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Multiple jabs no cause for British troop illness: study
A British study has found no link between illness among British troops sent to Iraq and multiple vaccinations. Instead, it says the troops tend to blame poor health on multiple jabs even when they did not have them.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:37 June 30, 2008
London: A British study has found no link between illness among British troops sent to Iraq and multiple vaccinations. Instead, it says the troops tend to blame poor health on multiple jabs even when they did not have them.
Several studies have linked ill health in forces in Iraq to multiple vaccinations, but Dominic Murphy, a psychologist at King's College London, said these relied on troops' own recollections, and should be re-evaluated.
Health consequences
"Multiple vaccinations given to personnel in the UK armed forces in preparation for deployment to Iraq are not associated with adverse health consequences when vaccinations are recorded objectively from medical records," said the study carried out by Murphy's team, published in British Medical Journal.
The team randomly selected nearly 5,000 men and women deployed to Iraq since 2003 and asked them about their health and how many vaccinations they recalled receiving.
The veterans more likely to report symptoms of fatigue, stress and other physical problems were those who recalled having two or more vaccinations in a single day, the study found. These people also rated their health as worse.
But when Murphy checked the health records of ten percent of these men and women selected at random, they found that, whereas 70 per cent reported receiving one or more vaccinations on a single day, medical records showed only 43 per cent got that many at once.
British troops sent to Iraq are routinely vaccinated against anthrax, tetanus, typhoid and yellow fever.
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