I referred to the controversy over what seemed to be tainted vaccines in Kenya in a comment, and have been thinking ever since that I wished I had waited for one more round of clarification, first. Well, retrospectively, let’s clarify.
Acton’s report of the original controversy is well-sourced and clear:
In Kenya, the United Nations has been working to eradicate tetanus. That’s a noble effort. Unfortunately, they seem to have taken it a step further. The Kenya Catholic Doctors Association released a statement this week saying they have found an antigen that can cause miscarriages and sterilization3 in women and girls.
(source: United Nations Charged With Birth Control Subterfuge In Kenya | Acton PowerBlog)
However, the laboratory results the Bishops and doctors relied on in voicing their concerns appear to have been flawed. The record has been amended by multiple groups that can be expected to share the principles that led the Bishops to speak out on the matter (i.e., concern for women whose ability to bear children is too often treated as a pathology, concern for babies too often killed or mutilated by those who refuse to treat them as objects of moral concern, and concern for those who the elite classes of the global West have too often used as guinea pigs). The reports seem credible, and I hope that these studies–and the outcry against a lack of transparency and local accountability that spurred the crisis–will lead to more constructive efforts in the future:
While the tests of the vaccine the Bishops had done at four separate laboratories were marred and showed false positive results for the infertility hormone, Matercare Internaitonal also said “the best solution is for the Kenyan authorities to communicate directly with the WHO in Geneva to offer support and encouragement to expeditiously test samples supervised by both parties in independent, reputable and competent laboratories.”
“Once the absence of hCG [hormone] is unequivocally confirmed,” Matercare said, “a public statement and campaign of support for the immunization programme will be necessary to minimize the potential for further damage.”
“In brief, the results of the [October] tests of the Kenyan tetanus vaccine which caused concern were false positives, due to the cross reactivity of some of the components of the vaccine, and the fact that the testing ordered was invalid,” said the [American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists].
The article also cites some useful background. The fear that these tests were happening proved to be unfounded, and (as is also pointed out in the same statement) upon examination are also unlikely to be true on the scale they would have to be. The fear is not, however, irrational or without basis in fact; both the research and the rationale have existed, and continue to exist, in some quarters.
“The basis for these recurring allegations goes back to the development of contraceptive vaccines back in the 1970s-80s, by WHO, but development never went beyond a Phase 1 trial, because of an anti-vaccine campaign by a powerful feminist advocacy movement initiated in the Netherlands, and because WHO funding was being diverted from contraceptive development into maternal health and HIV-AIDS. Consequently WHO withdrew from further research,” said Matercare International.
And it really would be prudent for those who administer programs to be responsive to requests–much more to urgent demands–for more transparency and local accountability. It simply will not do to treat the world outside upper-class white liberal parlours as the land of cargo cults!
In its e-mail to CNSNews.com, AAPLOG’s Dr. May Davenport said, “Watching this scenario unfold [in Kenya], I am struck by the lack of ‘bedside manner’ which turned a question by the Bishops into an international scene. If WHO or the Kenyan government had treated the Bishops question with the respect due to mutual health care stakeholders, it is doubtful that the Bishops would have resorted to testing which proved to be invalid.”
So I regret that I threw out a reference to a test result without waiting for more test results, even as I continue to decry a culture inoculated against concern for the integrity of the whole person, the lives of its helpless young, and the inalienable dignity of every human being.
Just to show that concern about treating a woman’s ability to bear children as a pathology has not been completely banished since the ’70s and ’80s, though, a few references to scholarly publications on the subject:
1989
Vaccines are under development for the control of fertility in males and females. This review discusses developments in anti-fertility vaccines at the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, India. A single injection procedure for the sterilization or castration of male animals depending on the site at which the injection is given, has passed through field testing and is expected to be on the market in the near future. Vaccines inducing antibodies against the human chorionic gonadotropin have gone through phase I trials with satisfactory results
(source: Anti-fertility vaccines. – PubMed – NCBI)
1992
Two vaccines, namely one inducing antibodies against hCG and the other against GnRH, are now in clinical trials. The hCG vaccine has entered Phase II clinical trials in three centres in India after successfully completing Phase I clinical studies in several centres in India and in four countries abroad.
(source: Vaccines for control of fertility and hormone dependent cancers. – PubMed – NCBI)
1993
Vaccines for control of fertility are likely to have an important impact on family planning methods. They are designed to act by mobilization of an internal physiological process and do not require external medication on a continuous basis. A number of birth control vaccines are at different stages of development, the most advanced being a vaccine inducing antibodies against human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG).
(source: A birth control vaccine is on the horizon for family planning. – PubMed – NCBI)
1997
Phase I safety trials in 47 women with elective tubal ligation; Phase II efficacy studies in 148 proven fertile women (2 children), sexually active, desirous of family planning using IUD; IUD removed when anti-hCG titres exceed 50 ng/ml hCG bioneutralization capacity; boosters given to maintain above threshold antibody levels; post coital tests conducted in 8 volunteers; sera of protected women analysed for immuno-determinants recognized by competitive enzyme immunoassays employing a panel of monoclonal antibodies and by direct binding to synthetic peptides; recombinant vaccines expressing beta hCG as a secreted product or as a fused protein anchored on membrane.
(source: The HSD-hCG vaccine prevents pregnancy in women: feasibility study … – PubMed – NCBI)
Bioeffective monoclonal antibodies have been developed against both LHRH and HCG. These can be ‘humanized’ and produced cost-effectively in bacteria and plants, thus paving the way for passive use of such antibodies for immunotherapy of cancers and fertility control.
(source: Fertility regulating and immunotherapeutic vaccines reaching human … – PubMed – NCBI)
2014
Despite high expectations of safer, effective, economical, longer acting contraceptives, to date, there are no licensed contraceptive vaccines available in the market. Nevertheless, a role for vaccines undoubtedly exists as an aid to birth spacing and as a nonsurgical means of generating sterility. The research concerned in the area so far has been successful on the feline population, with room still for exhaustive studies on humans. The future of contraceptive vaccines holds great promise in terms of comfort, price, efficacy, rare complications, and possibly nonselective action on animal populations as well as on humans.
(source: Immunocontraceptives: How far from reality? – PubMed – NCBI)
The rapidly increasing global population has bowed the attention of family planning and associated reproductive health programmes in the direction of providing a safe and reliable method which can be used to limit family size. The world population is estimated to exceed a phenomenal 10 billion by the year 2050 A.D., thus presenting a real jeopardy of overpopulation with severe implications for the future. Despite the availability of contraceptive methods, there are over one million elective abortions globally each year due to unintended pregnancies, having devastating impact on reproductive health of women worldwide. This highlights the need for the development of newer and improved contraceptive methods. A novel contraceptive approach that is gaining substantial attention is “immunocontraception” targeting gamete production, gamete outcome, or gamete function. Amongst these, use of sperm antigens (gamete function) seems to be an exciting and feasible approach. However, the variability of immune response and time lag to attain titer among vaccinated individuals after active immunization has highlighted the potential relevance of preformed antibodies in this league. This review is an attempt to analyze the current status and progress of immunocontraceptive approaches with respect to their establishment as a future fertility control agent.
(source: Immunocontraceptives: new approaches to fertility control. – PubMed – NCBI)