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Britain's health service, the Medicines Control Agency, (MCA), has recalled
stocks of an oral polio vaccine, due to the fact that they
may contain banned cattle products, which are feared to be
contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), better known
as "mad cow" disease.
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The government said the measures were precautionary,
and that the risks to children who had already received doses of the
vaccine were tiny.
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The vaccine, manufactured until September by
Medeva, is taken orally by children through drops on sugar cubes.
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The recall is being prompted because it was
discovered that the vaccine contains UK-based bovine (cow) materials,
breaching European guidelines set out in 1999.
- The recalled vaccine has been in production since
1989, with Medeva taking over the manufacture in 1991.
The UK government has admitted a link between BSE
in cattle and new-variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans,
which is a similar, fatal brain-wasting disease for which there is no
cure.
Chief Medical Officer, Professor Liam Donaldson
said that "The vaccine will be recalled immediately and replaced
with a vaccine from another manufacturer which meets all safety requirements."
Britain's MCA criticized the vaccine's manufacturers
for failing to keep the government informed.
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