Child with tetanus: the pediatrician of Tours suspended

When a doctor crosses the red line. A pediatrician from Touraine suspected of having made a false declaration of vaccination against tetanus has just been suspended by decision of the Regional Health Agency (ARS) Center.

In a press release, the ARS specifies that “the investigations carried out, analyzed and validated by national experts, confirmed that this child was not vaccinated against tetanus, contrary to what was indicated on his vaccination record by the pediatrician who followed him ”. Entered, the Regional Chamber of the Order of Physicians (CROM) of the Center must necessarily rule on this situation.
Because the nine-year-old child, suffering from tetanus last July, was “in serious condition, which required specialized hospital care for two months”. Today, “his state of health is satisfactory,” reassures the ARS.

A judicial investigation had nevertheless been opened to determine whether this child had indeed received the compulsory vaccination against this disease which has become extremely rare, or if it was “a physiological anomaly of an organism which would not react to the inoculation of the vaccine, or if there would be no inoculation of this vaccine, ”explained Cécile Ancelin, assistant to the Tours prosecutor in charge of minors. Experts, for their part, have always had few doubts.

No antibodies: a track dismissed by the experts

Contacted by Pourquoidocteur last summer, Prof. Jean-Paul Stahl, head of the Infectious and Tropical Diseases department at Grenoble University Hospital, stated that “this absence of antibodies is technically impossible (…). I think this boy has not been vaccinated. Or else, he would have to be extremely immunocompromised, and more, ”he added, dubiously.
In addition, this specialist specified that “even if the child has not received the boosters, there should be a trace of vaccination. For example, with ineffective antibodies ”. Conclusion, the trail of the certificate of convenience seemed at the time the most plausible.

A feeling shared by Dr Luc Duquesnel, President of UNOF, the general practitioners branch of the CSMF (1). Asked at the end of July, this doctor indicated that parents opposed to vaccination would be more numerous than before in his office: “With some general practitioners still reluctant on vaccination, it is obvious that parents doubt. But they are still few in number, ”he said.

Listen…

Dr Luc Duquesnel, president of the UNOF-CSMF: ” The anti-vaccines are there. We see it with the vaccination rate which keeps dropping. »(Interview carried out on 07/20/15)

Patients and accomplices

So, faced with these doctors sympathizers of the “anti-vaccine leagues”, many expect a reaction from the National Council of the Order of Physicians (CNOM). In a recent interview, Dr Jean-Marie Faroudja, president of the “Ethics and deontology” section of the CNOM, recalled that before sanctioning, “it is necessary to have proof that the practitioner is indeed making false vaccination certificates or false certificates. contraindication certificates. “However, very often, the parents and the health professional are accomplices in this affair”, remarked, for his part, Dr. Luc Duquesnel. This complicates the identification of physicians who deviate from their duties.

Heavy penalties are planned

Dr Jean-Marie Faroudja explained that certificates of convenience are contrary to the provisions of the Code of medical ethics and therefore to the Code of public health. “These doctors (in breach of the law, editor’s note) are subject to further prosecution by the Order’s jurisdictional bodies. The sanctions range from two weeks to six months of prohibition to practice (with or without suspension). This depending on the importance and the particular circumstances of the offense, ”he concluded.
Joined this Thursday, the CNOM however indicated that it had never sanctioned a doctor for this reason.
And since vaccination against tetanus is compulsory, in order to eradicate the disease, criminal penalties are also provided for in the event of a deliberate failure to vaccinate a child.
But the worst is undoubtedly the dangers that risk these young patients who escape certain vaccinations. In particular that of tetanus where they can die when they are not properly vaccinated. In the best case, they get by with motor and neurological sequelae (central motor deficit for example). An aberration when we know that the DTpolio vaccine is 99.9% effective and safe, according to specialists.

(1) Confederation of French Medical Syndicates