The worldwide resurgence in the infectious disease is because of parental concerns about a suggested link between the MMR vaccine and autism. MMR immunisation rates have still not recovered following now discredited research by Andrew Wakefieldin 1998 linking the vaccine with…
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Medical news service from Penhire
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Swine flu pandemic cost State €70 million
Responding to the 2009 swine flu pandemic cost the State over €70 million in anti-virals, vaccines and specialist equipment, according to a new Department of Healthreport. Far more doses of vaccine were delivered than were actually distributed, the report shows; of…
Irish team develops improved whooping cough vaccine
Children are routinely vaccinated against whooping cough, a potentially fatal infection caused by the Bordetella pertussis bacteria. Unfortunately, the currently used vaccine while very safe, does not give strong, long-lasting immunity, says Kingston Mills, professor of experimental immunology at Trinity College Dublin. (Times)…
Final ruling needed to make meningitis B vaccine, Bexsero, available for use
The Bexsero vaccine has just been granted licence by the European Medicines Agency and experts say the jab is likely to be effective against 73 per cent of the different variations of meningitis B. Diane McConnell, Ireland manager of the…
Reilly told: Make whooping cough vaccine free
Due to an upsurge in whooping cough cases, two deaths in babies were reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre last year, compared with one in 2011. The National Immunisation Advisory Committee subsequently advised pregnant mothers to get the vaccine,…
Children’s meningitis jab could be offered for free
AN expert committee is examining whether to make a vaccine, Bexsero, to protect against meningitis B available free to Irish children. Meningitis B disease is the leading cause of bacterial meningitis in Ireland and particularly affects infants. Meningitis Research Foundation Ireland manager Diane McConnell said:…
The flu vaccine
Nobody yet knows how severe this year’s epidemic of influenza will be. Nobody can ever know in advance. Yet, the evidence that this one will be bad is mounting: in New York, where twenty children have already died, Governor Cuomo…
Mums-to-be told to attend health clinic for vaccine
Pregnant women, who have been recommended to get the whooping cough vaccine, should go to their local health clinics instead of GPs, according to the bodies representing family doctors. (Independent) >
Cases of measles rose in areas where HSE stopped jabs
Dr Gabriel Fitzpatrick, a public health specialist in the Health Service Executive (HSE), led a team that found that majority of the 285 cases of measles reported for country last year were in Dublin. But the areas where children suffered most, and…
Rising TB rates lead to call for new vaccines
OXFORD-BASED SCIENTISTS have called for more and better vaccines ahead of the publication of new figures by the World Health Organisation on the incidence of tuberculosis, which is concentrated in India, China, South Africa, Indonesia and Pakistan. Hopes now lie…
Vaccine recalled in UK still available in Ireland
A typhoid vaccine recalled in Britain because of concerns about its effectiveness has remained on the Irish market. Batches of Typhim Vi were recalled in Britain last Monday amid fears that patients given the vaccine were not fully protected against…
New jab for children in GP vaccination blunder
The jabs in question were administered at a GP practice in Dublin and in August the HSE sent letters to families attending the practice to advise them of the need to have their children re-vaccinated. The HSE has declined to…
GPs warned on child vaccines
GPs around the country have been warned to ensure they follow proper guidelines when administering childhood vaccines in order to fully protect their young patients from serious diseases. Around 290 children and teenagers are now being offered a new set…
HSE plans ‘catch-up’ MMR vaccine campaign
The HSE is concerned that children missing the second dose is leading to more outbreaks of measles. It is understood that parents of all secondary school students will be offered an MMR vaccination for their children if they have not…
Parents urged to vaccinate children after outbreak in west Cork worsens
Local GP Dr Brian O’Connell said he was taken aback at how contagious the illness was. He said some teenagers may not have received the MMR vaccine after controversy over it in the late 1990s. (Times) >
Fear measles outbreak may spread to younger children
The number of confirmed measles cases in the West Cork outbreak has risen to 31, with fears that younger children are now at risk. Public health experts said they expect the figure to rise over the coming days. Dr Fiona…
Three-in-one vaccine
Despite the fact that 89% of Irish children are vaccinated each year and only a fraction of those experience mild side-effects, the Duffy family believe their son, Alan, was brain damaged as a result of a reaction to the whooping…
Scientists develop vaccine that can fight 90 per cent of cancers
Cancer charities have given the vaccine a cautious welcome. Dr Kat Arney, the science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “These are very early results that are yet to be fully published, so there’s a lot more work to…
Calls to set up national vaccination register
A national vaccination register should be set up to ensure exact details are readily available about people in the grip of virus outbreaks such as that at the Nazareth House nursing home. The Irish Patients Association made the call after…
Swine flu vaccine may be linked to three deaths
The deaths of three people, including a newborn baby, may be linked to use of the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix over the past two years. Irish Medicines Board data on the top 10 medications for adverse reactions show the drug…
Sam McConkey on malaria vaccine research
Professor Sam McConkey of the Royal College of Surgeons, who is heading the research, said malaria parasites were becoming resistant to today’s drugs, which had complicated treatment of the disease and created a need for expensive multi-drug therapy. (Independent) >
Vaccine urged as flu cases double in past week
Yesterday, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre warned that flu was actively circulating. It said flu rates had risen from 15.7 per 100,000 to 26.2 per 100,000 in the past week and were now above threshold levels. Specialist in public health…
Schoolgirl vaccine uptake of 82% beats target figures
Dr Kevin Kelleher, assistant national director of health protection at the HSE, welcomed the high uptake. The vaccination programme against the human papillomavirus (HPV) began in May 2010 for girls in first and second year at school. (Times) >
The end of cancer in a vaccine?
THE optimism surrounding cancer vaccines reflects a string of recent discoveries hinting that the immune system can vanquish cancer. Immune activity in and around a tumour — the presence of certain white blood cells-is often a harbinger that a cancer…
Don’t forget the ‘pneumo’ vaccine
For most people, the flu vaccine is what immediately springs to mind. What with the H1N1 flu pandemic last year, and pharmacists as well as GPs administering the HSE’s seasonal flu vaccine this year, it is perhaps not surprising that…
Malaria vaccine shows early promise
Now a team of scientists including a leading Irish researcher at the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford have used RH5 as a vaccine target to wipe out the parasite. Dubliner Prof Adrian Hill is director of the Jenner…
HSE admits 850 staff received too low a dosage of flu vaccine
[From Times >] The HSE has confirmed about 850 staff have received too low a dosage of the flu vaccine. The news comes days after it emerged 489 patients also received too low a dose from pharmacies. Hibernian Healthcare, which…
Flu jab dose from pharmacies may have been too low
Muiris Houston: “THE HEALTH Service Executive has said a number of people given the flu vaccine at pharmacies may have received too low a dose. The HSE said last night that the National Immunisation Advisory Committee had advised them that…
State to reduce fees paid to GPs for vaccines
The new rates, which came into effect earlier this week, include a revised range of fees for doctors administering immunisations such as the six-in-one programme against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, haemophillus influenza type B, poliomyelitis and hepatitis B, as well as…
Measles epidemic is being driven by a failure to vaccinate
So what has been happening in Ireland? “We have never had a year without measles,” says Dr Suzanne Cotter, a specialist in public health medicine with the Health Protection Surveillance Centre. The recommendation in Ireland is to receive one dose…
