JEDDAH, 22 August 2007 — The effects of a SR49 million contract signed last month between the Ministry of Health and pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline is starting to pay off for the Kingdom’s clinics.
The contract stated that GlaxoSmithKline would be responsible for supplying as many as 25 vaccines to prevent such diseases as hepatitis A/B, tetanus, polio, bacterial meningitis. The deal includes the so-called “3-in-1” or MMR vaccine for mumps, measles and rubella.
For the past two months, the MMR vaccine has been unobtainable in most government-run clinics. It was only available in private clinics for SR120 to SR180 per injection. Previously alarmed parents spoke to Arab News upon the arrival of the lifesaving vaccine yesterday.
“I have a 14-month-old baby that should have been immunized at 12 months,” said Umm Ammar. “I have been visiting and calling several government clinics that offer the vaccines free of charge to Saudi nationals only to find out that they are still waiting to receive the MMR vaccine from the Ministry of Health without giving us any reason for the delay.”
Another Saudi mother and Jeddah native voiced her concern over the vaccines’ absence by saying, “The shortage of vaccines in Jeddah, or the Kingdom for that matter, has never happened before to my knowledge.” Umm Abdulrahman added: “I have five children ranging in age from nine to 20 and have always been able to visit the government clinics and get them inoculated on time.”
Sharifah Al-Ghamdi, a nurse working in a public clinic in Jeddah, told Arab News that the public clinics ran out of the vaccines sooner because of the higher demand.
“I have already begun calling many of the patients who have been waiting for the MMR vaccine and am expecting them to come in with their children anytime this week,” she added.
Last month, when Arab News spoke to Abdullah Alsoud, director of a public clinic in Jeddah’s Al-Safa district, he said that his clinic as well as others was expecting the vaccines at any time.
“We have been waiting for the past two months and since we are a governmental medical facility we will be among the first to be supplied with the vaccines when they arrive from the ministry,” he said.
The MMR vaccine is a relatively new type that is usually administered to children at around one year of age. An MMR booster dose is given to four- to six-year-old kids. The immunization is widely used around the world and was first introduced in the 1970s.
Recently in the UK, the vaccine was the subject of controversy when Dr. Andrew Wakefield reported a study that involved 12 children that experienced an onset of autism and bowel symptoms after receiving the MMR vaccine. Wakefield also suggested in a 1998 press conference that the vaccine given in single doses would be safer for children when in fact the World Health Organization (WHO) has conducted several studies and found that putting single vaccines in the place of the MMR would actually increase risk to children of developing the disease due to the time they are waiting for the three full single immunizations to take effect.
Last month, Wakefield and his colleagues John Walker-Smith and Simon Murch faced criminal charges for serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council and have been blamed for triggering a decline in the vaccination rates worldwide. It is alleged that the trio acted unethically in preparing research into the safety of the MMR vaccine.
To date there is no significant study showing a link between autism and the safe administration of the MMR vaccine.
