Vaccines are questionable

Good day.

I have declined consent for my daughter to get the vaccination at her school, primarily as a decision due to lack of information of what the ingredients are in the vaccine.

Also, information regarding side-effects.

Please provide further information. Thank you.

Mario.

Dear Mario

Thank you for your query.

1. Please find an information sheet wrt Measles in general.
2. There are two forms of vaccine that are used to prevent measles. The first is known as the MMR – Mumps, Measles and Rubella. This is the vaccine that your daughter would have received at 6 and 12 months of age. These are to prevent the above illnesses, not only in your child, but also to prevent her from contracting these illnesses as an adult when they pose serious health issues – Rubella and measles being the virus that causes congenital abnormalities in unborn children. In other words should your daughter be pregnant one day and contract either illness; her baby could be affected.
   The second vaccine, and this is the one that is being used at the moment for protection purposes, is a Measles only vaccine and is made up of live cultures to promote the body’s own anti-bodies to develop, thus offering protection from the measles virus.
3. The vaccine also serves the purposed of acting as a prophylaxis – this means that should your daughter be exposed to measles the sudden increase in anti-bodies ‘interrupts’ the development of the virus, thus offering protection from the illness.

Vaccination remains the safest and most effective manner in which to protect not only your child, but also the children and people with whom she comes into contact, throughout her life. Illnesses such as Small pox have been successfully eradicated because everyone was vaccinated.

Measles and Polio are the two illnesses the World Health Organisation (WHO) together with health departments and organisations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Rotary International are trying to eradicate through continued research, education and vaccination.

There has in the past been some doubt as to the safety of vaccinations. All the theories have been de-bunked, and proven to be incorrect. Although there are a lot of people out there who do not believe that vaccination works, or is effective; it is very sad that the reason that many of their kids never get ill despite not being vaccinated is because there are many around them that are! This is referred to as ‘Herd immunity.’

We urge you to make sure that your daughter receives her vaccine.

Please also take a read on the internet: http://time.com/newsletter/parents/

Please do not hesitate to contact us for any further information.

Hi Jo-Anne,

Thanks for all that, I read it all in the school's newsletter. My questions still remain. What are the ingredients ('live cultures' is too vague)? What are the side-effects?

Thanks.

HI Mario,

Live simply means that the live-virus (although very much weakened) is used to create anti-bodies in the body.

There are virtually no side effects. Of the 2 500kids already vaccinated at Bloemhof, Rhenish and Paul Roos (on Thurs and Fri last week) – none had any adverse reactions or side effects.

The only side-effects that may result are: mild fever and cold symptoms, for a day or so – both of which respond well to symptomatic relief such as Panado.

All of our staff who took part in the vaccination drive at the three schools were vaccinated, none reported any side effects.

I hope that this helps.

Hi Jo-Anne,

Forgive me for thinking that, at least, my first question is not being answered in detail. I already know that the kids are being injected with the same virus, albeit weakened as you say, to "strengthen the immune system", but what you're saying is not specific enough for me.

Let's try this. Please provide, in point form, the medical terms for ALL the live cultures/additives/ingredients (whichever terms you prefer) that make up this specific vaccine. In other words, what do the medical professionals refer to them as? That shouldn't be difficult. Or supply a link to a medical journal specific to this vaccine that can answer my question more accurately, if that helps.

Side-effects, thanks for the feedback, which brings me to another question. Long-term effects? Any information/medical study on that? How long has this same vaccine been administered?

With all due respect, can I assume that you're not a medical professional representing the health department? If necessary, you can tag someone else with credentials in on this correspondence.

You may think to yourself that I'm being too pushy about this. I on the other hand have learnt, some through experience, to question everything to make informed decisions. I'm sure that makes sense.

Look forward to hearing from you. Thanks.

Dear Mario,

Thank you for your mail. As per your request, I am forwarding your mail to Charlene Jacobs : Deputy Director for Public Health at our Head office in Cape Town. She will our correspondence below and direct your questions to an appropriate official.

Dear Mario

My name is Jantjie Taljaard and I am a physician and infectious diseases specialist from Tygerberg Academic Hospital. My colleagues from provincial outbreak response has asked me to respond to your queries on the measles vaccine currently recommended for the children in the 3 Stellenbosch schools affected by the measles outbreak.

“Please provide, in point form, the medical terms for ALL the live cultures/additives/ingredients (whichever terms you prefer) that make up this specific vaccine”.

