HC Deb 05 May 1999 vol 330 cc373-5W
Mr. Hancock

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which vaccines or components of vaccines given to Gulf War service personnel contained squalene preparations; and how many British Gulf War veterans have tested positive for the presence of squalene in blood samples. [82286]

Mr. Doug Henderson

Details of the Ministry of Defence's programme to immunise UK troops against the potential threat posed by Iraq's biological weapons during the Gulf conflict were published in October 1997, in the MOD paper "Background to the Use of Medical Countermeasures to Protect British Forces during the Gulf War (Operation GRANBY)". None of the vaccines used for this programme contained squalene. In addition, UK Service personnel would have received other immunisations against diseases which potentially posed a public health threat. So far as has been ascertained, none of the latter vaccines contained squalene either.

Mr. Hancock

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which vaccines used on Gulf War service personnel were acquired from the USA. [82287]

Mr. Doug Henderson

Details of the Ministry of Defence's programme to immunise UK troops against the potential threat posed by Iraq's biological weapons during the Gulf conflict were published in October 1997, in the MOD paper "Background to the Use of Medical Countermeasures to Protect British Forces during the Gulf War (Operation GRANBY)". This describes in detail how a vaccine against plague was purchased from the US DoD for use by UK forces. None of the other vaccines used for this programme were acquired from the US.

In addition, UK Service personnel would have received other immunisations against disease that potentially posed a public health threat. So far as has been ascertained, none of the latter vaccines were acquired from the US.

Mr. Hancock

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress has been made in the investigation into vaccines used on Gulf War service personnel. [82288]

Mr. Doug Henderson

Details of the UK's anti-biological warfare agent immunisation programme for the Gulf conflict were declassified in December 1996. An explanation of the vaccines used and the reasoning behind the programme was published in October 1997 in the MOD paper "Background to the Use of Medical Countermeasures to Protect British Forces during the Gulf War (Operation GRANBY)". A copy of this publication has been placed in the Library of the House at that time.

A Fact Finding Team within the Ministry of Defence's Gulf Veterans' Illnesses Unit (GVIU) was established in September 1997 to look into the implementation in-theatre of the 1991 programme of immunisation against biological warfare agents. This review is based on oral testimony and extant documentary evidence. with a view to making public as much information as possible. The team's fieldwork was completed last autumn and a paper based on their work, and on other contemporary material that has been located, is in the course of preparation. This will be published once it is completed, which is expected to be within the next three months.

In May 1997, the Government announced the funding of a research programme to investigate the possible adverse health effects of the combination of vaccines and tablets which were given to troops in the Gulf to protect them against the threat of biological and chemical warfare agents. An Independent Panel has been set up to oversee this research programme. The Panel consists of experts in fields of toxicology, immunology, virology, microbiology and epidemiology and includes two members who have been nominated by Gulf veterans groups. The programme as a whole is now expected to take some three and a half years to complete. However, we expect to publish results from the first phase of work during the first half of 1999.

This research involves an in depth study into the potential adverse health effects of interactions between the vaccines which could have been administered to Service personnel at the time of the Gulf War, both with and without pyridostigmine bromide (PB) which was present in the NAPS tablets given to UK troops in the Gulf War as a pre-treatment against nerve agents.

Investigation of the specific combination of anthrax and pertussis vaccines is a priority element of the programme. The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) have been asked to repeat the tests they carried out in the late 1990 that led the Department of Health to notify the MOD that it had anxieties about the simultaneous use of anthrax and pertussis vaccines. NIBSC will commence this work later this year, when protocols are finalised. Their programme is expected to run for two years.

Initial dose-ranging work at CBD Porton Down on the physical effects of vaccines and PB in rodents is nearing completion and a meeting of the Independent Panel held in March this year gave CBD permission to proceed with longer term studies to investigate potential cognitive and neurophysical effects of the vaccines/PB combination. NIBSC have also been invited to participate (in particular in the anthrax/pertussis work) and it is intended that a number of other scientific and academic bodies will contribute to the research in due course. It is expected that this study will report towards the end of 2002.

The Independent Panel also approved a study to determine whether CBD Porton Down staff, who have received multiple immunisations including anthrax and plague in the course of their duties, exhibit higher levels of ill-health than their non-vaccinated colleagues. This study is expected to be complete by the end of this year.