§ Lord Morris of Manchesterasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Bach on 6 November (WA 140) and given their disclosures on 9 October of shortcomings in medical record-keeping during and after the first Gulf conflict, how the Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory, Porton Down, defines a "valid 'worst case'" scenario in regard to the timing, environmental and other conditions pertaining when the 50,000 plus veterans of conflict received their vaccinations. [HL5476]
§ Lord BachThe full valid "worse case" schedule followed in the Vaccines Interactions Research Programme at the Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), Porton Down was as follows:
Time Day 0 First Anthrax First Pertussis Polio (oral) Yellow fever Day 3 Typhoid Tetanus Hep B Day 6 Meningococcal Meningitis Cholera Day 15 Pyridostigmine Bromide (NAPS) for 28 days (stopped day 44) Day 23 First Plague Second Anthrax Second Pertussis Day 51 Second Plague Third Anthrax Dstl and the independent panel of experts overseeing this complex research programme recognise that it would have been impossible to devise a single schedule that would reflect the actual 281WA experience of all veterans of the 1990–91 Gulf conflict. The schedule used reflects a valid "worse case" in that 10 vaccines were administered over a short time period with booster doses of some vaccines given 23 and 51 days after the first vaccines. Pyridostigmine bromide, the active ingredient of Nerve Agent Pre-Treatment Set (NAPS) tablets, was administered continuously for 28 days during the 51 day schedule. As environmental and other conditions pertaining at the time individuals received their medical countermeasures are not part of the Vaccines Interactions Research Programme, they do not form part of the "worse case" scenario.