'Single dose' measles vaccination sees its first court case

Tulay Kaya from Gaziantep is fighting the Health Ministry in court over the 'single dose' measles vaccination that was recommended to her by the Turkish Health Authority. It is the first time a Turkish family has sued the government on the issue of measles vaccination. According to Kaya, there are other families also preparing their cases.The case derives from the practise of the "single dose" of measles vaccination, authorized and in fact reccomended by the World Health Organization, and practiced in Turkey between 1987-1998. Over this 11 year period of time, children were normally given just one shot of the measles vaccination, rather than the three normally reccomended now. Kaya's drama surrounds her son, Enes Kaya, who after receiving a single dose of the measles vaccination 4 years ago, caught the measles, and became very ill. The virus, rather than leaving his body, went to his brain, and thus started the downward recline in his motor skills, leading eventually to paralysis and then death. The measles virus in this form is referred to as "sspe." Kaya is holding the Health Ministry responsible for the situation her son is in, a view which is supported by Doctor Zafer Kurugol of the Aegean University Children's Health and Illness Department. Says Kurugol, "We informed the Health Ministry in 1994 that the single dose of measles vaccination was not enough. But our warning was not taken seriously. The measles vaccination is not an expensive one. Giving a glass of water to each child would be more expensive." Child neurologist and specialist on the "sspe" virus at Hacettepe University, Doctor Banu Anlar, says of the case, "In developed countries the 'sspe' virus is not found, due to the widespread and abundant use of the measles vaccination. In those countries, there is no such problem..." Kaya's son received only one measles vaccination, when he was 9 months old. Enes has been sick with the "sspe" virus now for the last four years, and is near death. Kaya believes that it was the single dose of the measles vaccination which opened the way for the virus to settle in her son's brain. Vaccination campaign has got to be successfulExperts believe that the only way to put a stop to the "sspe" virus is a successful campaign by the Health Ministry to vaccinate all the unvaccinated or insufficiently vaccinated children in Turkey. Minister of Health Doctor Recep Akdag has said that the newly started measles vaccination drive is their effort to "make this illness history." Akdag did add however that the "single dose" initiative was approved by WHO, and that the actual caseload of children who had caught the "sspe" virus was very low. He said that the new measles campaign in Turkey should bring that number down to zero for the future. Â