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Malcolm Brabant has been one of the BBC’s best reporters, particularly known for covering Greece. But during the recent unrest and some of the most significant news in Greece’s history, he’s been missing in action. The reason is a vicious wound received as he was about to go into action: a vaccination for yellow fever. Brabant was admitted to a hospital within 24 hours of receiving the vaccination on 15 April this year. He was suffering from a fever and psychosis. Cintia Taylor reports:

He was in a limbo between life and death.  We hoped things would get better when he wittily posted on Facebook of how happy he was he could watch the royal wedding from his hospital room. But Malcolm has been in and out of hospital ever since suffering from high fever or psychotic events. Doctors suspect the Stamaril vaccine he took in April was contaminated.

There is very little information available. Brabant works only very occasionally now. The few reports we do see on BBC are of him doing a voice-over, but no indication that he’s actually on site. The vaccine, Stamaril, was made by Sanofi Pasteur. There have been suspicions that it was a bad batch. In response to those suspicions, Sanofi Pasteur has been in strong denial. The closest they’ve come to an apology is from a media statementissued today:

First and foremost, we would like to express our sympathy to the person who has experienced illness and to all those who have experienced the resultant stress and anxiety. We sincerely hope the person will recover fully and rapidly. The company is legally bound not to disclose or mention the identity of the person.

Nonetheless, there can be little doubt that they’re referring to Brabant. The rest of that statement is simply a tract declaring that they’re not responsible, that it wasn’t necessarily a vaccine reaction, and that tries to indicate they constantly monitor for any ill effects of the vaccine. They don’t, though, acknowledge that Brabant’s doctors have found nothing that could have caused his illness other than the vaccination. There’s one more little detail that should be noted. The Stamaril vaccine is known to cause encephalitis, which is an inflammation of the brain—and that could only too easily explain what has happened to Brabant. Why hasn’t the BBC covered Malcolm Brabant’s injury? One would think that something bringing down one of their favorite reporters would be news. Apparently, though, if the likely cause is a vaccination…well, those are waters that aren’t to be roiled by the UK’s mouthpiece, are they? We hope that Malcom Brabant and his wit can return to reporting. There are few who share his ability to get the Greek finance minister to state that Germany should be grateful for all the gold taken from Greece by Nazis during World War II. He and his talented reporting—not to mention his soothing voice—are deeply missed.