Immunization in the shadows

The Day is continuing to monitor the situation in connection with the death of a teenaged boy in Kramatorsk following his vaccination. With every passing day fewer vaccination and human immunity specialists are willing to speak to journalists now that Mykola Prodanchuk, First Deputy Minister of Public Health, has been arrested on charges of abusing his position. "We believe that Mr. Prodanchuk broke the law when he gave his permission on April 3 to deliver nine million doses of Indian- made vaccine against measles and rubella onto the customs territory of Ukraine, although there was no outbreak of measles in Ukraine and no government registration and other necessary actions were carried out," announced Prosecutor-General of Ukraine Oleksandr Medvedko.

Although Ukrainian doctors stood up for the deputy minister, their support was ineffectual. On Monday, after briefing President Yushchenko on the investigation launched on May 28 into the death of the Kramatorsk schoolboy, the Prosecutor- General’s Office combined the cases of Prodanchuk’s abuse of office and the boy’s death. The conclusion is all too obvious (read between the lines), but "officially," 17-year-old Antin Tyshchenko died after being vaccinated.

Experts from the WHO and UNICEF, who arrived in Ukraine as soon as the Ukrainian government suspended the mass-scale vaccination campaign for the duration of the investigation, are insisting on continuing official inquiries because an "unvaccinated" Ukraine poses a potential threat to Europe. Meanwhile, Ukrainian doctors are unable to agree on whether to vaccinate healthy individuals.

It may be that there is no clear- cut answer to this question, which is why a lot of myths, fears, and contradictions are circulating in Ukraine. Some experts claim that almost 85 percent of Ukraine’s population is immune to measles, so immunization will deal a powerful blow to people’s immune systems and may causes diseases and infertility. Others maintain that vaccinations are necessary and pose no threat.

In his book Merciless Immunization the Israeli homeopathic doctor Alexander Kotok claims that the "current, compulsory vaccinations against all kinds of diseases hinder the development of the immune system in otherwise healthy children, for which children end up paying with serious illnesses today and in the future." Unfortunately, the Department of Children’s Immunology at National Bohomolets Medical University is refusing to comment. Among those who are refusing to say anything about the vaccination — claiming the lack of experts — are the staff members of the WHO Bureau in Ukraine.

This means there is no one to comment on the investigation that was done by Serhii Dibrova, who learned that the mass-scale immunization in Ukraine was sponsored by the private United Nations Foundation founded by the US media tycoon Ted Turner, who is known as an advocate of population reduction. According to Dibrova’s fellow journalist Ihor Kahanets, who writes for Perekhid-IV, the Indian vaccine supplied to Ukraine may contain components that cause infertility. Another argument against the WHO, which is funded by Turner, is that a number of powerful pharmaceutical corporations support it.

The conclusion is all too clear. If there is no common opinion among experts, what can we expect from ordinary people, who want good health for themselves and their children? Some experts have tried cautiously to clarify the situation.

Alla VOLOKHA , chief pediatric immunologist, General Department of Public Health and Medical Care, Kyiv:

"The last outbreak of measles in Ukraine occurred in 2005, when 46,000 cases were recorded and 5 people died. Since measles outbreaks occur once every five years -the next epidemic is thus expected in 2010 — it is not ruled out that a considerable part of Ukraine’s population will contract measles a second time because of their lack of immunity against the disease. This is why the Ukrainian population is now being immunized en masse. This is usually done in an inter-epidemic period — this year, for example — rather than during an epidemic. There were serious grounds for this year’s vaccination of young people. It has now been suspended, and it is up to the Ministry of Public Health and other related agencies to decide whether to resume it. All we know is that vaccination against measles is necessary.

"You should not believe that vaccines weaken immunity and cause diseases. When people are vaccinated against measles and rubella, they have the inducers of these diseases infused in their bodies. (Nowadays, immunization is done by using both a monovaccine — against measles and rubella separately — and a combined vaccine that acts simultaneously against both diseases). They are extremely weakened and are designed to produce immunity, i.e., to keep infections away from the organism. Vaccination is carried out in a way that is supposed to exclude a negative effect on the immune system. It only stimulates the production of antibodies against agents that cause infectious diseases, and immunization does not have any serious effects on the immune system. It is chiefly aimed at keeping an individual safe from potentially life- threatening diseases.

