Dozens of families in Spain’s Basque Country have taken legal action after a nurse was accused of faking the administration of routine child vaccinations.
Local authorities opened an investigation last autumn after parents began publicly voicing concerns about the nurse’s attempts to discourage them from getting their children vaccinated during visits to a health centre in Santurtzi, about nine miles from Bilbao. Parents also raised concerns about the way she appeared to inject the vaccines.
The controversy burst into public view this week when 42 families launched a legal challenge that accuses the nurse, who has not been named, of falsifying documents and the misuse of public funds.
“All of these families have been vaccinated – or not – by this nurse,” said Aitzol Asla, the lawyer representing the families. “Some noticed that she was administering the vaccines in an odd way; she would jab it in very quickly and then it appeared as though she would throw the whole vial into the rubbish bin.”
The nurse had been tasked with immunising children for infections such as meningitis and hepatitis B at a local healthcare centre.
After complaints from families in September, healthcare officials carried out antibody tests on about 50 children vaccinated in the centre, dividing them into two groups based on which nurse saw them.
“It was found that most of those belonging to one of the groups analysed were not properly immunised,” the regional health authority said in November.
The authority added that the affected children would be properly vaccinated and that testing would be expanded to a further 400 children believed to have been treated by the nurse. It said it would open an inquiry into the nurse, who is reportedly on leave.
The health authority did not respond to a request for comment.
In the months since, health officials have provided little information to the affected families, Asla said. “These parents are worried about what could have happened to their children. For example, [if] there was an outbreak of meningitis at a school and parents were sending their kids, thinking they were vaccinated,” he said. “Luckily nothing has happened to date.”
The situation has struck a nerve across Spain, where vaccine acceptance rates are among the highest in Europe. A survey in 2022 of more than 25,000 people across the EU found 89% of those surveyed in Spain agreed vaccines were important, while 92% agreed they were effective.
The families behind the legal challenge are to appear in court early next month, Asla said..
He described the legal challenge as a first step, launched by parents a “bit desperate” to find out more, towards ensuring this would not happen again. “We think this is a very serious issue,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense that a nurse who was against vaccines was engaged to administer vaccines.”
