andMr. McQuillan asked the Minister for Health if he is yet in a position to state whether the oral vaccine against poliomyelitis is as effective as the injected vaccine and should be widely used by local authorities in their campaign against poliomyelitis.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Poliomyelitis Vaccine.
7.
Experience of the use of live attenuated oral vaccine against poliomyelitis in a number of countries seems to indicate that it is as effective as the injected vaccine. There are, however, still a number of questions to be answered in connection with the use of an oral vaccine and I am not, therefore, yet in a position to decide whether its use in local authority schemes should be approved.
Could the Minister indicate generally what are the types of questions that must still be considered?
Perhaps I might quote, for example, this extract from the report of the WHO Expert Committee on Polio which met in Washington in June last:
It is the Committee's belief, however, that not all the questions have yet been answered and that the accumulation of further data is desirable before the unlimited use of these live polio virus vaccines can be recommended without qualification. Foremost among the unanswered questions is how a true measure of safety can be devised and the possible clinical risks determined——
Then I would say that the following difficulties would seem to arise:
No definite dosage schedule is generally acceptable—— Its use needs careful planning—— With the use of a live vaccine the virus is bound to reach unconsenting contacts; this is a complete departure from present practice in human preventive medicine.
That report is a year old now, is it not?
The Deputy would want to experiment with the lives of our people but I am not prepared to do that. I am waiting to see what happens elsewhere.
I asked the Minister a simple question in order to elicit further information.
The Deputy has received his reply.
We had it long enough as far as T.B. was concerned.
The Minister should answer the question.