1. The active ingredient is live attenuated measles virus – this is potentially the most dangerous component of the vaccine – therefore the list of contra-indications for its use in pregnancy, breastfeeding mothers, immunocompromised individuals.
2. The virus is prepared in chicken embryo with trace amounts of antibiotics (100μg kanamycin and 30μg erythromycin) to prevent bacterial contamination.
3. The vaccine comes in a powder form and is reconstituted with 0.5ml of sterile water.
4. Other ingredients:
   • D-sorbitol - Sorbitol is produced naturally in the human body and also found in fruit and berries. It is commonly used as a sweetener in foods and drinks. In vaccines it is used in small quantities as a stabiliser. Sorbitol is usually harmless, but people with an allergy to sorbitol, or with rare inherited problems of fructose intolerance, should not receive vaccines containing sorbitol.
   • Lactose monohydrate - Lactose is also known as milk sugar. It is composed of one glucose and one galactose molecule. In the pharmaceutical industry, lactose is used to help form tablets or diluent powder. Because it is injected it holds no danger for lactose intolerant individuals. If you are allergic to lactose it is better to consult with a doctor before taking the vaccine.
   • Gelatine of porcine origin - Gelatine derived from pigs is used in some live vaccines as a stabiliser to protect live viruses against the effects of temperature. Gelatine in vaccines is highly purified and hydrolysed (broken down by water), so it is different from the natural gelatine used in foods. Sensitive PCR tests have shown that no DNA from pigs can be detected in vaccines containing porcine gelatine. There have been a tiny number of cases of allergic reaction to vaccines containing gelatine (about one case for every 2 million doses of vaccine). People with a known allergy to gelatine should seek expert advice before receiving vaccines containing gelatine. Members of Muslim or Jewish religious communities may be concerned about using vaccines that contain gelatine from pigs. According to Jewish laws, there is no problem with gelatine or any other animal substance if it is used in a product that does not go into the mouth. Some Muslim leaders have also ruled that the use of gelatine in vaccines does not break religious dietary laws, because it is highly purified and it is also injected rather than ingested (eaten).
   • L-cysteine - Cysteine is a non-essential amino-acid occurring in most high protein foods. It is used in minute quantities for its anti-oxidant properties. It is not neurotoxic at these homeopathic doses.
   • NaOH - Sodium hydroxide is commonly used in food preparation, pharmaceutical industry etc for its strong base properties.
   • PBS + phenol red 0.002%
     • PBS stands for phosphate-buffered saline and is a water-based salt solution containing disodium hydrogen phosphate, sodium chloride and, in some formulations, potassium chloride and potassium dihydrogen phosphate. The osmolarity and ion concentrations of the solutions match those of the human body (isotonic) i.e. non-toxic to human cells.
     • Phenol red is a pH indicator that turns yellow when the vaccine become contaminated with bacteria – indicating that it should not be used anymore.

The vaccine does not contain aluminum gels or salts of aluminium, Egg protein, Formaldehyde (often used to inactivate bacterial products for toxoid vaccines), Monosodium glutamate (MSG) or Thimerosal (a mercury-containing preservative)

“Long term effects”

This specific vaccine was introduced to the SA vaccine schedule last year after the previous vaccine was discontinued by the company. The vaccine has been used across the world since the late 1980s. I tried to do a literature search (not exhaustive) on long term studies done on this specific product but did not find any. Long term studies done on measles vaccines in general yields hundreds of articles showing massive reductions in measles outbreaks resulting in 100 thousands of lives saved. Although these studies was not designed to look at long term effects, they did not show any. I also did not find any case reports on long term effects. Please note that the long term effect of measles infection is very well documented. Please google SSPE. A severe neuro-cognitive condition for which there are no treatment available.

You are welcome to contact me if you have more questions. We hope that we can work together for success on this important intervention.

Hi Jantjie,

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply, it is appreciated. This is precisely the information I was after and it is most informative.

A straight-forward question. You mentioned it's saved 100's thousand's lives. How many recorded adverse reactions/deaths have occurred after administration of the vaccine locally/globally? Zero? Also, how do you know a child isn't allergic (unless they explicitly know from past experience and tell you). After all, something like the common bee-sting can be life threatening.

Thank you.

Mario

I just scanned a view studies I could get with first search. As mentioned the studies was mostly looking at the effect of vaccination on numbers of measles cases and subsequent decreases in mortality. They did not specifically report on the long term effects as it is impossible to do follow-up on millions of children. There is however no mention of long term adverse-effects in the literature. Just imagine a study like that –how are you going to decide which event/substance/exposure in the last couple of years can be causally linked to a specific adverse event. With SSPE they made the link with measles because they found viral DNA in brain tissue.

You do not know if a child is allergic – luckily the allergies to the substances mentioned here are extremely rare (I have never seen a person with these type of allergies in 25 years of practice). My assumption would be that the amount of these compounds in the vaccine is so little that the effect of allergy my not be in the range of anaphylactic shock. But even so, it is always important (and standard practice) to have adrenaline at hand to counter an allergic reaction. Severe allergies to any type of vaccine, antibiotic, food stuff etc are well documented.

Dear Mario. Thank you for your questions.

With the majority of the vaccinations in the children, (including measles) we have 2 objectives

1. To prevent disease suffering and death in individual children
2. To prevent outbreaks and protect the most vulnerable persons who can not be vaccinated by preventing disease in the broader community.

I attach a document where you can see the risk of adverse event per age group for measles infections. 189-Supplement_1-S4.pdf

Without any vaccine, 6 out of 100 children infected with measles will get pneumonia and 2 young children out of every 1,000 infected will die, of course we know that the majority of these deaths occur in the younger children and those that are the most vulnerable, however you can see that there is significant risk for complicated disease in all age groups.(the numbers vary slightly according to the specific outbreaks and whether the cases where is very vulnerable persons)

In the in the 2010 epidemic 3 out of 100 infected children died at Red Cross Hospital. Adolescents are increasingly identified as a high risk group for getting childhood diseases, this includes measles mumps and rubella as well as whooping cough. an as such one should not underestimate the benefit of adolescent vaccination as is now the recommendation in most first world settings.

