help

collapse

Press one of the expand buttons to see the full text of an article. Later press collapse to revert to the original form. The buttons below expand or collapse all articles.

expand

collapse

Mandatory Vaccine Risk

September 29, 2009 permalink

An English girl has died shortly after vaccination against HPV. What do the people with the most knowledge of the risks think of vaccination? In the second enclosed article New York State health care workers are threatening to go on strike over mandatory vaccination.

What about families without a history of sexual promiscuity? Can they decide not to vaccinate their daughters against the sexually-transmitted HPV? Nope. That would be "medical neglect". Unvaccinated girls can be seized and inoculated. If they are still alive at the first court hearing, parents can plead for their return.

expand

collapse

First picture of girl, 14, who died after being injected with cervical cancer jab from 'rogue batch'

By Daniel Martin, Last updated at 6:29 AM on 29th September 2009

A girl of 14 died yesterday hours after being given the cervical cancer vaccine at her school.

Natalie Morton, who attended the Blue Coat Church of England School in Coventry, died in hospital after receiving the Cervarix jab.

The tragedy is the first reported death in Britain since the national vaccination programme began last September, with more than 1.5million doses given to girls.

Natalie Morton
Natalie Morton: The schoolgirl died hours after having the cervical cancer jab

Last night an investigation began to establish the exact cause of the death.

It is not yet known whether Natalie had an extreme - and very rare - reaction to a standard vaccine, or whether the particular dose she was given was from a rogue contaminated batch. A number of her classmates have reported alleged side-effects from the jab.

The head of Blue Coat School, Dr Julie Roberts, sent a letter home to parents. She told them 'an unfortunate incident occurred and one of the girls suffered a rare, but extreme reaction to the vaccine'.

She urged them to be 'extra vigilant regarding any signs or symptoms'.

A post-mortem examination will take place to determine the exact cause of Natalie's death. The vaccine batch used at the school has been quarantined to test whether it is faulty or was contaminated during production or distribution.

Natalie's mother Elaine, who lives with the teenager's elder sister Abigail, 17, in Coventry was too distraught to comment. Natalie's father Joe has remarried and has a baby son.

Although other girls at the school, a mixed specialist music college with 1,400 pupils, suffered from dizziness and nausea after the jab it is understood that none has needed hospital treatment.

Blue Coat Church of England School
The teenager attended the Blue Coat Church of England School, in Coventry, where she had the vaccination

Last night, a fellow pupil gave a dramatic account of how Natalie collapsed.

The 15-year-old girl said: 'We all had the jab today from Year Nine to the sixth form.

'About an hour after having the jab Natalie went really pale and wasn't breathing. I think it was around lunchtime.

'She fainted in the corridor. I saw ambulance men pumping her chest then the teachers told us to go outside.

'A lot of people were crying afterwards and we were all very worried.

'We have to have three of the jabs in all and a lot of us don't want to take the rest, but they're telling us we have to because there will be sideeffects if we don't have them all.'

Her mother said: 'It's all very, very worrying. We feel like our children are being treated like guinea pigs.

'I wasn't keen on my daughter having it in the first place but the school seemed insistent.'

Writing on Natalie's Facebook page, schoolfriend Suzie Grace Gee said: 'What a lovely girl. Always had a smile on her face! It's such a shock to everyone, and it's going to be odd not seeing her every Sunday at church. She will forever be missed.'

Critics say the tragedy highlights the risks of mass vaccination because no testing regime can detect the rarest and potentially most lethal side effects.

Last night, there were calls for the entire cervical cancer vaccination programme to be suspended.

But the Department of Health refused to say whether it would go ahead for the tens of thousands of girls due to receive the jab in the months ahead.

The Cervarix vaccine is being given to all girls aged 12 and 13 in a nationwide programme. All under the age of 18 will have received it by 2011.

The injection is not compulsory but parents who do not wish their girls to have it must opt out of the programme.

The vaccine guards against infection by the sexually transmitted disease HPV, which causes 70 per cent of all cases of cervical cancer.

Although the disease does not usually strike until middle age, the jab must be given to girls before they become sexually active to have the best effect.

Some critics argue it will encourage promiscuity. They say women are as well protected by regular smear tests.

The school vaccination programme followed clinical trials in 2005 on more than 18,000 women under 26.