"There are no grounds whatsoever to claim that a vaccination against measles will cause barrenness or other problems: not a single case has ever been recorded in Ukraine. To eliminate measles, Ukraine signed a convention with the World Health Organization. This document was signed by many other countries, and most of them eradicated this disease a long time ago: Belarus, Moldova, and other Eastern European countries have carried out mass-scale immunizations. Ukraine is facing the threat of measles and is considered the main source of this disease in Europe."

Fedir LAPII , teaching assistant, Department of Infectious Diseases and Pediatric Immunology at the National Medical Academy of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine:

"A paradoxical situation involving countless problems, including the vaccination problem, has emerged in Ukraine. I would like to note straight off that there is no information that vaccinations weaken immunity and cause other diseases. Claims to this effect are totally unfounded and damage the prestige of scientists. Those who are spreading this kind of information simply do not know the situation and are virtually unknown in the world. There are rumors that the WHO is cooperating with pharmaceutical firms in order to expand the drug consumption market. This information is groundless, as is the claim that the vaccine ended up in Ukraine through an error made by specialists who confused Ukraine with Uganda as the vaccine’s final destination.

"This is one of the dozens of myths that have sprung up around the problem of immunization in Ukraine. I know the WHO Ukrainian Bureau officers very well, and I insist that they could not have confused Ukraine with Uganda, nor is the bureau aiming to turn Ukraine into a barren nation. Neither are they pursuing any selfish motives behind the vaccination of Ukraine’s population. The vaccination has been suspended, and experts are trying to find the true cause of the death of the Donetsk-area boy who was inoculated against measles. So far there are no grounds to say that he died because of the vaccine.

"But when a child dies in the post-vaccination period, immunization is suspended in the entire country. This is a customary practice; it takes time to look into the situation. So the situation is ambiguous for the time being: it is not the vaccine that killed the teenager, but the immunization campaign has been suspended. The case is now being investigated by the Prosecutor-General’s Office, and international specialists and WHO experts will be involved in order to exclude any false information about selfish motives.

"After examining the case histories of the children who were hospitalized after the vaccination, experts have concluded that their condition is now normal, and their hospitalization is a precautionary measure that will allow doctors to detect or prevent complications in a timely manner."

Yevhen TOVSTUKHA , phytotherapist and head of the Department of Phytotherapy at the Kyiv Medical Institute of the Ukrainian Association of Folk Medicine:

"Vaccinations have been used extensively throughout the history of mankind since the first inoculations against smallpox, diphtheria, tuberculosis, the plague, and cholera. It is a major branch of preventive medicine. Has it brought mankind any relief or salvation? It certainly has, especially in the treatment of tetanus, but at the same time one should carry out every preventive vaccination against certain infectious diseases with due account of an individual’s physical and mental condition as well as of the specific features of the vaccine being used; it should be stored under certain conditions and administered strictly according to regulations. The current situation with preventive immunization against measles and rubella is subject to a thorough study because the death of a child and the complications that are caused by the vaccine require a logical and well-grounded explanation.

"Preventive vaccinations have a very positive side to them because it is a question of saving the world, but in every concrete case it is an individual option. One can do without vaccinations, but then it would be rather unlikely that an individual would not contract any viral diseases, such as measles. If a person contracts measles in childhood, s/he acquires natural lifetime immunity against it.

"Still, sometimes complications happen: people can lose their hearing or eyesight, or even die. A vaccine differs from the real disease in that it forces the body to resist and produce immunity, which is the body’s ability to reject one infection or another throughout life. The undeniable fact is that a vaccine does not cause diseases, but there can still be complications, such as anaphylactic shock, allergic reactions, hepatic and pancreatic dysfunctions, etc."