New Meningococcal Vaccine May Increase Risk to Children
Immunisation Awareness Society
"Fully vaccinated children could still succumb to meningococcal disease despite being fully vaccinated" was a scenario
that The Immunisation Awareness Society warned of at the start of the Ministry of Health meningococcal B vaccination
campaign back in July of this year.
“IAS expressed considerable concerns about potential complacency regarding the symptoms of meningococcal disease, and
further, warned that the vaccine was not going to be 100% effective nor would it protect against other strains of the
disease,” the Society said on Monday after an Auckland boy was admitted to hospital with the disease. This vaccine will
not stop children and adults from getting meningococcal disease and parents must still be vigilant over symptoms that,
early on, can be confused with other illnesses. Parents must also consider what else they can do to help keep their
children healthy rather than relying on the vaccine. These efforts include preventing exposure to tobacco smoke and
ensuring a healthy diet that will prevent iron anaemia.
The Immunisation Awareness Society also takes issue with statements that three quarters of the cases of the disease
were the meningococcal strain targeted by the new vaccine. Data from Environmental Science and Research shows that less
than 40 percent of the cases in Auckland have been confirmed as the unique New Zealand B group strain which children are
now being vaccinated against . That means that more than 60% of cases MAY not be prevented by the vaccine even if the
vaccine works perfectly for everyone.
Dr O'Halloran, when asked if removing one strain, could lead to the "invasion" of another, replied that that would not
be the case. Such a statement defies not only logic, and medical literature, but also the evidence New Zealanders have
before their own eyes. In 1987, a Meningitis A vaccine was used, supposedly, to stop an epidemic. Not long after that,
Haemophilus was declared another problem, and babies were offered that vaccine. Not long after that, newspapers started
to report a significant rise in meningitis, which the Ministry of Health states is principally Type B, but which ESR
evidence shows, is across all types.
Contrary to Dr O'Hallahan’s assertions that “being immunised against the B strain did not weaken resistance to other
strains, and could give better protection against other strains”, historical scientific evidence exists that immunity
against specific meningococcal pathogens can weaken general immunity against all other strains. Many children and young
people in the Auckland area have had the Hib vaccine, meningitis A vaccine, and now a meningitis B vaccine, and if the
theory that one vaccine can protect against other types is correct, then the current epidemic of meningitis should be
far less in Auckland than anywhere else in the country.
So long as economic and nutritional poverty continue, no vaccine will solve the issue of vulnerability to any
infection, bacterial or viral. All that any vaccine will do, is leave vulnerable people open to infection from other
types of meningitis. The very same situation has occurred in the United Kingdom (see below) after the use of the
Meningitis C vaccine where the meningitis disease and death rate actually rose, because parents became complacent about
the fact that the use of a specific vaccine does not eliminate the bedrock vulnerabilities that result in "that" child
being susceptible to any meningitis disease in the first place.
Research undertaken in the 1940s by Dr Lewis Thomas showed that immunising rabbits against a specific meningococcal
pathogen destroyed their powerful natural immunity against meningococcal bacteria. He wrote in his book The Youngest
Science: notes of a medicine watcher (1984) that “an immunized animal could lose, as the result of being immunised, its
own natural defense.”
"Reflecting on Lewis Thomas’s work, and the trends in Auckland over the last 20 years, IAS considers that the Ministry
of Health’s past and present vaccination campaigns may, in fact, be making our children more vulnerable to other
meningococcal bacteria,” says IAS spokesperson, Sue Claridge.
"One has to ask why it is that New Zealand now has one of the highest rates of any type of meningitis in the developed
world. It wouldn't be for lack of meningitis vaccines, since other countries that don't use them all, do not have the
problems that New Zealand does."
The strain of meningococcal bacteria that is targeted by the current vaccine has a lower fatality rate than the other
strains, and, if this vaccine changes the bacterial types being carried in the community, we may see more deaths in the
future, not fewer, particularly as nothing is being done about what causes susceptibility to disease in the first place.
“We emphasise to parents the importance of a healthy diet, eliminating exposure to tobacco smoke, vigilance regarding
symptoms, to not use any over the counter medications without medical advice, and to make an informed decision about
this vaccine, weighing up all the risks and negatives, not just the benefits as promoted in Ministry of Health
literature.” say the IAS.
“Parents must know that there are practical steps they can take to raise their children's natural immunity and that the
vaccine is not a panacea for meningococcal disease. They must consider the fact that this vaccine is at most, 75%
effective against meningitis B, and not only will not protect children from other strains of the disease but may
actually make them more vulnerable.”
ENDS
The Immunisation Awareness Society Inc.
