FIGURES FROM the HSE suggest that 75 per cent of children not properly vaccinated against life-threatening childhood diseases have now been revaccinated.
The initial injections were administered at a GP practice in Dublin and in August the HSE sent letters to families attending the practice to advise them of the need to have their children revaccinated.
While the number revaccinated now stands at 331, the HSE has so far been unable to make contact with 44 families.
The HSE confirmed that in another nine cases their letters to parents alerting them to the matter had been returned.
This is believed to be the first time in Ireland that the health authorities have come across a situation where they believe that vaccines were not administered exactly as per manufacturer’s guidelines. Some of the children affected are now in their teens. The error with the vaccines began in the mid-1990s.
In all some 228 families have been in contact with the HSE and brought their children to the special revaccination clinics that have been set up in Peamount hospital.
The HSE would not give the ages of the children affected, but said “although the number of vaccines for each child varies, the majority of them require attendance at three vaccination sessions”.