Vaccine caused deafness in children, experts admit

Published on 06/09/2012 02:49

A STRAIN of the MMR vaccine has caused deafness in at least two children, including one from Scotland, officials have confirmed.

Kate Stephen, of Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, lost hearing in her left ear days after being inoculated, aged 15 months, in 1991.

She is reported as being the first known victim to prove her case to the UK’s Vaccine Damage Payments Unit. But the performance graduate, who is now 21, has been refused the £120,000 payout for vaccine injury because it is only given to people with 60 per cent disablement.

The measure used by the Department of Work and Pensions to decide payouts defines single-sided deafness as 20 per cent disablement. It comes after a second unnamed victim, who lost hearing in both ears, received compensation in a previous case.

Miss Stephen’s mother, Wendy, said: “She wasn’t born this way. This was done to her by the Department of Health. “They distributed pamphlets arguing this was the right thing to do for your child.”