- MMR VACCINE IN JAPAN

[Guest guest]

Hi I thought you might like this after reading your post regarding the

Japanese and vacc.

Quin-Conroy ( 11 Jan 95, phine 29 Aug 97 & 1 Feb

00)

mailto:dianaqc@...

http://www.geocities.com/diana_quinconroy/Quin_Conroy_Home.html

Canberra, ACT, AUSTRALIA

> INFO: Re; MMR VACCINE IN JAPAN

>

>

> >From at <http://www.whale.to/>

>

> MMR VACCINE IN JAPAN

>

> <../vaccines/informed.html>The Informed Parent March 2001

>

> Transcript of a Channel 4 news broadcast.

>

> 31/1/01, presented by Ian 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 Kinoshita (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 was withdrawn in 1993 " .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 " .

>