The rubella vaccine scam - WHO is infecting the country while the government is busy fighting the LTTE
Ajit Randeniya, Colombo

The recent unnecessary death of a school girl in Matara and the reaction of the Sri Lankan Health administration presents a classic case of the sinister results at times of the exploitation of the developing world by the drug companies through the UN system. In this particular case it is the World Health Organisation (WHO) that has been responsible and their use of the link they have developed with the current Minister of Health Mr Nimal Siripala de Silva (through a WHO posting).

It should be noted without malice that clearly, they have worked out that Mr de Silva is not the smartest cog, (as demonstrated during his handling of the peace negotiations with the LTTE during which, that rogue Anton Balasingham nearly achieved Elam!), in the current government wheel that seems to be doing a splendid job in fighting the war as well as in undertaking development tasks to the extent it is feasible.

In this particular instance, Mr de Silva's response to President Rajapkse's call for a full investigation to the incident, was to give a call to his buddies at the Bangkok office of the WHO to undertake an investigation! It was no surprise that after two days, they submitted their finding that the vaccine had 'no issue' with it, and it is all a stuff-up of the local medicos! Speak of the foxes guarding the chicken coop!!!

To understand the full story behind the fraud involved in the vaccination program for the condition known as rubella and Congenital rubella Syndrome (CRS), one needs to become familiar with what is medically known as its patterns of spread or the 'epidemiology' and the total lack of evicence to support a national vaccination program.

Rubella is a particularly mild condition (except when it affects the unborn), and was once a disease of school-aged children typically between the ages of 5-9 years. The natural antibodies developed during such childhood infection protected them into adulthood, with around 15% remaining susceptible to the disease. Rubella was not even a nationally 'notifiable disease' in the US until 1966.

However, the drug companies who developed a vaccine against the disease created a 'scientific theory' to sell it, as they usually do. Through the WHO, they advocated national rubella vaccination programs, apparently to prevent fetal infection (CRS) in women in the childbearing years. rubella vaccine was licensed and recommended in 1969 for girls and boys in infancy and the preschool years, and eventually for adolescents.

A little publicised, strange, fact is that the exact opposite to the avowed aim of the vaccination program is occurring after nearly 40 years of vaccination; young adult women in their childbearing years currently have the highest rate of rubella incidence, with a high in 1999 of 49% among persons aged 20 to 29 years, and CRS cases also have increased. In the meantime, the susceptibility rate of under 10 year olds has remained the same as in the pre-vaccine era.

These facts clearly show that the rubella vaccine has not helped reduce CRS, with cases of women with high levels of antibodies to rubella before pregnancy giving birth to babies with CRS, and some women failing to show positive antibodies even after multiple vaccinations.

Any early benefit of vaccination also appears to wane from infancy, making the vaccinated young women more susceptible to the disease when they need immunity the most. Yet, natural immunity in early childhood appears to provide protection for a lifetime.

The core issue here is that Mr Siripala de Silva seems to have a conflict of interest between his ministerial responsibilities as a national health law and policy maker, and the global policy and programs he is required to push through his WHO position. In this particular case, he has given the President wrong and dangerous advice on an issue that has caused the unnecessary death of a 12 year old girl (who by the way, is an only child ).

Mr de Silva could absolve himself by ordering an 'independent' evaluation of the benefits (or otherwise) of the rubella and other vaccination programs enforced on the developing world by the WHO in connivance with multinational drug companies.

Though any such inquiry is not likely to help relieve the pain and loss suffered by the parents of the little girl, it will at least help prevent recurrences of other sad cases of that nature.