AAA Clinics

By PAUL MULROONEY

Health Ministry officials have defended the quality of New Zealand's meningococcal B vaccine amid international concerns its parent vaccine may contribute to chronic fatigue syndrome.

Norwegian professor Ola Didrik Saugstad has questioned the safety of the vaccine, which has been used only in Norway and New Zealand. He claimed a link between 19 people who had been part of the Norwegian vaccine trial and their later diagnosis with the syndrome myalgic encephalopathy (ME).

New Zealand meningococcal immunisation programme director Jane O'Hallahan said while the vaccines were similar they were not identical.

Norway's use of the parent vaccine, tested in two doses on up to 180,000 teenagers, is now the subject of a study into its safety by a panel of international experts.

Following limited trials in New Zealand, and approval in 2004, a similar vaccine was used on 1.1 million New Zealanders aged under 20.

Dr O'Hallahan said New Zealand officials were monitoring the situation in Norway, with regular briefings given to Health Minister Pete Hodgson, but there was no scientific evidence linking chronic fatigue to the New Zealand vaccine.

"The key difference is the (meningococcal) strain circulating in Norway has been replaced with the strain of the disease circulating here. It is a strain-specific vaccine."

While the health ministry was aware of one case in Norway in which a vaccine recipient had later developed ME, she rejected claims by vaccine sceptics, the Immunisation Awareness Society, that the ministry had overlooked any earlier concerns.

But immunisation society spokeswoman Sue Claridge said the developments highlighted its concerns with the long term effects of such vaccines. "We expressed concern at the time of the immunisation campaign that it had not been adequately tested."

Medsafe technical specialist Stewart Jessamine said the quality of the manufacturing site for the New Zealand vaccine continued to meet international standards.

The Immunisation Advisory Centre, an independent agency connected to Auckland University, found there were no unexpected side effects from the New Zealand vaccine.