Pluserix & Immravax MMR vaccines (Urabe strain) quotes
Pluserix  (MMR)   MMR quotes

[Here is a denial classic (see).] I asked you for evidence that demonstrated that deaths were actually caused by the Urabe strain, and you have singularly failed to provide any evidence whatsoever. You have provided media reports, opinions of parents, and decisions of tribunals or courts. These are not evidence of causality that implicates the Urabe vaccine.  Nobody would disagree that deaths have been reported after MMR vaccines. But deaths after vaccination are very different from deaths caused by vaccination.
Dr David Salisbury, director of immunisation, department of health, London 19.03.07 [2007] Parliament was given false MMR assurance

"Professor McDevitt,.....attended meetings that discussed warnings from other countries about an early form of the triple jab, using the Urabe strain of mumps virus, which caused encephalitis and meningitis. Despite warnings and the fact that this vaccine had already been withdrawn in Canada, the Urabe-containing jab was introduced in the UK in 1988. Some of the 12 children whose medical history featured in the controversial 1998 Lancet paper, drawn up by Dr Wakefield and his colleagues and which suggested a possible link between the jab and bowel disease and regressive autism, had received the Urabe-strain vaccine - as indeed had some of those children in the high court litigation with manufacturers." [June 2007 Private Eye] MMR Conflict of Interest Zone

FOIA Centre reply
  We referred him to the judgement, of March 13, 2003 of the Osaka district court in Japan, which ruled that the death of two children (among numerous other serious conditions) were caused by Urabe MMR.
  He said in response that Japan had a different Urabe MMR from the two Urabe MMR vaccines that were used in the UK.
  However, it remains that it was established in this case – to the satisfaction of a court in Japan – that the deaths of two children were caused by Urabe MMR.
  In addition, we referred him to several British cases where parents who claimed that their children had died as a result of Urabe MMR had received compensation under the “vaccine damage payment” scheme.
  He said in response that this does not establish that the deaths were in fact caused by the vaccine.
  However, in one case a tribunal ruled against a previous assertion by the department of health that the claim by a mother that her daughter’s death had been caused by Urabe MMR was unproven. Her claim was established at tribunal.
  A separate tribunal awarded compensation in relation to another case where a child died after suffering brain damage caused by Urabe MMR. And another tribunal was persuaded that Urabe MMR was the likely cause of death in a further case.
  Parents who have received compensation in such cases have indeed blamed MMR, including Urabe MMR, for causing the deaths of their children. Moreover, in some cases, their conclusions were endorsed by tribunals.
  There can be no doubt, therefore, that we were entirely correct to say that Urabe MMR was blamed for the deaths of several children. We did not say that Urabe MMR had caused such deaths, merely that it had been blamed for doing so. We do not accept that the conclusions of tribunals should be dismissed. [2007] Parliament was given false MMR assurance

We are from America and my son received three MMR jabs, the second one being the triple vaccination you discussed (Urabe MMR). The doctor's office called me a few months after the second MMR and told me that kids were getting the mumps so come back and get another shot of MMR. My son then began to regress in a fog.
  MMR and the mercury in the other vaccines are causing brain injury (ie inflammation of the brain). The three viruses in MMR do not happen naturally at the same time of the year, and combining them is dangerous. The vaccine program in America is crumbling. After the three deaths from the HPV vaccine, I think that parents are getting smart.
  The British government statement, ‘The benefit out-weighs the risk,’ is something out of Nazi Germany.
  My 20-year-old son is 80% improved through therapy, anti-virals, dietary changes and nutritional supplements. I did not file with the vaccine injury compensation fund. The vaccine makers are pro-tected against lawsuits in America. There is a fund created to help those damaged by vaccines. To date, autism has not been deemed a reason to compensate parents. Next month, June 11, the first of 5,200 cases will be heard in front of a court.
  I filed for disability, and my son receives a cheque each month: I proved to the social security administration that he has mercury poisoning and viral inflammation of the brain from the MMR. At least they believed me with all his test results.
Elaine Dow, Annapolis, Maryland, USA, of Advocates for Children's Health Affected by Mercury Poisoning (ACHAMP) 26.05.07 [2007] Parliament was given false MMR assurance

I write this on the exact 17th anniversary of my son's MMR vaccine on June 13, 1990. I have studied biochemistry and microbiology at University in the UK and have always known that my son's regression into autism occurred because of MMR.
  Had my son been as unwell on that Wednesday as he became three days later on the following Saturday he would never had had the vaccine because he was so unwell. After the MMR, he had a febrile convulsion, his head rapidly enlarged, he had a total loss of appetite, he screamed incessantly, became withdrawn and developed excessive salivation – all within ten days following the MMR.
  He then continued to regress into autism. Any mother would make the same association: the reactions of the baby were a direct result of the MMR vaccine. Mothers have instincts about their babies. It was formally recorded (on September 21, 1990) in his GP notes that I had serious concerns on the "rubella" vaccine. My son had only had the one rubella vaccine, namely MMR.
  I found out that it was the Urabe-containing MMR that had been withdrawn from Canada three weeks previous to his vaccination. Canada had withdrawn its licence, having previously suspended its use. But it took our health agencies a further two years to stop using Urabe MMR in the UK. Even then, it is debatable whether all condemned vaccine was removed from circulation given that there was a shortage of the “safer” Jeryl-Lynn mumps strain.
  My son received the Urabe vaccine because of where we lived: it was a postcode lottery. Our lives would change forever and nothing ever will bring back the child I lost on that day, 17 years ago today.
Eunice O'Connell, Liskeard, Cornwall 13.06.07 [2007] Parliament was given false MMR assurance

