Vaccinating infants against TB, temporarily suspended

Ministry of Health decided to end Thursday to temporarily stop vaccinating infants against tuberculosis.

The decision was taken in view of admission on Wednesday of ten babies at the "Marius Nasta" in the capital with severe adverse reactions to the vaccine, an important variable in Denmark.

Also, several cases have been reported in Bucharest and in the country earlier this year, most coming from a single batch of imported vaccines.

Health Minister Raed Arafat said on Radio Romania Actualitati, that the process will resume after will be an independent review by experts and the World Health Organization's European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

"Yesterday, after meeting our committee and, at the same time, I got in touch with experts from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the WHO, I found that the best solution is that they send us a committee of experts on their side from the two institutions in Romania to discuss with our experts to look at what happened after that to give a final population information: what was the problem, we believe that it happened and, of course, if there is a problem that goes beyond normal, it is not a problem to us from continuing vaccine vaccination to resume as soon as children, "said Raed Arafat.

According to him, the assessments should not take more than two weeks.

According to the minister of health, the vaccine imported from Denmark is more concentrated than others, but the number of recorded adverse is within the margin of accepting cases.

"The vaccine may produce adverse reactions to a certain percentage – which is from 0.6 to 1/1000, to say; France was 0,6 / 1000, we had 0.8 / 1000. The data that we have show that we are under 1/1000, which is the margin that is given even by the World Health Organization, "said Raed Arafat.

According to authorities, until present, over 200,000 children were vaccinated with Danish product.

The vaccine against tuberculosis is included in the national immunization schedule of the Ministry of Health and is free.

Translated by Alexandra-Diana Mircea
MTTLC, Bucharest University