Homeopathic vaccines under attack

12 October 2009 | by Mark Gertskis

The complementary medicines industry has stopped short of backing the use homeopathic vaccines in light of a renewed attack on the products in the mainstream media.

"There is definitely a place for homeopathy in the treatment of disease states in Australia," Complementary Healthcare Council (CHC) executive director Dr Wendy Morrow told Pharmacy News.

"Whether or not it should be used in vaccinations is an issue that is very vexatious but it is not a use that the CHC would support."

Writing in the The Australian on the weekend, prominent pharmacy consultant Ron Batagol criticised the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for allowing the sale of homeopathic vaccines which, he claimed, could lead to life threatening situations if they were relied upon.

"One shudders to think of the danger that pharmacists and other health professionals could, however unwittingly, be complicit in, even legally liable for, if they don't advise parents to seek medical advice where this is clearly warranted, or suggest appropriate, symptomatic treatment with a pharmacy-based over-the-counter medication in the first instance, rather than selling or, heaven forbid, recommending homoeopathics for use by children or infants," Mr Batagol wrote.

"So, I have just one question for our health regulators: how do you sleep at night knowing you continue to allow homoeopathic products to be legally peddled in the healthcare marketplace as substitutes for effective therapeutic treatment for the most helpless and vulnerable members of the community, our children?"

However, Dr Morrow said the onus was on the individual to decide whether to take a homeopathic vaccine.

"Individuals do have a right to make a choice," she said.

"The issue becomes not the availability of homeopathy but in the way in which it is used by individuals. We don't believe that complementary medicines should be an alternative to Western medicines. We believe that it should be complementary to Western medicine but in one sense it really is up to the individual to use the tools that are available to them in the best possible way."

Despite that, Dr Morrow signalled that the TGA did have a role to play in curbing the promotion of homeopathic vaccines.

"I remain unconvinced that the TGA has a role to play in telling people to be vaccinated or not," she said.

"I believe that is a professional issue and not a production issue per se, although homeopathic medicines should not be advertised for vaccination use."

Tags: homeopathy | TGA | vaccine

Add a comment6 Comments

at 04:42 PM on 24 July 2010, gb wrote:
The Cuban Finlay Institute does not make homeopathic vaccines. It makes real vaccines with cells from bacteria and viruses. The leptospirosis was clinically trialled before being used on the population. While homeopathy vaccines contain water only the ingredients of vax-SPIRAL vaccine is: Inactivated Canicola canicola whole cells Inactivated Icterohaemorrhagiae copenhageni whole cells InactivatedPomona mozdok whole cells Aluminum Hydroxide gel Thiomersal Saline phosphate buffer From http://www.finlay.sld.cu/english/eindex.htm Yet another homeopathy lie.
at 04:05 PM on 11 December 2009, Dr Golden wrote:
The Finlay institute in Cuba, which manufactures vaccines for South America and Africa, sucessfully homeopathically immunised 2.4 million people in 2007 and 2.2 million people against leptospirosis. They are presently homeopathically immunising over 10,000,000 people against swine flu. People can keep avoiding the real world facts, and keep saying what homeopathy can't do, but the evidence keeps growing showing what it can do. The real scientists will love this, because someone one day will provide the "mechanism" answer in orthodox terms and become famous - in the meantime, we will keep using what works
at 06:11 PM on 13 October 2009, Dr Jane wrote:
Here's some info... http://www.youngausskeptics.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/homeopathy.pdf http://depletedcranium.com/how-homeopathy-supposedly-works-illustrated/ Dr Jane
at 10:57 AM on 13 October 2009, Prolix wrote:
When someone says homeopathy can't possibly work, they usually are thinking about the infinitesmal dilutions that homeopaths often employ. However, there is a good deal of evidence: including clinical trials and outcome studies that homeopathy does work. If you use a search engine, you will find more information about them. Homeopathic "vaccinations" are homeopathic remedies given prophylactically to prevent disease.
at 07:41 PM on 12 October 2009, seborgarsen wrote:
Seen in the light of the recent death of baby Gloria (red the story here: http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2009/09/protecting-future-baby-glorias-from.html) and the fact that homeopathy can't possibly prevent or even cure any disease, I can't see why homeopathy should even be discussed. By addressing it, are we not giving it too much credit? Or has it grown so big as to not be ignored? Instead we should be looking at a ban across the board.
at 06:06 PM on 12 October 2009, Arthur wrote:
Could someone explain what a "homeopathic vaccine" is? Given that homeopathic "remedies" are in fact effectively devoid of any helpful properties and rely entirely on placebo and gullibility to fool patients, I fail to see how homeopathy could claim to have concocted a vaccine at all. How long will the world tolerate the homeopathic scam?