Canadian laboratories, international aid agencies implicated in vaccine scandal

by John Garrison 

OTTAWA, Canada - As readers of HLI Reports learned last month, an alarming medical study has revealed that women in the Philippines, and possibly elsewhere, have
surreptitiously been used as guinea pigs in an international anti-fertility campaign. This campaign has now been shown to implicate Canadian manufacturers and suppliers of the
tetanus toxoid vaccine. 

A second study done by HLI also shows that Canadian international aid agencies have funded the research and development of anti-fertility vaccine trials which have led to the abuse
of women's rights in developing nations such as the Philippines. 

The first study conducted by the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) on behalf of the Philippine Department of Health revealed last month that almost 20 percent of the tetanus
vaccine sampled tested positive for human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG). The PMA's team of medical experts named two Canadian manufacturers and suppliers of the tetanus
vaccine: Connaught Laboratories and Intervax Biologicals, both based in the Toronto, Ontario area. 

"Twenty-two of the vaccines sampled," reports the PMA medical team, "were manufactured by Connaught, and twenty-two from Intervax." All the PMA samples were tested with
an immunoassay-based method developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 

An avalanche of reports 

Filipino Senator Francisco Tatad, who received an early copy of the PMA study, said that although the occurrence of tetanus is highest among men, the vaccination program
concentrated on young girls and women of childbearing age. "As a result," reported Tadad, "there was an avalanche of reports of excessive swelling of injection sites together with
unusually high numbers of miscarriages among pregnant women." 

"Any of our products, and certainly tetanus toxoid, contain no substances known by our scientists of the World Health Organization to affect adversely fertility in any recipient,"
Connaught spokesman Don McKibben countered. Seemingly not cognizant of the tests conducted in the Philippines, Mr. McKibben said, "We provide this product all over the
world, and there are absolutely no reports of this whatsoever." He added: "This is really more of a World Heath Organization issue." 

HLI president Fr. Matthew Habiger explained: "Vaccines containing the hormone immunize women not only against tetanus but also against pregnancy by inducing the body's
immune system to attack the hormone needed to bring an unborn child to term." 

A long history 

The vaccination program is sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), a United Nations specialized agency which has a long history of researching anti-fertility vaccines.
Similar vaccination protocols have also been observed in WHO programs administered in Mexico and Nicaragua. Tests of the vaccine in Mexico claimed to yield similar results last
year, but none of those tests were performed as part of an actual investigation into hCG contamination. 

"Suspicions were first raised last year," said Fr. Habiger, "when we began to hear reports about tetanus vaccination campaigns in the developing world that targeted only women of
child-bearing or pre-child bearing years, and that they required multiple injections." 

As a result, HLI commissioned its own study on the funding history of anti-fertility vaccine research and development. The just-completed HLI study reveals that not only the
WHO, but Canadian international aid agencies, such as the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the International Development Research Center (IDRC), have
also been involved for over 20 years in the research and clinical trials of anti-fertility vaccines, including tetanus toxoid. 

HLI's study quotes the Canadian development agency's position statement on "contraceptive" vaccine research and funding: "IDRC believes that the contraceptive vaccine is a
promising new approach which should continue to be explored because it could offer a simpler, cheaper, safer, more easily accessible, confidential and reversible means for women
to avoid unwanted pregnancies." The IDRC views their funding for the research and development of the vaccine for the past 20 years as "a landmark" for women. 

Identifying the target 

"Now that the disturbing PMA study is out, we see the sad result of Canadian research, development and distribution involvement through lDRC, CIDA and Connaught and
Intervax, and we see clearly who the target is - women of the developing countries such as the Philippines," said Fr. Habiger. 

"Furthermore, we see no evidence of informed consent in that women were not told they were being injected with a contaminant vaccine - a vaccine that was ostensibly intended to
protect them from a disease, but in reality affects women's health and their fertility." 

The PMA's disturbing report closes the first stage of a two-part investigation of contaminated vaccines in the Philippines. The protocol for the second stage of the test - testing the
women vaccinated for antibodies to hCG-has been submitted to the Philippine Department of Health and is awaiting funding. 

In a letter to the Philippine Department of Health, HLI urged immediate approval of the second stage to uncover the full dimensions of this scandal. "It is also absolutely essential
that any country which has the WHO program in place begin testing the vaccines for contamination," said Fr. Habiger. He said it is even more important that women who
previously received the vaccine be tested for hCG antibodies in their bloodstream and that the numbers of miscarriages experienced by vaccinated women be tabulated. 

John Garrison is the director of publications for HLI Canada.