For weeks, a boy has been hospitalized in Tours, suffering from tetanus. On his health record there was a mention of a vaccination. Specialists do not believe it and instead think of a certificate of convenience signed by a doctor.
After diphtheria in Spain, it is another disease that we are not used to seeing that resurfaces. For several weeks, an eight-year-old boy has been hospitalized in intensive care at the University Hospital of Tours, after being infected with tetanus. On his health record, however, there was a mention of a vaccination against diphtheria, tetanus and polio (DTpolio), compulsory for a child of that age.
More disturbing still, the first available biological elements conclude that the child would not have been vaccinated. No trace in fact, in the child’s blood, of anti-tetanus or anti-diphtheria antibodies. Faced with these elements, several questions arise. Is this a medical anomaly? Or has a doctor drawn up a certificate of convenience? Why actor provides some answers.
No antibodies: “technically impossible”
Contacted by our editorial staff, Prof. Jean-Paul Stahl, head of the Infectious and Tropical Diseases department at Grenoble University Hospital, affirms 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 adds dubiously.
In addition, this specialist specifies that “even if the child has not received the boosters, there should be a trace of vaccination. For example, with ineffective antibodies ”. Conclusion of Professor Stahl, “the trail of the certificate of convenience seems the most plausible”.
A feeling shared by Dr Luc Duquesnel, President of UNOF (1), the general practitioner branch of the CSMF (2). According to this doctor, parents opposed to vaccination are more numerous than before in his office: “With some general practitioners still reluctant on vaccination, it is obvious that parents doubt. But they remain few, in the end, ”he says.
For his part, Jean-Jacques Fraslin, creator of the Google+ health information systems observatory, posted on Twitter a few days ago screenshots of forums posting messages like: “Hello everyone, I’m looking for a doctor who would be against vaccines and who would agree to issue contraindication certificates ”.
This is how the anti-vaccine families would exchange the addresses of doctors agreeing to make fakes, to allow the education of unvaccinated children.
Dr Luc Duquesnel, president of the UNOF-CSMF: ” The anti-vaccines are there. We see it with the vaccination rate which keeps dropping. And on social networks there are even Prs (Happy) who accuse vaccines of all evils … “
A hunt on unethical forums
So, faced with supporters of the “anti-vaccine leagues”, many expect a reaction from the Order of Physicians. Asked by Why actor, Dr Jean-Marie Faroudja, President of the “Ethics and Deontology” section of the CNOM (3), recalls that before sanctioning, “it is necessary to have proof that the practitioner is indeed making false vaccination certificates or false certificates of contraindication ”. “However, very often, the parents and the health professional are accomplices in this affair”, points out Dr. Luc Duquesnel, which complicates the identification of the doctors who derogate from their duties.
An understanding of the most irrational when we know the dangers that risk a child escaping certain vaccinations. “Tetanus is extremely serious. The child currently hospitalized in Tours risks dying. At best, he will get by with motor and neurological sequelae (central motor deficit for example). This is an aberration, because the DTpolio vaccine is 99.9% effective and safe, ”insists Professor Stahl.
From 15 days to 6 months of prohibition to exercise
Dr Jean-Marie Faroudja recalls 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 violation of the law) are liable to prosecution by the judicial bodies of the Order. 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 concludes.
To date, according to The New Republic, two inquiries were opened (administrative and judicial). And the Forensic Institute would have been ordered to examine the child. His siblings, meanwhile, would have been vaccinated urgently. The young boy is still hospitalized in intensive care.
(1) National Union of French General Practitioners
(2) Confederation of French Medical Syndicates
(3) National Council of the Order of Physicians
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