Catholic doctors and priests versus the tetanus vaccine in Kenya
You might recall how a few years ago antivaccinationists leaped on a statement by Bill Gates that “if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that [population] by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.” They used it to accuse Gates of being a eugenicist and that vaccines were in actuality an instrument of global depopulation. It was a ridiculous charge of course. In context, it was clear that Gates was referring to how the expected population increase from 6.8 billion to 9 billion could be blunted with good health care; in other words, he was referring to how good health care could decrease the rate of population growth, not how vaccines could be used to depopulate the world. However, because of the prevalence of the myth that vaccines are sterilizing agents intended for global depopulation, the charge that Gates is a eugenicist, as batshit nuts as it obviously is to reasonable people, resonated in the anti-science world of antivaccinationists. Similar claims, namely that there is “something” in vaccines that results in infertility and sterilization, have been unfortunately very effective in frightening people in Third World countries and have played a major role in antivaccine campaigns that have delayed the eradication of polio.
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Before you can understand the why the claim that hCG is in the tetanus vaccine would produce fear that the vaccine is in reality a sterilization agent, you need to know about a previous experimental vaccine. hCG is what is commonly referred to as the “pregnancy hormone.” Pregnancy tests are based on detecting hCG, which can first be detected about 11 days after conception and whose levels rise rapidly thereafter, peaking in the first 8-11 weeks of pregnancy. In the past, attempts have been made to produce a vaccine that targets hCG and thus results in the inability to conceive a child. It is a technique that falls under the category of immunocontraception. It takes little more than a quick trip to Wikipedia (among other sources) to learn that as far back as the 1970s, hCG was conjugated to tetanus toxoid in order to make a vaccine against hCG, because hCG itself did not provoke enough of an immune response. It’s not necessary to know all the details and history. From the 1970s on, there have been clinical trials of such vaccine contraceptives using hCG, and it is possible to prevent pregnancy by this approach, although antibody response against hCG declines with time.
This brings us back to the claims being made, described in an editorial by the Catholic Church in Kenya that appeared in Kenya Today. According to this article, the WHO had embarked on a vaccination program against tetanus that somehow had aroused the ire and suspicion of the Catholic Church because it was aimed at girls and women. The reason, of course, is because in Kenya there is a high risk of acquiring tetanus during childbirth, but the Catholic Church saw more nefarious motives:
Our concern and the subject of this discussion is the WHO/UNICEF sponsored tetanus immunization campaign launched last year in October ostensibly to eradicate neonatal tetanus. It is targeted at girls and women between the ages of 14 – 49 (child bearing age) and in 60 specific districts spread all around the country. The tetanus vaccine being used in this campaign has been imported into the country specifically for this purpose and bears a different batch number from the regular TT. So far, 3 doses have been given – the first in October 2013, the second in March 2014 and the third in October 2014. It is highly possible that there are two more doses to go.
Unlike other mass vaccination exercise, this particular WHO/UNICEF organized and sponsored tetanus vaccination campaign was launched at the New Stanley Hotel in Nairobi which is extremely unusual for a public campaign. For this reason, many people, including health professional did not know about the campaign until the matter was addressed by the Catholic Bishops.
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2014/11/13/catholic-doctors-and-priests-versus-the-tetanus-vaccine-in-kenya/
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