A UK specialist in polio said yesterday he was concerned that a legal action now before the High Court could affect the take-up of polio vaccination in this State which, he said, would be "a great tragedy" for public health.
Dr Geoffrey Spencer said it would be a tragedy if anyone else here suffered polio or refused immunisation as a result of a case taken by Mr Anthony Blanche.
He feared the case might make the use of the oral polio vaccine, a live vaccine, less popular and less acceptable. There were alternative vaccination programmes which overcame virtually all the risks of the OPV, he said.
Earlier Dr Spencer had described as "nonsense" some aspects of guidelines on polio vaccination which were issued by the Irish College of General Practitioners in 1993.
Dr Spencer, who has dealt with polio cases for some 35 years and has lectured medical students on the subject, said the ICGP guidelines were inaccurate in some respects and were capable of misleading doctors.
He was also critical of the absence of a virologist from the expert committee which compiled the guidelines.
He was giving evidence in the continuing action by Mr Blanche (42), of Ballybrittas, Co Laois, against the Midland Health Board and two doctors, Dr Fergus and Dr Charles McKeagney, with a practice at Main Street, Portarlington.
Mr Blanche has alleged negligence arising from his contracting vaccine-related polio in 1994 following the vaccination of his infant daughter, Isabel, with the OPV.
Mr Blanche claims his wife should have been warned, when bringing Isabel for vaccination, that there was a risk that non-immunised contacts with the child could contract polio. The defendants have denied negligence and are pleading contributory negligence.
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