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A long-standing stalwart of vaccination has been the combination vaccine manufactured by Merck. This vaccine, known as ProQuad, was designed to be jointly protective against measles, rubella, mumps and chicken pox and has been used for a very long time in order to vaccinate against those four conditions. Due to a manufacturing error however, Merck & Co have halted production of the vaccine; a halt that is expected to last into the year of 2008.
Mary Elizabeth Blake is a spokesperson for the vaccines division of Merck & Co and she had this to say. "It's too early to say at this point whether new (ProQuad) supplies will be available in 2008."
While it is an inconvenience, that's all it is. Merck has a different vaccine for chickenpox (Varivax) and a combination measles, mumps and rubella vaccine as well. So children will need to get an extra vaccine shot every time they get inoculated, but they will not be out of luck for getting vaccinated altogether.
The main ingredient in the chicken pox vaccines is a weakened form of the varicella zoster virus, which causes both chicken pox and shingles. Merck is currently the only American source for this vaccine and they made the decision to focus less on ProQuad and more on their other vaccinations as manufacturing ProQuad required additional amounts of virus.
Dr. Lance Rodewald is the CDC director of immunization services and he had this to say. "It makes sense to cut back on ProQuad first, because that requires more virus."
The CDC supported the decision of Merck after being assured by the company that there would be plenty of both chicken pox and shingles vaccine to meet the
United States demand.
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