PO Box 56 048, Dominion Rd, Auckland, NZ
Answerphone (cleared daily) +64 9 303 0187
Internet: http://www.ias.org.nz
Email: info@ias.org.nz
Supplementary Information
New Meningococcal Vaccine May Increase Risk to Children
Immunisation Awareness Society
"Fully vaccinated children could still succumb to meningococcal disease despite being fully vaccinated" was a scenario
that The Immunisation Awareness Society warned of at the start of the Ministry of Health meningococcal B vaccination
campaign back in July of this year.
“IAS expressed considerable concerns about potential complacency regarding the symptoms of meningococcal disease, and
further, warned that the vaccine was not going to be 100% effective nor would it protect against other strains of the
disease,” the Society said on Monday after an Auckland boy was admitted to hospital with the disease. This vaccine will
not stop children and adults from getting meningococcal disease and parents must still be vigilant over symptoms that,
early on, can be confused with other illnesses. Parents must also consider what else they can do to help keep their
children healthy rather than relying on the vaccine. These efforts include preventing exposure to tobacco smoke and
ensuring a healthy diet that will prevent iron anaemia.
The Immunisation Awareness Society also takes issue with statements that three quarters of the cases of the disease
were the meningococcal strain targeted by the new vaccine. Data from Environmental Science and Research shows that less
than 40 percent of the cases in Auckland have been confirmed as the unique New Zealand B group strain which children are
now being vaccinated against . That means that more than 60% of cases MAY not be prevented by the vaccine even if the
vaccine works perfectly for everyone.
Dr O'Halloran, when asked if removing one strain, could lead to the "invasion" of another, replied that that would not
be the case. Such a statement defies not only logic, and medical literature, but also the evidence New Zealanders have
before their own eyes. In 1987, a Meningitis A vaccine was used, supposedly, to stop an epidemic. Not long after that,
Haemophilus was declared another problem, and babies were offered that vaccine. Not long after that, newspapers started
to report a significant rise in meningitis, which the Ministry of Health states is principally Type B, but which ESR
evidence shows, is across all types.
Contrary to Dr O'Hallahan’s assertions that “being immunised against the B strain did not weaken resistance to other
strains, and could give better protection against other strains”, historical scientific evidence exists that immunity
against specific meningococcal pathogens can weaken general immunity against all other strains. Many children and young
people in the Auckland area have had the Hib vaccine, meningitis A vaccine, and now a meningitis B vaccine, and if the
theory that one vaccine can protect against other types is correct, then the current epidemic of meningitis should be
far less in Auckland than anywhere else in the country.
So long as economic and nutritional poverty continue, no vaccine will solve the issue of vulnerability to any
infection, bacterial or viral. All that any vaccine will do, is leave vulnerable people open to infection from other
types of meningitis. The very same situation has occurred in the United Kingdom (see below) after the use of the
Meningitis C vaccine where the meningitis disease and death rate actually rose, because parents became complacent about
the fact that the use of a specific vaccine does not eliminate the bedrock vulnerabilities that result in "that" child
being susceptible to any meningitis disease in the first place.
Research undertaken in the 1940s by Dr Lewis Thomas showed that immunising rabbits against a specific meningococcal
pathogen destroyed their powerful natural immunity against meningococcal bacteria. He wrote in his book The Youngest
Science: notes of a medicine watcher (1984) that “an immunized animal could lose, as the result of being immunised, its
own natural defense.”
"Reflecting on Lewis Thomas’s work, and the trends in Auckland over the last 20 years, IAS considers that the Ministry
of Health’s past and present vaccination campaigns may, in fact, be making our children more vulnerable to other
meningococcal bacteria,” says IAS spokesperson, Sue Claridge.
"One has to ask why it is that New Zealand now has one of the highest rates of any type of meningitis in the developed
world. It wouldn't be for lack of meningitis vaccines, since other countries that don't use them all, do not have the
problems that New Zealand does."
The strain of meningococcal bacteria that is targeted by the current vaccine has a lower fatality rate than the other
strains, and, if this vaccine changes the bacterial types being carried in the community, we may see more deaths in the
future, not fewer, particularly as nothing is being done about what causes susceptibility to disease in the first place.
“We emphasise to parents the importance of a healthy diet, eliminating exposure to tobacco smoke, vigilance regarding
symptoms, to not use any over the counter medications without medical advice, and to make an informed decision about
this vaccine, weighing up all the risks and negatives, not just the benefits as promoted in Ministry of Health
literature.” say the IAS.
“Parents must know that there are practical steps they can take to raise their children's natural immunity and that the
vaccine is not a panacea for meningococcal disease. They must consider the fact that this vaccine is at most, 75%
effective against meningitis B, and not only will not protect children from other strains of the disease but may
actually make them more vulnerable.”
ENDS
The Immunisation Awareness Society Inc.
PO Box 56 048, Dominion Rd, Auckland, NZ
Answerphone (cleared daily) +64 9 303 0187
Internet: http://www.ias.org.nz