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Italian expert questions need for expanded vaccination schedule

BMJ 2015; 351 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h6181 (Published 16 November 2015) Cite this as: BMJ 2015;351:h6181
  1. Michael Day
  1. 1Rome

A vaccine expert who criticised plans to expand Italy’s national vaccination programme has been threatened with legal action by government medical officers.

Vittorio Demicheli, of the Cochrane Vaccines Field, has said that plans to introduce vaccines against human papillomavirus (HPV) for males, rotavirus for infants, and herpes zoster and pneumococcal polysaccharide for elderly people are too costly and sometimes ill advised, questioning the motives behind the new national programme.

Demicheli, who was previously director of public health for Italy’s Piedmont region, concluded in a letter to the daily newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore on 27 October1 that more scrutiny of the plans was needed “not …

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