MP accused of scaremongering over vaccination

Tony Ryall raised a case where a girl developed a blood disorder.

The Government is being forced to defend its meningococcal vaccination programme after new figures showed that ACC has accepted 33 claims for adverse reactions to the jab.

One of the claims - highlighted by National's health spokesman Tony Ryall - is from an 8-year-old girl who developed a severe blood disorder.

The girl's specialist had concluded that she had developed the disorder as a result of the vaccine, Mr Ryall said.

Health Minister Pete Hodgson admitted during Parliament's question time yesterday that he was unaware of the Accident Compensation Corporation claims when he said last week that there were no significant adverse events associated with the meningococcal B vaccine.

But he and ACC Minister Ruth Dyson moved quickly to label Mr Ryall's line of questioning as scaremongering.

Ms Dyson released the full list of what the 33 claims were for, and said that many could have been the result of an injection of "anything at all".

"They are totally unrelated to the content of what was being injected, they are all about the process," she said.

Included among the 33 afflictions were seven cases of allergic reaction, one of fractured upper teeth, one skin puncture, one frozen shoulder and two anaphylactic reactions.

Ms Dyson said that she did not want to question the seriousness of the 8-year-old girl's case.

"But the incidence of that immune disease is no greater at all in New Zealand post the MeNZB vaccination programme than it was prior," she said. "For that member Tony Ryall to insinuate anything else is just a disgrace."

Mr Ryall argued that health officials should not be saying there was no evidence of significant adverse reaction to the vaccine when ACC had accepted the claims.

He was unable to say whether National intended to keep the vaccination programme in place if it won power at the next election.

Mr Ryall said his party needed first to have access to all the information the Government had about the vaccination programme.