Health Department seeks vaccine answers

The Department of Health is seeking a statement from the pharmaceutical company, Glaxo Wellcome, regarding the administration of a vaccine in the 1970s. It has been reported that an animal vaccine, used to treat cattle and sheep, was injected into babies in Ireland during this period. The report in today's Irish Independent says that, instead of getting the three-in-one Trivax vaccine, some children were inadvertently given an animal vaccine with a similar brand name, Tribovax T. A statement from the Department said that if such a mix-up had occurred, it could only have happened during the manufacture of the product.

Tribovax T is an animal vaccine meant only for farm stock. However, in the 1970s it was given to Irish children, some of who were taking part in a drug trial carried out on behalf of the multinational drug company, Wellcome, now Glaxo Wellcome. Fine Gael TD, Denis Naughten, has, for the last three years, been calling for an inquiry into the administration of Trivax three-in-one vaccine in the late 1960s and early '70s.

Mr Naughten said on a Dáil adjournment debate last night that there was a huge upsurge in the number of severe reactions in children who received the Trivax vaccine. The Deputy said, in a statement early today, that the Irish Independent report, along with the fact that further Trivax trials were conducted up to 1976, clearly highlights the serious flaws surrounding the manufacture and administration of the vaccine. He said that there had been serious question marks over the production and use of Trivax in the 1970s.

He added that the Minister for Health, Mícheal Martin, must act to compel Wellcome, the Eastern Regional Health Authority and anyone else, including his own department, to make public the facts surrounding this scandal. He said that a case for a public enquiry into this issue was irrefutable.

Only one person, Kenneth Best, has successfully taken a case against the manufacturers of the vaccine, Glaxo Wellcome. At least 296 children received the same batch of vaccine. The Department of Health is now trying to trace these people.

A spokesperson for the Eastern Regional Health Authority has said that it is trying to ascertain from Glaxo Wellcome if the animal vaccine was included in a batch to be used for human vaccination. A spokesperson said that as far as the authority was aware, the former Eastern Health Board was never informed by Wellcome that an animal vaccine had been included in error.

The Minister for Health told the Dáil this evening that he was as shocked as everybody else at the allegations that animal vaccine may have been given to Irish babies in 1973. Mícheal Martin said that he had asked for reports from his own officials as well as from the Eastern Health Board and the Irish Medicines Board, formerly the National Drugs Advisory Board. The Minister said that his officials had not been aware of these allegations until they were published today. Wellcome, the drug company alleged to have supplied this vaccine, had also been asked to reply to the allegations.

In a statement this evening, the Irish Medicines Board stated that it had no prior knowledge of the alleged inadvertent use of Tribovax T in place of Trivax. The IMB added that it had not been informed of this issue, and has not received any reports of suspected adverse drug reactions in association with such inadvertent use. The IMB also said that it intends to fully investigate the issue with the manufacturer of the product and liase with Department of Health & Children and the Health Boards on the matter.