More than 2,000 girls have suffered side- effects ranging from rashes to paralysis in the year since the vaccine was introduced in schools, according to the Medicine and Healthcare Regulatory Agency.

Around the world, Cervarix and another version, Gardasil, have been linked to 30 deaths as well as cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome - a littleunderstood immune disorder.

Dr Caron Grainger, joint director for public health for NHS Coventry and Coventry council, said: 'No link can be made between the death and the vaccine until all the facts are known.'

University Hospital Coventry
Treatment: Natalie was taken to University Hospital Coventry but staff were unable to save her

Source: Daily Mail


Mandatory flu vaccination splits workers

September 27, 2009 by DELTHIA RICKS / delthia.ricks@newsday.com

Bruce Farber
Photo credit: William Perlman | North Shore University Medical Center's chief of infectious diseases Dr. Bruce Farber says he will get vaccinated against swine flu. (Sept. 25, 2009)

Despite a planned rally in Albany Tuesday to protest a state regulation requiring health care workers be vaccinated against influenza — both seasonal and swine flu — New York’s top public health official predicts dissenters will ultimately extinguish their anger and roll up their sleeves.

The regulation, which was approved in August, comes with a stinging addendum: Get vaccinated or get fired.

But some nurses and many other health care providers say the regulation violates their personal freedom and leaves them vulnerable to vaccine injury. And they cite deaths associated with the last federal government swine-flu vaccination program in 1976.

Refusing to be immunized against H1N1 because of the vaccine debacle in 1976 “is like saying a plane crashed 33 years ago so I’ll never fly again,” said Dr. Richard Daines, New York State health commissioner.

New York is the only state in the nation to require that health care workers be vaccinated, though other states are considering such measures. Health workers, including doctors, must be immunized by Nov. 30. Opponents say it’s simply unnecessary.

Several registered nurses said they will neither contract nor transmit the flu because they’re constantly washing their hands.

While dozens of demonstrators are expected at the rally from throughout the state, many are from Stony Brook University Medical Center. A meeting was held last week for hospital staff on the importance of vaccination for health care workers; a special session was held for employees in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, because many nurses there had expressed concern about the vaccination plan.

“We cannot force employees to be vaccinated; however we do not have an infinite number of non-patient care positions available to reassign those who simply refuse the vaccine,” said hospital spokeswoman Lauren Sheprow.

Darcy Wells, spokeswoman for the Public Employees Federation, which represents 9,000 health care workers statewide, including 3,000 at Stony Brook, said the union disapproves of mandatory vaccination, but is urging members to comply with the regulation.

The opponents also say it’s wrong that all five swine flu vaccine makers contracting with the federal government have been indemnified against lawsuits if someone gets sick or dies.

Daines said the vaccination directive stemmed from particular concern about institutional outbreaks — in hospitals, nursing homes and hospice centers. In a typical year, only 40 percent to 50 percent of health care workers take advantage of voluntary flu vaccination programs, and the state has about 150 institutional outbreaks of influenza. But with seasonal and H1N1 in circulation in the fall, institutional outbreaks could worsen.

“Anyone who is concerned about the safety of the vaccine should read about the death of a previously healthy nurse in California who died of H1N1,” Daines said.

He referred to a 51-year-old nurse in Carmichael, Calif., who died in July after she was exposed to swine flu on the job.

Reed and Kristi Tramposch, both registered nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit at Stony Brook University Medical Center, say as parents of a child with an autism spectrum disorder, they oppose vaccination because of possible links to the neurodevelopmental condition.

“There are a lot of toxic substances that go into vaccines,” Kristi Tramposch said. “I would like to see a lot of people get it [the swine flu vaccine] before I consider it.”

Daines expressed dismay that neonatal intensive care nurses would consider shunning flu shots for personal or philosophical reasons. More than simply protecting themselves from infection, he added, health care providers are also protecting patients from the flu.

Like other protesters, the Tramposches said the newly approved H1N1 vaccine is no different from the swine flu immunization of 1976, which was linked to the nerve-damaging disorder Guillain Barre syndrome, and even death.

But Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of infectious diseases at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, said while he questions the state’s move to make flu shots mandatory now, he said no relationship exists between the vaccine of 33 years ago and the current vaccine.

“I took the swine flu vaccine in 1976,” said Farber, “and I plan to take the H1N1 flu vaccine now.”

Source: Newsday

sequential