The Irish Medicines Board has withdrawn one of two oral polio vaccines licensed for use here. The Department of Health and Children has urged parents to continue to seek vaccinations despite the move.
The board's decision was taken after the British chief medical officer recalled the vaccine in the UK. Prof Liam Donaldson stated that there was an "incalculably small" risk of contracting the human form of BSE from the vaccine.
The risk associated with the withdrawn vaccine is exceedingly small, according to the Irish Medicines Board, which has also confirmed that the British manufacturer, Medeva, stopped supplying the market here last May. Any Medeva OPV products still in circulation would now be out of date since September 20th. "There was widespread use of the vaccine here until September, but nothing since then," according to Dr Joan Gilvarry of the board.
"But I have to assure the public, we don't want an interruption of the vaccine programme.
"This risk is theoretical. It is tiny, if it is there at all. The UK are doing this as a precautionary measure, and we are following, having just heard about it, to make sure there is nothing left out there," she added.
All children here are given the oral polio vaccine (OVP) soon after birth but there was no way to determine exactly how many children received the Medeva product. Up to 11.5 million people in Britain, most of them children, received the Medeva vaccine since its introduction in 1989.
The remaining oral polio vaccine in use here is marketed by SmithKline Beecham and is manufactured according to European guidelines.
Consumers should have no concerns about polio vaccine currently being administered by general practitioners and travel health clinics, the board stated.
"The recall of any remaining stocks will have no impact on current vaccination programmes", it said in a statement yesterday. The Medeva product was made using a growth medium containing bovine material, foetal calf serum, sourced in the UK. The serum is not an active ingredient of the vaccine but is a vehicle for its growth and storage.
The manufacturing process used by Medeva specifically breached the 1999 European guidelines which are designed to prevent the possible spread of new variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (nv CJD).
This is the human neurological condition linked to the consumption of BSE-infected meat products.
In a statement, the Department of Health and Children has strongly advised parents to continue to have their children immunised against polio.