Date: 4 Jan 2001 16:16:32 -0500
From: Marjorie P. Pollack <pollackmp@mindspring.com>
Source: Eurosurveillance Weekly Issue 1, Thu 4 Jan 2001 [edited]
<http://www.eurosurv.org/update/>
Concern About Polio Vaccine Distributed in The Republic of Ireland
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The Republic of Ireland's Department of Health and Children has been
informed that one blood donor from the United Kingdom, plasma from whose
donation was used in Britain to make a batch of the product human serum
albumin, has recently been diagnosed with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
(vCJD).
This person's donation was one of 22 353 used to make a pool, which was
combined with another pool to give a final dilution of 1/63 866. This human
serum albumin was used by Evans/Medeva in the manufacture of oral polio
vaccine, as an essential stabilizing agent. Some 83 500 doses of this polio
vaccine were distributed in Ireland between 15 Jan 1998 and 30 Jan 1999.
More detailed checking is taking place with Ireland's health boards to
establish the precise usage of this vaccine.
It is regarded as unwise in medicine to say that a risk is absolutely zero,
but expert advice (both national and international) available to the
Department of Health and Children indicates that in this situation this is
almost certainly the case. Albumin has a good safety record. It is produced
at the last stage of a series of purification procedures that eliminate the
potential for infectivity. Recent studies of the various plasma fractions
have shown no infectivity [of what?] associated with albumin.
Polio vaccine is administered to children in the Republic of Ireland as
part of the primary childhood immunization program at the ages of 2, 4, and
6 months, and a booster immunization is given at primary school entry age.
Some adults may also have received the vaccine as part of the recommended
immunizations for travel to certain countries. Plasma material from the
United Kingdom is no longer contained in any vaccine used in Ireland.
Parents are advised to continue with the normal childhood vaccination program.
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