IWOULD like to comment on the extreme, and some would say irresponsible, views put forward by Sylvia Noble in her attack on animal research (Letters, August 9).

To suggest that vaccinations have killed and injured millions is clearly nonsense. No-one would deny that better sanitation and hygiene have also contributed to lower incidence of infectious diseases such as diphtheria and smallpox but vaccines have reduced levels much further.

Take the example of diphtheria. In 1940 in the UK, diphtheria was still affecting 50,000 people a year. The mass diphtheria immunisation campaign - resulting from medical research involving animals - then began. By 1950, the death rate was near zero. Smallpox has been eradicated worldwide through vaccination. The World Health Organisation aims to eradicate polio completely by the year 2000, again by vaccination. The development of vaccines depended crucially on animal experiments and without them we would still see wards full of people struck down by polio, tuberculosis, diphtheria and other killer diseases.

WHO has estimated that, worldwide, vaccines save the lives of 3.2 million children every year.

There is no evidence to support the claim that more and more doctors are opposed to animal research.

The group to which Mrs Noble refers has about 150 members, few of whom are medically qualified.

There are about 100,000 practising doctors in this country and in a recent BMA survey 19 out of every 20 agreed that animal research is vital for medical progress.

BARBARA DAVIES, Deputy Director, Research Defence Society, Great Marlborough Street, London.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.