Drug recall: Merck’s Hib vaccine
Drug giant Merck voluntarily recalled one million doses of its Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine because of manufacturing malfunction.
The recall affects 10 lots of the PediaxHIB vaccine and two lots of Comvax, for a total of a million doses. All affected lots were shipped after April 2007.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said there is no evidence of contaminated vaccines, or reports of anyone being harmed with use of the suspect vaccines. The recalled vaccines also do not affect potency so there is no need to re-vaccinate children who received shots from the affected lots. However, children who did receive vaccinations must be monitored for reactions like “redness, rash, or bumps.”
The recall will cause serious vaccine shortage in the next few months but this will not have significant public health consequences because “our coverage is so good,” reported Anne Schuchat, M.D., director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. She said that 94% of toddlers are immunized.
[source: medpagetoday]
Tags: Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine, merck, drug, vaccine, Hib, recall, alert
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POSTED IN: Immunizations, Drugs and Medicine, Recall and Alerts: Food and Products
1 opinion for Drug recall: Merck’s Hib vaccine
CHRISTIE
Feb 16, 2008 at 4:49 pm
my 1 yr old went to the pediatrician’s office with no problems for her 1 yr old immunizations. When she awoke from having the immunization and went to crawl she dragged her leg. We watched her closely not knowing at the time about the contaminated Hib vaccine. After 3 days of not using her leg our pediatrician tested her SED rate and it was high she recommended her to an orthopedic who told us to just watch her because there were no bone problems and that the muscle must be inflamed. She continued to drag her leg and then fever struck. She was then hospitalized for observation, because the news reported the contaminated vaccine and we were notified that our daughter had received the contaminated vaccine. She was closely observed by orthopedic dr. since she still was not using her injected leg for crawling. The hospital dr. were unsure about a diagnosis and she was a case study. The performed and MRI and the results were normal, and they could see the brain stem was fine so decided they did not have to do a CAT scan. Still baffelled the CDC was notified and when the other test results came came back the fever was due to a UTI. A UTI that I believe came from the infected vaccine. Everyone knows that everything except water goes through the kidneys and is then excreted out of the body. I firmly believe the UTI came from the contamination that was in the vaccine. None of the Dr. could say whether it was due to the vaccine or NOT. I do know the vaccine was due to a water contamination, but Merck will not disclose what bacteria was found. I do know that when they grew out the bacteria strain in order to know which antibiotic to give my daughter it grew out E.coli. I wholeheartedly believe the vaccine was contaminated with the bacteria E.coli. We were released from the hospital and told to continue to watch her and that if the swelling in her leg does not go down in a week a follow-up appt. would be needed. She did regain use of her leg the following week thankfully, but it is now February 16th and we are waiting for the results to see if she is cleared of her UTI. We have been on three antibiotics to treat it and on February 15th she was diagnosed she’s in the 1st stage pnemonia, which the vaccine was suppose to prevent! So, we are now treating her with a 4th antibiotic for that. We are not out of the woods yet and our daughter is now 13 mo. old. I believe all that she is going through is due to the contaminated vaccine, but at this time we do not know of other cases in which children were harmed by the vaccine. Please notify me if you or anyone you know is having similar or related problems. Just a side note I have 4 girls and know proper diapering care for a girl infant. Thanks for letting me leave my opinon on the vaccine.
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