The most common side effect of vaccination is fever or an induration at the vaccine site. The risk for anaphylaxis is low i.e. 0.4 to 127.6 cases per 1,000,000 doses administered.(german study of all vaccination in adolescents) IF your child has a risk of severe reactions or significant allergy of course one should review this risk in that light. The risk of measles vaccine causing encephalitis is 1: 100 000 000 doses (possibly less). Of course various other rare events are reported.

I am not sure what data would help you to compare risk, but for instance in South Africa in 2012 20 per 100 000 persons die annually due to road traffic accidents.

We really are weighing risk and benefit for the individual and the community. The vaccine is safe with a low rate of severe adverse events

Lastly -I have to declare a conflict of interest - I am vaccinated against measles

Dear Mario.

I neglected to attach some very basic information on childhood vaccinations you will be absorb to look through and use the additional resources

Good morning,

Thank you Dr. Helena Rabie and Jantjie Taljaard for taking the time to respond and attach relevant information. It is most valued. Jo-Anne, thank you to you too for making the connection. I appreciate it.

I'll read through all the attached material soon, as soon as my time permits.

Just another quick question. Why are the primary schools in the area not being vaccinated at this time too? They do catch the same school buses as the high schools. Unless I'm unaware of it.

Dear Mario.

We are suggesting that younger children who are not vaccinated or who did not complete a full series get vaccinated always, particularly in this situation.

The time between becoming infected and developing disease in measles is long (around 2 weeks) and the virus does not require very close so DoH is watching reported cases and speaking with national experts to carefully to review the approach. They also follow-up on confirmed contacts in homes and outside of schools.

In this era of “modern” medicine measles still cause an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year globally and one of the biggest causes of preventable death.

Good day Mr. Mario

I reply to your query in my capacity as Child Health Coordinator for the Cape Winelands District.

The advancement of technology have given us the advent of the MeasBio (measles vaccine; introduced into the South African Immunization Schedule since 2015.

The previous antigen (Rouvax) had a few (Two) ingredients to which one could cause potential threats to individuals allergic to either of them.

The new vaccine have less problematic ingredients then its Predecessor.

Note the following:

Contra-indications

• Hypersensitivity to kanamycin sulphate or erythromycin – Antibiotics
• Egg Allergy Excluded (a Big win in our favour)

Side Effects

Possible side-effects are generally transient. When they appear it is advisable to consult a physician.

• Rare: Lymphadenopathy, thrombocytopenic purpura; severe and extensive swelling, blistering or pain at injection site; encephalitis or meningo-encephalitis; convulsions may accompany fever in susceptible individuals, anaphylactic reaction.
• Uncommon: skin rash, allergic reactions such as itching, swelling, redness, tenderness or hard lump at injection site; malaise; headache; cough, pharyngitis; coryza.
• Common: burning or stinging at the injection site; fever.

Vaccine Registration

MeasBio® is a well-established measles vaccine that has been registered and sold in Indonesia since 12 June 1985. It was registered in South Africa in April 2015. [Registration Number: 43/30.1/0541]

CAM-70 strain

Most of us have (if we did partake in the vaccination programme as children) already received at least Two doses of Measles vaccination. Unfortunately (unless we have the resources), we are not able to proof that we are immune to the disease on the basis of previous vaccination. Thus, we are likely to be at risk. Receiving the Prophylaxis renders some form of protection.

We thus strongly advise you consider the Administration of the Additional dose to Provide the much needed protection your child rightly deserves.

I hope this will aid you in the decision you will make.

Feel free to make contact should you have more questions!!

Good morning Grant,

Thank you for input, it is appreciated. My wife and I base our opinion and decisions on both common sense and facts provided.

As you say, we were all a part of the vaccine program, including me when I was young. Also, when we got measles etc. you would stay at home, plenty rest, to let your body's immune system naturally combat it, and further avoid contaminating others.

What I'm trying to wrap my head around is, it seems the scientific/medical community does not know the long term effects, so it's still experimental (over decades). Much like there is no cure for cancer, for example, and something like chemotherapy can have adverse effects too (killing off healthy blood cells). Of course I don't deny that if anything is life threatening, medicine is worthwhile choice for a chance in survival in general.

This vaccine still seems experimental. How much research, experimentation has been done on MeasBio? After all, back then it was thought that Rouvax was a good vaccine, not? Today the "new vaccine" as you put it, is "less problematic". Also it cannot be confirmed that we are even immune today, as you say.

Another factor that worries me is that the pharmaceutical business has become a big industry globally, with large profits. After all, there seems to be a drug for everything. When a human is sad, there's a pill for it. When a human is too happy, there's a pill for it. etc. Forgive me for perhaps sounding naive here, but where is the line between moral health care, where our bodies could be assisted naturally to combat viruses with even "proven" medicine etc., and the global pharmaceutical industry profits?