"Our aim is to provide New Zealanders with a local source of independent, factual information including benefits and risks regarding immunisation, and vaccine-preventable disease. The information we provide is based on international and New Zealand medical research and is supported by a large network of health professionals."
The MMR vaccine used in NZ is manufactured by Merck.
NB: To read some of the scientific evidence linking the MMR to the development of autism in previously healthy children who were developing normally prior to being vaccinated with the MMR, go here:
http://www.whale.to/v/buttram.html
http://www.springerlink.com/content/l8020r2547565j37/
http://www.jpands.org/vol9no2/bradstreet.pdf
http://www.icdrc.org/documents/Abstract%20702%20Abnormal%20Measles%20Serology%20and%20Autoimmunity.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez (Search "PMID": 12145534)
Think about who sponsors IMAC if you read the section for parents about Pneumococcal disease on IMAC's website
http://www.immune.org.nz/?T=864
and read:
"Is the vaccine safe? No serious reactions have been associated with pneumococcal vaccines."
http://www.immune.org.nz/?T=864
While the manufacturer's datasheet on Medsafe's website states:
"As with other paediatric vaccines, there have been spontaneous reports of apnoea in temporal association with the administration of Prevenar..."
As a parent, I would consider apnoea (temporary cessation of breathing) in a young baby a very serious reaction to a vaccine, wouldn't you?
IMAC obviously disagrees.
http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/Datasheet/p/prevenarinj.htm
Think about who sponsors IMAC when you read the following link at which Nikki Turner dismisses any link between influenza vaccination and miscarriage as coincidental, even though a top Chinese infectious disease specialist recommended against pregnant women being vaccinated during the first trimester due to stillbirths in recently-vaccinated pregnant women in Hong Kong.
(The pregnant women in Hong Kong are not the only ones who have experienced stillbirth or miscarriage following influenza vaccination as the stories on the following links indicate:)
Unfortunately, none of the influenza vaccines on the NZ market appear to have been tested in clinical trials to ascertain how safe (or unsafe) they may be in pregnancy, so the risks of influenza vaccines are impossible to quantify. For example:
"The safety of CELVAPAN [a single antigen A/H1N1 influenza vaccine] in pregnancy and lactation has not been assessed in
IMAC does not mention the fact that there have not been clinical trials of the influenza vaccines on the NZ market in pregnant women on the relevant page of its website.
http://www.immune.org.nz/?t=758
In NZ, the subsidisation of influenza vaccines has recently been expanded. In previous years influenza vaccines were subsidised only for people over the age of sixty-five years and those with chronic illnesses. For 2010, pregnant women can now receive the vaccine "free" (with taxpayer dollars, of course). About 60,000 babies are born in NZ each year, so this means that there are potentially 60,000 more doses of influenza vaccine that could be sold to the government for injection into expectant mothers.
Moreover, influenza vaccination is now "free" for some babies and children aged 6 months to five years. Maori, Pasifika and children from low income families will be offered the vaccine. About twenty percent of the NZ childhood population is estimated to live in poverty, and around 60,000 babies are born each year. This means that there will be about 270,000 children in NZ between the age of six months and five years. Targeting at least twenty percent of these children for influenza vaccination could mean manufacturers could benefit from the sales of influenza vaccine for another 54,000 people. It is recommended that children get two doses of influenza vaccine so this could easily amount to more than 100,000 extra influenza vaccine sales.
The Ministry of Health has endorsed all of the influenza vaccines on the NZ market for use in babies and children, despite the fact that one of them "Intanza" is "not recommended" for people below the age of 18 "due to insufficient data on safety and efficacy".
http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/Datasheet/i/intanzainj.pdf
You might expect IMAC as a source of "independent advice" to make some effort to communicate this fact to parents and health professionals who might not bother to read the datasheet, given the Ministry of Health blanket endorsement of all influenza vaccines. However, IMAC has been strangely silent on this issue.
These are the brands of seasonal (trivalent) influenza vaccine on the NZ market:
"Intanza" is manufactured Sanofi Pasteur and distributed in NZ by Sanofi Aventis (NZ) Ltd
"Fluarix" is distributed in NZ by GlaxoSmithKline.
"Vaxigrip" is manufactured Sanofi Pasteur SA (France)and distributed in NZ by Sanofi Aventis (NZ) Ltd
"Fluvax" is manufactured by CSL Ltd (Australia) and CSL Biotherapies (New Zealand) Limited?
"Vaxigrip" is manufactured by Solvay Pharmaceuticals and distributed by Pharmacy Retailing (NZ) Led (trading as Healthcare Logistics)
http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/Datasheet/i/intanzainj.pdf
http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/Datasheet/v/Vaxigripinj.pdf
http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/Datasheet/v/Vaxigripinj.pdf
http://secure.healthlinks.net.au/content/csl/pi.cfm?product=cspfluva11109
http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/Datasheet/v/Vaxigripinj.pdf