The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners

Some of you may been getting enquiries from the programme on Sunday last night showing some very sad stories from two young adults with brain damage post receiving the whole cell pertussis vaccination who had been given ACC payouts. This is very difficult and distressing for the families, and sadly appears to be already creating some fear and confusion for others.

Firstly, we need to remember that ACC is no fault compensation; it is not proving causal links

Secondly, we need to remember the history of whole cell pertussis vaccine. Early UK data suggested there may have been a link between whole cell pertussis vaccine and encephalopathy, and there was a resultant loss of confidence in the vaccine all around the world in the 1980s. 

Since that time, large studies have not been able to show such a link. For your reference, this is an article published in the Paediatric Infectious Disease Journal in 2006, using data from the US Vaccine Safety Datalink Group.

It concludes, “In this study of more than 2 million children, DTP and MMR vaccines were not associated with an increased risk of encephalopathy after vaccination”. 

If the pertussis vaccine increases the risk of brain damage, it has to be so rare an event that despite the huge studies over the years that have been performed comparing vaccinated with unvaccinated people, no difference between the groups can be found.

Thirdly, NZ no longer uses the whole cell pertussis vaccine, but switched to using the acellular pertussis vaccine in August 2000.