Friday, 8 February, 2002, 06:49 GMT
Why Japan stopped using MMRhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1808316.stm
Japan's Health Ministry says the withdrawal of the MMR vaccine for children
did not cause an increase in deaths from measles. It followed UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's comments this week in which he
cited Japan as an example of the dangers of not having the combined vaccine
for measles, mumps and rubella. There is a huge controversy in the UK, with thousands of parents refusing
to let their child have the combined MMR injection over fears that it has
links to autism and bowel disorders. But the medical establishment says such a link does not exist, and that the
MMR vaccine is far more effective than having separate injections. Measles epidemics Japan stopped using MMR because it was linked to outbreaks of non-viral
meningitis and other damaging side-effects. Doctors say there were problems
with the vaccine which was of a different type to that used in the UK. They stopped using the MMR vaccine in 1993 and reverted to three separate
injections for measles, mumps and rubella. Japan's Health Ministry said more than 100 people died from measles over
the next six years, while there were no deaths in the UK. But a spokesman said even more had died from the disease during the period
when MMR was being used. He said the withdrawal of the triple vaccine had had no impact. Deadly epidemics of measles are far more common in Japan than the UK. The
ministry says that is because children are often vaccinated much later. Japanese officials say they have no record of a connection between MMR and
autism.
Japanese children are vaccinated later than in the UK
By the BBC's Charles Scanlon in Tokyo
MMR VACCINE IN JAPAN
The Informed Parent March 2001
Transcript of a Channel 4 news broadcast.
31/1/01, presented by Ian Williams in Osaka, Japan.
Scene opens with a film of parents and their child looking at a photograph album.
Ian W: "The reality of their terrible loss emerges. They had a son and when he was 21 months old they took him for an MMR vaccination. (Close up of photo of unconscious infant with naso-gastric tube in situ). Two days later he was in a coma from which he never recovered. That was eight years ago and still the family is fighting for proper compensation from the Japanese government."
Kayoka Kino *%#&¤?§* a (mother): "We are the victims, not only of that vaccine, but of a failure to make proper information about possible side-effects available to us. It fills me with resentment and anger."
Shot of nursery school. Children being served with food and eating lunch.
Ian W: "Nursery schools used to help organise mass vaccinations and for 4 years, from 1989, MMR was recommended by the authorities until, that is, the evidence of side-effects could no longer be ignored. More than anybody else it was Shunsuke Fuji who battled to extract and then publish information from Japan’s secretive and high-handed bureaucrats".
Shot of book-lined, untidy office in the Osaka Inoculation Information Centre where a telephone is ringing.
Shunsuke Fuji walks in and picks up the telephone, listens, then says:
"If your child’s already two, even catching measles wouldn’t be so serious, so why bother with an inoculation?"
Ian W: "The authorities eventually admitted that more than 1000 people suffered side-effects from MMR, mostly meningitis. Three died before the drug was withdrawn in 1993".
Shunsuke Fuji: "They began using MMR in April 1989 and by July doctors were already warning of side-effects, but the government didn’t take any notice because it was not convenient for them. They kept using it for another 3 years, securing the profits for the manufacturers".
Shot of childrens’ playground and children playing.
Ian W: "The problem was pinned on the mumps component of the inoculation which was changed and which is not used in Britain. But the damage had been done by the vaccine and by the government’s sloppy response. Parents no longer trust any MMR so doctors in Japan now give a separate measles inoculation to children between the ages of one and six years old. It is given as a single shot: no boosters are necessary. They do accept that Japan’s rate of measles is high - 4,500 cases and 69 deaths between 1994 and 1998, but doctors here claim it was high even when MMR was used and they strongly reject British criticism of the single vaccine".
Shot of clinic at Osaka Red Cross Hospital with Dr Hidebeko Yamomoto drawing up a syringe of dear liquid.
Dr Yamamoto: "The reason there are more measles cases here compared with other countries is not that we use the single measles inoculation but because we only give it after the child is one year old. That is the problem. The measles cases usually originate in children in under one year and spreads from them, so we should really think about giving the jabs earlier".
Change of scene to childrens’ playground. Little girl on swing being pushed by father.
Ian W: "Not only has Japan abandoned MMR in favour of the single measles shot, but this has had a wider impact. Such is public disillusion with what’s seen as dishonest, bungling bureaucrats that it has undermined public confidence in vaccination.
When Mayu (close up of little girl on swing) was born six years ago, her parents were wary of all vaccines. They insisted on an allergy test before a measles jab. This proved positive. A full inoculation might of killed their daughter. Last year, though, Mayu contracted a serious dose of measles. Thankfully, she fully recovered. Her parents’ opinions have hardened: like a growing number of Japanese they would rather risk illness than vaccines".
Tomoko Kitakata (Mayu’s mother): "I have a distrust and fear about putting dangerous things into the body. I also doubt whether the answers from the government are true - or even from doctors - because they all say something different. We have to make our own choice".
Ian W: "Like everywhere, the overwhelming concern of parents here is the health of their children. But Japan’s experience with vaccines and the response of the authorities has hardly inspired confidence".
Editor: This transcript was put together by a TIP subscriber and sent in. Many thanks.
Japan still playing catchup on kids' measles vaccinations
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040424b4.htm
Japan launched a campaign to get more children vaccinated against the measles in 2001, looking to catch up with other advanced nations that combat the disease in a much more aggressive fashion.
The campaign carries the slogan: "Let's give measles vaccine to 1-year-olds as a birthday present."
Measles kills 750,000 people worldwide every year.
In Japan, about 100,000 to 200,000 are infected every year, and 20 to 30 people die. These figures are much higher than those in other advanced countries that have aggressive vaccination programs, including the United States, which reports around 100 cases a year and few deaths.
"In 2000, 45 percent of 1-year-olds, who are most likely to get measles, were vaccinated, but the percentage rose to 78 percent in 2002," said Keiko Taya, a section chief of the Infectious Disease Surveillance Center at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.
She said that in 2001, only 44 percent of 1-year-olds had the antibody, though this figure rose to 73 percent a year later. In 2003, the number of patients dropped to one-quarter of that two years earlier.
A vaccination rate of 95 percent is required to control the disease, and Taya believes Japan will soon approach this figure.
The key is making vaccinations more accessible. At present, appointments are necessary, though many parents want vaccinations on demand.
According to Takehiro Togashi, director of Municipal Sapporo Hospital, the vaccination rate for 1 1/2-year-old kids in Hokkaido was 83 percent in fiscal 2002, while that for 3-year-olds was 94 percent.
The figures for Sapporo were 87 percent and 96 percent, respectively.
More kids are getting vaccinated because hospitals are distributing reminder stickers to parents so they can mark the vaccination dates on their calendars.
"We want to wipe out the disease in Hokkaido in two years," Togashi said.
The World Health Organization classifies countries in three categories -- those that need to control the disease, those that need to prevent mass outbreaks and those that have almost eradicated it.
More than 100 countries -- including the U.S -- belong to the last group, but Japan belongs to the first. The vaccination rate in the U.S. is more than 95 percent; American children cannot enter school unless they are vaccinated.
Despite the nationwide campaign in Japan, however, mass outbreaks are commonplace and many adults contract the disease.
From last May to July, mass outbreaks occurred at elementary and junior high schools in Miyazaki Prefecture. Two-thirds of the 400 children infected with the disease had not been vaccinated.
The Japan Times: April 24, 2004
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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040424b4.htm