Live webchat with Professor David Salisbury, Dept of Health director of immunisation, Mon, November 2, 1pm

[GeraldineMumsnet]

We're very pleased to have Professor David Salisbury, the Department of Health's director of immunisation, as our guest for a live webchat this Friday, 30 Oct, at 1pm.

Professor Salisbury, who originally trained as a paediatrician, and also works extensively for the World Health Organisation including his role as chairman of the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Vaccines, is a timely guest given that the swine flu vaccination
programme is now being rolled out. Pregnant women are one of the first 'at-risk' groups being offered the jab.

There has already been a large amount of discussion about the vaccine, so this is your chance to put your questions, concerns and comments to the government's top vaccines expert.

As usual, if you can't join us on the day, please post your question here and Prof Salisbury will try to answer as many as possible.

on the recent "Measles is your child safe" campaign a booklet handed out to Me used the term "nutty antivaccinators" to describe those with safety concerns and those who beleive there child has been damage by vaccination. £400,000 of tax payers money was spent on this campaign. can you justify this?

Belgianbun and Olivio and others have asked about breast feeding.

There is no problem about breast feeding if you have been vaccinated. If you are vaccinated in the third trimester then we know from studies with seasonal vaccines that you will contribute to protecting your baby. We just don't know how much of the benefit comes from the vaccine in protecting the baby during the pregnancy and how much benefit comes from antibodies in breast milk. Either way the baby benefits.

is it correct that women are still vulnerable after giving birth, and if so, are you able to say for how long? at 36 weeks, and with my GP surgery not expecting vaccine for 3 weeks there is every chance I will miss the vaccine before giving birth. what would be a sensible cut off (presumably not ideal to have it just before giving birth) and when would i be advised to have it afterwards (assuming i would still be on the list)? thanks.

can you be specific about the benefits you say will come to the baby - how much protection is involved?

EldonAve asks about the price of the vaccines.

The prices we have paid are commercially confidential but can I reassure you that the recommendation for Pandemrix has nothing to do with the price.

Regarding your children, I hope this data from the States may reduce fear from the Swine Flu for your otherwise healthy children...

"So far we know that, of the 36 children who died from H1N1 between April and
August of this year in the US, 30 had some form of chronic health condition (mostly neurological), and all of
them had a co-occurring bacterial infection.

Clearly, having a robust, well-functioning immune system is the best way to
ensure your body's innate ability to fight off this mild flu virus, and not
succumb to secondary infections such as staphylococcus aureus.

I'd also like to know how many flu deaths might be attributed to
antibiotic-resistant staph infections."

articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/10/31/CDC-Says-Kids-That\

• Die-From-Swine-Flu-Have-Coexisting-Bacterial-Infections.aspx

Thank you for your answer, I hope there are fewer than 500 'at risk' patients in my gps rather large practice.

My follow up question is, are you still on schedule for the 500 doses/gp practice to be delivered within the 4 week time frame that was estimated?

hello, repeating svwt's question about new mums and newborns. will we still be priority? i'm 37 weeks and GP hasn't yet received their supplies so i'm likely to be too late, but would have wanted to have the vaccine, mainly to protect my newborn twins...

Why are GPs Midwives and consultants giving such mixed messages regarding the vaccine? How can we feel safe to take it as pregnant women when we are being told "off the record" not to touch it with a barge pole?

Also, is there any truth in the rumour that pushing the jab is a cost decision - i.e. its more cost effective for the government to cut down the number of people requiring hospitalisation from SF than it is for the government to deal with the potential impact of babies being born with damage that could be attributed to the vaccine. If this is the case, then perhaps it WILL save more lives, but I would prefer that we were honest about it.

I guess this is a business decision in the sense that if no-one has the vaccine then the potential impact on critical care services in hospitals is possibly unthinkable. Not only would this affect those people seeking treatment for SF but also people with other conditions too. You could infact argue that it is socially responsible to have the vaccine

PofacedandProud has asked about the licensing of squalene in the United States.

When we first started preparations for a flu pandemic, the US Regulators took a different route to Europe. In Europe, first of all we already had a vaccine in routine use that contained squalene and about 30 million doses of a squalene containing seasonal flu vaccine have been used in Europe and the safety profile is no different to that of seasonal flu vaccine.

Clinical trials were done with squalene containing H5N1 vaccine and this data was used for the European licensing. In the US, the strategy for dealing with a flu pandemic was built on the hope that unadjuvanted vaccine would work. At the time of H5N1 bird flu worries, the US studies looked as if their approach was not going to work. Seasonal flu vaccines require 15 micrograms of the antigen (the bit that gives you immunity) but the H5N1 vaccine needed six times as much ie. 90 micrograms to get an immune response.

As a consequence the US Government bought large quantities of adjuvant from Europe to keep in reserve to add to the vaccine just as we had already planned to do in Europe. When H1N1 came along, in a way the US got lucky because you can get an immune response without such a huge amount of antigen but we will be using only a quarter of the amount of antigen in out vaccines compared with the US.

The fact that many doctors and nurses in Britain are refusing to be injected with the Swine Flu vaccines themselves shows that our health workers are voting with their feet.

There have been 30 peer reviewed papers documenting the crippling diseases induced in laboratory animals immunised with squalene. This is one of the adjuvants in GlaxoSmithKline?s Pandemrix vaccine.

Examination of rats injected with squalene showed severe lesions in the brain and nerves stripped of their insulation called the myelin sheath. Demyelization is a clinical hallmark of Multiple Sclerosis.

How much testing has been done on pregnant women with the GSK?s Pandemrix vaccine? How many and for how long? Has any testing been done on the foetus?

How on earth are we supposed to trust you when you equate mercury to water.

"Of course mercury is toxic if you were exposed to a large quantity but so is water is you drink enough of it."

Mercury is toxic in very small quantities.

5mcg thiomersal in Pandemrix

Safe level: 1.5 mcg per kilo of bodyweight (FDA) -- am I right?

So unsafe for any baby under 3.3 kilo?

Arnica asks about contamination of flu vaccines. All of our vaccines have to be tested both by the manufacturers and by an independent expert agency before they can be released for human use.

Stuffit I think the point made was that if you drink large quantities of water it will kill you as demonstrated by the poor lady mentioned in the news last week. It was a topical reference.

Is there an advantage to health in having a reduced amount of antigen (ie in vaccines that contain squalene?), or is it purely a cost/availability advantage?

Sorry ignore me I misread your post

What percentage of pregnant women require hospital treatment for seasonal flu?

What percentage of pregnant women require hospital treatment for swine flu?

HappySeven and RTKanga ask about having seasonal and swine flu vaccines together.

These are both inactivated vaccines and can be given at the same time or separately with no particular interval between them. Obviously they should be given into different sites or different limbs.

Ohyoubadbadkitten.

Yes we are on schedule.

Thank you

Dr. Salisbury - does your quote below refer to the Swine flu GSK vaccine?

"We also know that over 90 women became pregnant shortly after having the GSK vaccine and 50 of them have now completed their pregnancies and have normal babies. The others are still being followed up - which explains why it is so difficult to do clinical trials in pregnant women ."

Dr Salisbury can I repeat my question about whether the under 5's will be vaccinated soon? I have two under 3 and am rather concerned for them (and DH who has asthma).