The complaint of 240 families against the distributor of the Meningitec vaccine was examined this Tuesday at the TGI of Clermont-Ferrand. Expertise on the children was ordered.
The complaint of 240 families against the CSP laboratory, French distributor of the Meningitec vaccine, was examined this Tuesday, November 24 by the Tribunal de Grande Instance (TGI) of Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme). In question, the occurrence of serious symptoms (high fevers, agitation, irritability, skin rashes, digestive disorders, continuous diarrhea, etc.) in children following vaccination with defective batches (loaded with heavy metals) of Meningitec, between April and December 2014.
Used in infants from 2 months, adolescents and adults, this vaccine is indicated to prevent meningitis due to the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis serogroup C.
“Five or six colleges of experts”, each time bringing together a pediatrician and a toxicologist, will be carried out throughout France “from the beginning of January 2016” and will have to report their conclusions “within a reasonable time”, declared to the Agence France Presse (AFP) Jean-Claude Pierru, the president of the court, during a civil hearing to determine the responsibility of the industrialist.
Good news for these parents, welcomed by Me Emmanuel Ludot, the lawyer who defends the families. “Only the appointment of experts will make it possible to have the truth, to appease and reassure the parents of these children for the future”, he added.
“It’s a good start, I have the impression that we are finally starting to be heard,” commented Audrey Cheynau, a mother from Loire-Atlantique contacted by AFP. She came to the hearing with about fifty other parents.
77,000 people in solidarity
In addition, these families also receive significant support via a petition launched on Change.org, last October, by Coralie Muhammad. This mother, also a victim, asks the Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine, to open a crisis unit about the Meningitec vaccine, which she accuses of being the cause of “unexplained fevers, skin rashes, daily abdominal pain, recurrent diarrhea as well as sleeping and eating disorders” in her daughter who was vaccinated at the age of one year.
According to Coralie Muhammad, “it was revealed that this vaccine was adulterated and on September 26, 2014, the batches concerned were recalled by the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM)”, she recalls.
Following the media coverage of her petition, she has already collected more than 77,000 signatures on the Internet, and her collective was even received on Friday, November 20 at the Ministry of Health. However, it indicates that Marisol Touraine has “rejected any health problem, and offered to provide a toll-free number to reassure parents”.
A measure deemed “insufficient” by this mother, who, in this case, especially expects something from the justice system. On this subject, it should be emphasized that this case is not just a Franco-French issue, a similar action is underway in Italy for this same vaccine.
When Meningitec was withdrawn on September 25, 2014, the ANSM declared: “At present, no declaration of adverse effects linked to this quality defect has been reported to the laboratory or to the ANSM”.
But after investigation, it would seem that certain batches remained on sale in some pharmacies, contaminating the treated children. Among the list of heavy metals found in the analyzes of the hair of these children, we noted lead, aluminum, tin, silver, or even silicon.
Following the ordered expertise, the lawyers of the CSP laboratory did not wish to react.
The representatives of four foreign laboratories, including two Swiss, a Dutch and a German, who participated in the development and marketing of the offending vaccine, were not present at the hearing, relates the website of the ‘Express.
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