Medics claim alternative homeopathic vaccine will put lives at risk

Many people have turned to homeopathic therapies to help with the treatment of conditions including eczema, migraine and more serious complaints such as arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

But an investigation has now found that some homeopathic practitioners in Scotland are offering the remedies to patients who decide they do not want to use vaccines, such as the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab.

The British Medical Association (BMA) described this as "extremely worrying", while homeopathic doctors said it was not a practice they would support.

Yesterday also heard repeated calls for funding of homeopathic treatment to be stopped by the NHS, including Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital.

But supporters of the complementary therapy defended public funding to help patients who had not been assisted by conventional treatment.

A BBC investigation found three alternative practitioners who said they gave patients a homeopathic medicine designed to replace the MMR vaccine.

• For: Let GPs decide if treatment is worthwhile

• Against: Don't waste funds on something unscientific

Katie Jarvis, who is based in Inverness, told them that she only offered so-called "homeopathic prophylaxis" to patients who said they were interested in it, and did not tell anyone that they should not use conventional vaccines. When asked about the practice, she told the BBC documentary: "The alternative that I would offer would be a homeopathic remedy made from diseased tissue, that comes from someone with that disease, and then made into potentised form so that is given in a homeopathic remedy. It can be given instead or as well as the vaccination.

"I'm not advocating that they do not take the vaccination, I am providing support for those who choose not to by giving them an alternative."

Speaking to The Scotsman yesterday, Ms Jarvis said offering homeopathic prophylaxis was not mainstream practice.

"What we can use is something called nosodes. These are homeopathic remedies made from tissue that is infected with a particular disease.

"For example, if it was whooping cough then we would use the mucus from the chest of someone with whooping cough to make a remedy to protect against getting whooping cough.

"Generally we use the nosodes after someone has not recovered properly from having that particular disease. That is the classical way that the remedy would be used in homeopathy.

"But what some people and myself are doing are using these nosodes as an alternative to vaccination.It is not something that I go out of my way to promote, but if a parent comes to me and they have decided that they don't want to vaccinate their child, this is something we can use instead of doing nothing."

Because homeopathic remedies are diluted down so much, none of the infectious material remains in what is given to patients.

Ms Jarvis said instead an "energy signature" was left which made the treatment effective.

She said the remedies were most effective if someone was in contact with a patient with a particular disease, for example if there was a bout of whooping cough going around, and not just taken once at a certain age.

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, the BMA's director of science and ethics, told the documentary she had concerns about homeopathic alternatives to vaccination.

"Replacing proven vaccines, tested vaccines, vaccines that are used globally and we know are effective with homeopathic alternatives where there is no evidence of efficacy, no evidence of effectiveness, is extremely worrying because it could persuade families that their children are safe and protected when they're not," she said.

"And some of those children will go on to get the illness."

Dr Nathanson said some children may go on "even to die" which would be a "tragedy" when a family thinks it has protected its children.

Earlier this year, the BMA's annual conference in Brighton voted in favour of a motion that the NHS should not fund homeopathic medicines and that new doctors should not be trained in their use.

The debate heard passionate arguments for and against the treatments, but doctors voted three to one in favour of banning NHS funding for homeopathic remedies and removing support for the UK's four homeopathic hospitals, including one in Glasgow.

Dr Nathanson repeated this call, saying funding for Glasgow's Homeopathic Hospital should stop until an "evidence base" on which patients they can help was created.

A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: "We carried out a full review of in-patient homeopathic services in 2005 which included representations from the public and other key groups.The review concluded that these services should remain."

The BBC documentary also claimed that GPs in Scotland were prescribing at least ten times as many homeopathic medicines per person as their colleagues in England.

Freedom of Information requests for the programme revealed that the Scottish NHS is spending around 1.5 million on homeopathy - almost a third of the estimated UK spend of 4 million.

The requests also found that about half of Scotland's 14 health boards provided some funding for the discipline.

Dr Sara Eames, president of the Faculty of Homeopathy, which represents doctors involved in homeopathy, said they had a clear policy which stated that homeopathic treatments should not be offered as an alternative to vaccinations.

"We encourage our patients to take vaccinations they are offered," she said.

"There is no evidence base for using homeopathic treatments instead."

But Dr Eames said there were a number of reasons why homeopathy should continue to be offered on the NHS.

"The homeopathic hospitals treat people who have often not been helped by conventional treatment, so they are probably saving money by helping people who would otherwise be having further investigations and referrals," she said.

• The programme, called Magic or Medicine - Homeopathy and the NHS, is due to be broadcast tonight at 7.30pm on BBC One Scotland.