§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether deaths occurring in the first year of life have been identified as being attributed to vaccination since 1971; and how soon after the vaccinations the deaths occurred.
§ Mrs. CurrieThree deaths to persons aged under one year were registered in England and Wales between 1971 and 1978 where the underlying cause of death was assigned to "Complications and misadventures in prophylaxis with bacterial and other vaccines" (International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 8th revision E933, E934) — one in 1972, one in 1974 and one in 1976. Between 1979 and 1985, there have been no deaths to persons aged under one year registered in England and Wales where the underlying cause of death was assigned to "Bacterial and other vaccines causing adverse effects in therapeutic use" (ICD 9th revision E948, E949). From the registration of these deaths, it is not possible to state the interval between vaccination and death.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the research studies into cot death that are known to his Department; and if any such study recorded whether or not the child had been vaccinated.
§ Mrs. CurrieThe main body for Government-funded biomedical research in the United Kingdom is the Medical Research Council which receives its grant in aid from the Department of Education and Science. The council is currently supporting a number of studies that may have relevance to cot deaths and respiratory distress conditions. In addition the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths, a charitable organisation, is currently supporting a number of studies related to cot deaths. We do not have information centrally to indicate whether the children involved had been vaccinated.
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§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many reports of sudden unexpected death occurring in infants under the age of one year have been made to the Committee on Safety of Medicines; how many were reported as associated with medication other than a vaccine; and how many were associated with pertussis related vaccine.
§ Mrs. CurrieSince 1964, the Committee on Safety of Medicines has received 75 reports from doctors, dentists or coronors of deaths in children under one year old where the death may have resulted from an adverse reaction to a drug. The number of these which were sudden and unexpected could be determined only at disproportionate cost. Forty of the reports named a drug other than a vaccine as suspect and 27 reports named a product containing pertussis vaccine as suspect. A report does not necessarily indicate a causal relationship between a product and a reported reaction.