Scandal vaccines for children are going out

Because drug manufacturers are busy with the production of swine flu vaccines, at least seven children's vaccines are missing

Because drug manufacturers are busy with the production of the swine flu vaccines, at least seven children's vaccines are missing. Doctors speak in this context of a serious threat and a "tangible scandal".

As reported by the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung", the capacity of drug manufacturers would be exhausted due to the production of "swine flu" pandemic vaccines. All in all, seven vaccines have been missing since mid-January. Wolfram Hartmann, president of the Association of Pediatricians (BVKJ) told Spiegel online that this vaccine bottleneck could lead to serious and even fatal consequences for babies. In this context, Hartmann spoke of a scandal. "Particularly dangerous for infants are HIB infections and whooping cough.", Says Hartmann. Without vaccines, Hib is one of the most dangerous bacterial pathogens in childhood, many consider. Meningitis (meningeal inflammation) and epiglottitis (epiglottis) are the corresponding clinical pictures in infants.

Hartmann warned urgently, because in the medical practices there are only small remnants of the vaccines. Sometimes there would be no remnants at all. Hartmann criticized particularly sharply a British medicament manufacturer. "They took the production of the swine flu vaccine" Pandemrix "because it was a lot of money to make and they put children's needs at stake." The policy was also to blame, as they would have relied on a single pharmaceutical manufacturer in the production of pandemic vaccines.

For the head of the association, the current situation is extremely unacceptable. "We can not accept that child safety is jeopardized because a pharmaceutical company chooses to produce more lucrative vaccines for economic reasons." If the birth rate remained constant, it would be easy to calculate the storage of vaccines. You would know in advance how much vaccine is needed. This should be secured by supply contracts, because the substances could also be stored for several years. Politicians can not simply go back and make the pharmaceutical industry responsible for this circumstance. Rather, in his view, a complete availability of important vaccines for children should be ensured.

The criticism against the drug manufacturers because of the lack of vaccines is also expanding in the media landscape. The painting of horror scenarios is not uncommon. But there is also criticism of the general practice of vaccines and additives in the substances. Critics, especially from naturopathy, have been calling for some time now that there should be more transparency and education of the parents in relation to the vaccination decision. These aspects unfortunately go under in the current rather excited discussion.
(sb and Thorsten Fischer, 08.02.2010)

Additional Information:
Article at Spiegel Online
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