§ Lord Joplingasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many companies in the United Kingdom are licensed to produce smallpox vaccines; how many individual doses in total have been exported in each of the last five years, giving the numbers going to individual countries in each case. [HL4155]
§ Lord WarnerNone. There are currently no marketing authorisations for smallpox vaccine in the United Kingdom and we are not aware of any companies manufacturing smallpox vaccine in the UK for export abroad. All the smallpox vaccine acquired recently by the Government was manufactured outside the UK and is not yet subject to a marketing authorisation. Doses of old Swiss Serum Institute vaccine have been supplied for the purposes of vaccinating a small cohort of healthcare workers and for emergency preparedness purposes to the following in the past 5 years:
Isle of Man 2,002 doses Guernsey 20 doses Gibraltar 29,000 doses
§ Lord Joplingasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have sufficient evidence on which to quantify the risk of acquiring smallpox as a result of vaccination with the live smallpox vaccine. [HL4154]
§ Lord WarnerThere is no risk of acquiring smallpox as a consequence of being vaccinated with smallpox vaccine. Smallpox vaccine contains 'live'vaccinia (Cowpox) virus which induces immunity against variola virus, the cause of smallpox. The vaccinia virus in smallpox vaccine is known to cause adverse effects in some vaccinees and there is a wealth of evidence from studies conducted during past vaccination campaigns both in the United Kingdom and the United States from which the risks of such effects are quantified.