Meeting Five

Hepatitis B Vaccine and Demyelinating Neurological Disorders

The fifth meeting of the Immunization Safety Review Committee was held March 11-12, 2002 in Washington, DC. On March 11th, the meeting was open to the public. The topic of this meeting was the possible association between hepatitis B vaccine and neurological disorders. The meeting was part of the information gathering process of the committee.

Meeting agenda which contains speaker's slides and a recording of the day's presentations.


Commissioned Background Paper and Other Materials Reviewed by the Committee

As one of its data gathering activities, the committee asked Drs. Emmanuelle Waubant and Olaf Stuve of the University of California at San Francisco, to write a paper addressing diagnostic issues and mechanistic issues related to the putative relationship between Hepatitis B vaccine and demyelinating disease.

The committee wishes to note that this represents the views of Dr. Waubant and Dr. Stuve and does NOT necessarily reflect the conclusions the committee will draw during its deliberations at the March 2002 meeting. The committee further notes that this paper is one source of many that it will review in the course of its deliberations.

A link to the paper, available as a PDF file, is below.
Suspected Mechanisms Involved in Multiple Sclerosis and Putative Role of Hepatitis B Vaccine in Multiple Sclerosis
Emmanuelle Waubant, M.D. and Olaf Stuve M.D.
University of California at San Francisco, Multiple Sclerosis Center


Other Materials Reviewed by the Committee
A Public Access File (PAF) has been created for the Immunization Safety Review Committee, which includes most written materials submitted to the committee from persons who are not officers, employees, or agents of the National Academies. The PAF may be reviewed by making an appointment with the Public Access Records Office (PARO) of the National Academies. The attached list includes most of the PAF records related to the March 11-12 meeting on the Hepatitis B Vaccine and Neurological Disorders. Note that the PAF for this activity is updated continuously and may not be complete at the time of posting. Please check with the PARO if you have any questions regarding the PAF.

Link to the report on Hepatitis B Vaccine and Demyelinating Neurological Disorders
Link the the Errata
Link to the Report Brief
Link to Press Release