asks Cecil V. Wikramanayake
"It is not good enough just having regulations. They have got to be enforced. There needs to be transparency and there needs to be less trust and greater checking of drug companies."

Man’s search for immunity from various diseases certainly does appear to be bringing him closer to worse things than had been imagined. First it was bruited around that AIDS was being caused by man’s efforts to eradicate some other disease.

Now I read in the British newspapers that eleven million doses of polio vaccine, containing material from British cattle had been administered to children and adults since BSC vaccine guidelines banned its use in 1989, and that hundreds of thousands of polio doses had been withdrawn by the British department of health after it found that assurances given by the supplier of the vaccine had been proved to be inaccurate.

Britain’s Chief Medical Officer had reported that the risk of being infected with ‘vCJD’, the human form of ‘mad cow disease’ was "incalculably small" . But, he said, it was important to remember that polio is a potentially lethal disease which has been eliminated from his country.

He had added that public confidence in medicines safety is paramount. This, apparently, is not the case in that country. After reports that the measles vaccine could be linked with autism, levels for the vaccination dropped considerably. Now it looks as if the levels for the vaccination against polio too will drop.

Organisations of parents groups in Britain have expressed concern about all this and said that "It is not good enough just having regulations. They have got to be enforced. There needs to be transparency and there needs to be less trust and greater checking of drug companies."

Dr. Liam Fox, shadow health secretary is reported to have said "The immunisation programme is one of the most important parts of public health policy. It is therefore essential that all information is fully disclosed by the government to help retain the confidence of an understandably sceptical public."

Since 1989 the Medicines Control Agency in Britain has sought assurances from drug companies that bovine material from Britain was not being used in vaccines. Oral vaccines, such as the polio vaccine, were not specifically mentioned..

European guidelines issued in 1999 outlawed bovine material from Britain being used in oral vaccines. But this will not have effect until March 2001.

The Medicines Control Agency has advised the British government that even in the oral vaccine against polio, the assurances given by the manufacturers have been proved to be inaccurate, and all General Practitioners have been asked to withdraw the vaccine immediately..

The Polio vaccine has had a chequered career. It was first produced by Wellcome, who sold it to Evans Medical in 1991. Evans Medical became part of Medeva. Celltech then acquired Medeva and then sold it to Powderject.

Powderject has reported that it had not and had no intention of making or selling Medeva polio vaccine, adding that it could not understand why the government had only acted one month after it had received that information.

Meanwhile, in third world countries, this and other brands of polio vaccine are being used. Are we heading for an epidemic of Mad Cow disease ?