I just wanted to say how impacted I was by your news article about this Urabe strain of MMR. One summer afternoon in 1992, my middle son, Toby, had a very sudden and alarming series of febrile convulsions.
  He was kept overnight for observation at Wycombe General Hospital, but has never had a convulsion before or since. This happened exactly 10 days after his MMR injection, but when I told the doctors this, they didn't want to know, and vigorously denied any connection (except for one nurse, who seemed interested).
  I think that it is appalling that the government knew of these risks and never made that information available. I suspect many more children have been affected than is admitted, though fortunately my son has not suffered long-term damage, although he alone of my three sons is prone to noticeably frequent headaches.
Fiona Maccabe, High Wycombe, Buckingham-shire 05.03.07 [2007] Parliament was given false MMR assurance

 In January 1991, our son was given Urabe MMR. That same day, he displayed symptoms of both encephalitis and meningitis. He was left with serious brain damage and has since been diagnosed with severe autism and associated gut disorder.
  Due to this damage inflicted by the government, we have been given this life sentence to cope with, and left with a medically and mentally very ill teenager, of unpredictable behaviour and prone to violent outbursts. This is only exacerbated further by no appropriate treatment available to him, the removal of our legal aid by that same government, ensuring that such embarrassment remains undetected.
  It is for this reason that we, and so many others, are enormously thankful to you for uncovering what you have, in the interests of our damaged children.
Elaine & Andrew Butler, Dartford, Kent 05.03.07 [2007] Parliament was given false MMR assurance

However, previously secret government minutes reveal Professor McDevitt was himself a member of a 1988 government safety panel  which approved Pluserix MMR as safe for vaccine manufacturer Smith Kline & French Laboratories (see first .pdf attached). [May 2007] GMC Challenged On MMR Inquiry Chief's Vaccine Firm Links

"When notifications of meningitis (from MMR vaccine) from physicians were included; when the vaccine records of hospital cases of meningitis were included; when cross linkage of vaccine records from laboratory reports (4 laboratories) was performed and included the figure was increased to 1 in 11,000. It should be noted that in the case of one particular laboratory, this was 1 in 4,000. "----- Paul Shattock and Dawn Savery

"The Urabe strain, he writes, was replaced here in 1992 after it was "rarely" associated with "severe headaches".  Actually the Urabe strain was used in the MMR vaccines, Immravax and Pluserix, in this country between 1988 and 1992. Both were hastily withdrawn in 1992 after they were found to cause not "rare" but unusually high rates (more than I in 11,000) of potentially fatal aseptic mumps meningitis— er, a little more than a "severe headache", the Eye would suggest. And Watson should know because his company, then Merieux UK, manufactured the dodgy Immravax. Smith Kline Beecham produced the other.
    And here are two more important "facts" he left out. When those MMR vaccines were licensed here in 1988, an identical vaccine containing the Urabe strain produced by Smith Kline Beecham and called Trivirex had already been withdrawn from Canada because of suspected links to aseptic mumps meningitis. This no doubt would have passed unnoticed by our government scientists responsible for licensing because — as we now know courtesy of the BSE inquiry — the department was then a shambles. But it could not have passed unnoticed by MMR manufacturers.
    Yet as late as 1997 the Smith Kline Beecham Urabe MMR jab was used in a mass vaccination programme in Brazil and caused, yes, an outbreak of aseptic meningitis."---Private Eye

"Out of the 90 children on that list, 24 received a vaccine called Pluserix-MMR manufactured by SmithKline Beecham. It was withdrawn in the UK on the 14th September 1992 because of "reports of mild transient meningitis."    "Of the children that received Pluserix-MMR on that list, 3 died (1 after meningitis) , 4 had meningitis symptoms, 5 epilepsy, 5 had become autistic, 1 suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, 1 had severe urticaria and 2 had mumps. 6 had their speech affected - forgetting language skills they had acquired, 1 went deaf. 6 from this time suffered from delayed development and 4 were very very disturbed. One of the deaths was from the Guillain-Barré syndrome - where antibodies are produced that attack the body's own cells . 7 or more suffered frequent fits or convulsions, 1 had terrible screaming fits.  Thirteen of the children on that list received Immravax made by the French company, Merieux UK Ltd. This was also withdrawn on the same date and for the same reason as Pluserix-MMR - because of "reports of mild transient meningitis.".   Of the children that received Immravax; 6 became epileptic, 1 nearly died from encephalitis, 3 had meningitis, 1 measles and 1 mumps, 5 had speech and communication problems, 3 became slow developers, 7 had frequent fits and convulsions, 2 went into the kind of terrible screaming fits that are associated with brain trauma."---Jani Roberts http://www.gn.apc.org/inquirer/jabs.html

Withdrawn 2-3 years after proven unsafe:
"I believe the documents clearly reveal how the central government hid undesirable data and delayed discontinuation of the (MMR) vaccine," lawyer Tatsuro Shigemura said."--Media 2002

"In 1990, scientists from the Queen’s Medical Centre Nottingham found some children developed a form of meningitis after receiving it. But despite this the Government went on using it for more than two years.  The Canadian Government, also using the vaccine, immediately switched to a safer version. It was not until September 1992 that the UK Department of Health issued pharmacists with emergency supplies of a safer brand with instructions to withdraw existing batches."--Sunday Express

Still in use 7 years later, 1997, in Brazil:
OUTBREAK OF ASEPTIC MENINGITIS ASSOCIATED WITH MASS VACCINATION WITH A URABE CONTAINING MMR VACCINE

Still in use 12 yrs later,  2002:
"Officers are also investigating how a consignment of potentially dangerous mumps vaccine was sent to one of Direct Health 2000's suppliers. The vaccine sent by a German distributor turned out to be of the Urabe strain, banned in Britain since 1992 as it can cause viral meningitis in babies. "--Media 2002