today, The Independent ran with a front page headline “Questions over vaccine safety”, which is both alarmist and vague enough to create general fear about vaccines.

The story claims:

21,000 doses of meningitis C vaccine have been withdrawn GP clinics because they may have been contaminated by a bacteria.

That the MHRA only issued an “emergency recall” after being contacted by The Independent.

The shadow health secretary, Andrew Lansley, said: “This is very disturbing news. We will be looking to the Government to give the fullest possible account of what’s happened.” Another Conservative health spokesman, Mike Penning, said “Parents take vaccines to make their children safe, not put them at risk. They will want answers as to why it took so long to withdraw the vaccine. The Government has got to come clean about its decision-making and when the Secretary of State was told what happened. We could need an independent inquiry to establish the facts.”

Another piece in The Independent about the meningitis C vaccine contains the highly emotive views of a mum, pictured with her child who did not suffer any adverse reactions after meningitis C vaccine. The piece includes the dangers of meningitis C infection, and does note the recall is precautionary, but it still comes across as a vaccine scare story.

The Independent points out that another vaccine scare might undermine parental confidence in vaccines, but that does stop them irresponsibly plastering this story on their frontpage?

Well, no it doesn’t.

So should it have been on the front page? As a pharmacist working at the MHRA notes:

Dr Ged Lee, from the MHRA, stressed that the move was a precautionary one and that none of the samples that had come to the UK had been contaminated.

He said: “The batch that was contaminated I can reassure you was not distributed into the UK and I can also reassure parents that the product that has been used in the UK has passed all the necessary quality standards and is perfectly safe.”

The contaminated batch was actually a batch undergoing separate testing to see to examine whether the sample would remain secure under different air pressures during air transport. At the end of its journey it was found to be contaminated with staphylococcus aureus bacteria, which could have been due to the seals expanding on the containers used. All the batches of meningitis C vaccine distributed in the UK underwent the normal testing process with no problems. They are being withdrawn on an entirely precautionary basis. The Guardian reports concisely and sensibly, that the contaminated vaccine never even entered the UK. There is no harm known to have been done to any individuals. This is minor story at best.

I’m fairly skeptical of claim made by The Independent that they have forced the hand of the MHRA in taking action on this issue. The time scale of the action, given the highly precautionary nature of the action, seems sensible and in-line with previous MHRA action on other products. Calls for a public inquiry for tardiness are an over-reaction and regrettably give the impression there has been a failure to maintain patient safety. It may well be seen as an another useful opportunity for the opposition to paint the government as dysfunctional and incompetent, but politicians should think before they raise the temperature on vaccine safety issues. The past ten years have demonstrated how vaccines can be rapidly undermined by media reporting; it would be better if politicians didn’t throw petrol on minor fires.

There are NHS resources which combat such stories relatively rapidly, and the MHRA have pointed out the fact that the nature of this non-story:

There is currently no evidence of any risk to UK children, and there have been no reports of any infections following vaccination.

The two batches sent to the UK passed all the normal tests, including a sterility test, to ensure the safety, quality and effectiveness of the product before leaving the manufacturing site in Italy and travelling by road to the UK.

The Independent has not covered itself in glory by running the story so prominently.