§ Miss LestorTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many deaths, occuring within 48 hours of immunisation, were reported on yellow cards or otherwise to the Department or to the Committee on the Safety of Medicines in each year from 1986 to 1992; and how many of these deaths occured after the injection of triple or pertussis vaccines.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe total number of reactions or deaths that occur within 48 hours of immunisation is not available. Spontaneous reports of adverse drug reactions are received from doctors and dentists under the voluntary "Yellow card" scheme in the United Kingdom. In addition there is a statutory requirement for companies to report adverse reactions to their medicines. The receipt of a report does not necessarily indicate that a specific drug caused the reaction, merely that there was a suspicion that the drug is associated with the reaction specified, many other factors may contribute.
The table lists the number of deaths reported to the Committee on the Safety of Medicines in association to vaccines containing pertussis, from 1986 to 1993. Pertussis vaccine is usually given combined with diptheria and 707W tetanus vaccine as a triple (DTP) vaccine starting at two months of age. It is therefore not possible to determine which one, if any of these vaccines causes a particular reported reaction.
Number of deaths reported to the CSM to a pertussis containing vaccine Year Number 1986 0 1987 2 1988 1 1989 0 1990 2 1991 16 1992 16 1993 12 1 In 1990, the age for routine immunisation was lowered, and coincided with the peak age for deaths due to sudden infant death syndrome. It was therefore anticipated that there would be an increase in sudden infant death syndrome coincidentally associated with vaccine administration. Research studies have demonstrated that the association is temporal and not causal.