PhD Thesis - ResearchSpace@Auckland - The University of Auckland

assurances of safety by the JCVI in 1974 and 1977. 57 The parental concern over the
safety of the pertussis vaccine spilled over into other areas of the immunisation
programme, with the consequence that figures for immunisation against polio,
diphtheria and tetanus also declined. To try to counter this trend doctors were
encouraged to offer parents the double vaccine if they were reluctant to accept the
triple. 58 Partly as a result of public pressure and dissatisfaction within some areas of
the medical profession, the government authorised a long-term study into the safety of
the pertussis vaccine, the National Childhood Encephalopathy Study (NCES), in
1976. To further allay public fears the British government also asked the Committee
for the Safety of Medicines and the JCVI to investigate the vaccine. In addition, the
Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (Ombudsman) reported on the
DHSS’s handling of the immunisation programme in October 1977. A compensation
scheme was established for children who suffered from vaccine damage under the
1979 Vaccine Damages Payment Act. 59 This had been helped by the fact that several
eminent medical professionals had lent their support to providing recompense for
vaccine-damage victims. 60 These measures were to aid the government in proving the
safety of the vaccine and restoring public confidence in it as soon as possible.
The NCES reported on its first 1,000 cases in June 1979. It found that the risk of
permanent brain damage in previously normal children using the pertussis vaccine
was one in 310,000 immunisations and recommended continuing use of the vaccine. 61
However, the report of the Ombudsman found that the DHSS should have given
parents advice and information regarding the risks and benefits of immunisation as
they were ‘in the best position to observe a child’s reaction’. 62 The report
recommended that ‘Parents should be told everything there is to know about risk’. 63
‘Informed consent’ was now, therefore, to be a part of the British immunisation
programme and the doctors and practice nurses who administered the vaccine were to
57 ibid., p.358 and p.88.
58 The Times, 15 April 1977, p.2.
59 The National Childhood Encephalopathy Study’, Whooping Cough. Reports from the Committee on
Safety of Medicines and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, London, 1981, p.46.
60 The Times, 24 January 1977, p.13. Letter from Professor Sir John Stallworthy and Dr Harwood
Stevenson, President and Chairman of Council respectively.
61 ‘The National Childhood Encephalopathy Study’, Whooping Cough. Reports from the Committee on
Safety of Medicines and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, London, 1981, p.143.
62 The Times, 28 October 1977. The Ombudsman was Sir Idwal Pugh.
63 ibid.
245