Dr. Martiquet's "Parent's guide to immunization" (Coast Reporter, Aug. 7) is inaccurate when he wrote "... serious side effects occur only about once in every million doses, something that can be treated quickly and effectively."
Established by the 1986 U.S. National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, the Vac-cine Adverse Event Report-ing System (VAERS) began tracking adverse immunization events in the U.S. in 1990. Since then 295,856 adverse events due to vaccinations have been reported, including 4,039 deaths. Of those deaths, 46 per cent were infants under the age of six months. Thirteen per cent of immunization adverse event reported deaths were in those over 65.
In 2008 VAERS received almost 25,000 reports of vaccination associated adverse events and 9.5 per cent of those reports were for serious injury, disability or death.
Pharmaceutical company vaccine product monographs (in the CPS at your library, pharmacy or at Drugs.com) carry cautions and warnings based on clinical trials and post marketing reports.
Like any other consumer product, once marketed, unexpected results can occur. In 1998 the U.S. FDA approved RotaShield, a vaccine for the rotavirus which causes childhood diarrhea. The FDA recalled RotaShield 10 months later due to serious and fatal adverse events.
Many immunizations products are cultured in chick-embryo protein. For those allergic to eggs, this can pose a risk.
Immunization products are just that - products sold by companies - advertised by media and promoted by public health officials. All immunization products carry some risk, and those risks are statistically much greater than a million to one.
Roxanne Gregory
Pender Harbour
