Press Release
Meningococcal vaccination increases risk in under 5 year olds
Ron Law & Barbara Sumner Burstyn
Twelve years after the event, it emerges that reassurances of "Trust us, this meningococcal vaccine will protect your
children" has been proven to be fallacious. This paper demonstrates that the meningococcal vaccine used in Canada
actually increased the risks for under two year olds by 390%, and in 2-5 year olds by 75%...
What faith can New Zealand parents have in the MeNZB(tm) vaccine when the Health Research Council's standing safety
monitoring committee has been replaced by a group of hand chosen individuals with no pharmaco-vigilance expertise [as
acknowledged by both the Ministry of Health and the Health Research Council last week] and including selected colleagues
and close contacts of MeNZB(tm) researchers and advisors?
Why has the Ministry of Health interfered with the normal practice of the Health Research Council?
Vaccination against meningitis in children under two may make them more susceptible to the disease rather than
conferring protection, according to a new study.
The authors of research published in Clinical Infectious Diseases say that serogroup C meningococcal polysaccharide
vaccine confers a high level of protection among school-age children, but that children under two remain susceptible to
infection following vaccination.
They found that, during the first 2 years after immunization, vaccine effectiveness was 95.0% among those age 6 years or
older; efficacy was 77.3% during the following 3 years.
For those age 2 to 5 years, the vaccine was 62% effective during the first 2 years, but the estimate of effectiveness
was negative during the next 3 years.
For those younger than 2 years, the estimate of effectiveness was -7.9% during the first period and highly negative
(-390.5%) during the second period.
'The possibility of increased susceptibility to serogroup C meningococcal disease resulting from administration of a
polysaccharide vaccine at a young age cannot be excluded,' say the authors, suggesting that 'once the protective
antibodies have disappeared, the inhibition of the serological response could result in greater susceptibility to
invasive disease'.
Reference:
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/resolve?CID34122ABS De Wals P et al (2005) Effectiveness of Serogroup C Meningococcal Polysaccharide Vaccine: Results from a Case-Control
Study in Quebec Clin Infect Dis 40 (8) 1116-1122