Vaccine pulled over bacteria fear

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Thousands doses of the meningitis C vaccine have been withdrawn by the manufacturer Novartis as a precaution following fears of contamination.

It is understood that the move was taken after samples from two batches were found to contain a bacterium.

The government's medicines agency said there had been no reports of adverse reactions and it not believe children in the UK were at risk.

Novartis said it was "committed to being a safe and reliable provider".

The firm said said it had been alerted to a sterility issue in the solvent for its Menjugate Kit, which is manufactured in Italy and has only been available in the UK since January 2009.

Factory tests

Some 21,000 doses in total have been removed from the shelves.

BBC health correspondent Branwen Jeffreys said the batches found to contain the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus had been transported by air.

The rest of the batches, transported by road, had passed all the factory tests.

A spokeswoman for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said: "The tested samples that failed the sterility test were part of a non-routine study undertaken by the company and were not part of the UK market product."

The Department of Health said in a statement that the move was a "precautionary measure", adding that anyone who was concerned after taking the vaccine should contact their GP or NHS Direct.