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Tuesday June 27 2006

 

Your questions answered

"Why are single vaccines not licensed for use in this country? Is it because no application had been made or that they have been found unsafe/inefficient."

There are extant licences for single measles and rubella vaccines in this country, but no manufacturer manufactures single measles nor rubella to this licence. Therefore licensed stocks of measles and rubella vaccine are no longer available. Single mumps has never been licensed in the UK.

Single measles and mumps vaccines which are being imported have no evidence to show that they are either safe or that they work in preventing the disease for which they are intended. In the case of single mumps vaccines, two brands have been banned as one, manufactured using the Urabe strain of mumps virus, was shown to cause aseptic meningitis in a few children, and the other, manufactured using the Rubini strain of mumps virus, because it didn't work.

Another mumps vaccine from the Czech Republic has been suspended from importation because of unusual manufacturing and storage methods not used anywhere in the European Union. In addition there was not any proper scientific evidence to support either its safety or efficacy.

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