The University of Toronto is reviewing one of its health courses in light of claims that an instructor at its Scarborough campus is promoting anti-vaccination ideas.

In recent weeks, some scientists have raised concerns about Beth Landau-Halpern, a homeopath and alternative health instructor, who prescribes scientifically unproven alternative vaccines to her own patients and whose course material has included anti-vaccination perspectives. Over the weekend, Landau-Halpern gave a talk at a U of T-sponsored conference on alternative health practices.

"Given the recent public outcry over a professor at Queen's University teaching anti-vaccine pseudo-science, why the University of Toronto is sponsoring a talk by an anti-vaccine homeopath deserves an explanation," said Scott Gavura, director of provincial drug reimbursement programs for Cancer Care Ontario, in a Feb. 26 blog post titled Pseudoscience North: What's happening to the University of Toronto?

In a statement to the Star on Tuesday, Sioban Nelson, vice-provost, academic programs at the U of T, said "in response to recent concerns that have been raised regarding a Health Studies course in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto Scarborough," senior university staff, including a curriculum committee, are "examining the matter."

The university would not confirm whether the course in question is taught by Landau-Halpern.

Landau-Halpern, who is married to Rick Halpern, dean of the Scarborough campus, teaches a course called "Alternative Health: Practice and Theory." Under a section of her course syllabus called Vaccination: The King of Controversy, the required viewings included a video interview with Andrew Wakefield, one of the authors of the widely debunked study purporting to link autism with measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

Landau-Halpern, responding by email Monday to questions from the Star, said she has removed the vaccination debate from her current course outline. "Because of the volatility of the vaccine issue and the current outbreak, this particular controversy is not a part of my course any longer," she wrote.

She stressed that vaccinations are only tangentially related to her practice and teachings. The course material, she said, was meant to allow students to think critically by exposing them to controversy and does not reflect her own views.

On a website dedicated to her practice, she advertises a talk called "Vaccination — Dangers and Alternatives," and in a post about motherhood she metaphorically likens vaccines to boulders rolling on top of a flower.

"Some boulders are unavoidable, but others, like vaccines, can and should be avoided. There is no 'unvaccinating,' " she writes, later saying, "Normal childhood illnesses like measles and chickenpox are almost always followed by massive developmental spurts. Times of darkness often give way to a brighter and more integrated era of growth and development."

Landau-Halpern would not elaborate on what she meant by the posts but did tell the Star she believes vaccines are "effective biomedical interventions that need to be used in a nuanced and individualized manner." As part of her practice, she provides patients with homeopathic preparations known as nosodes, which are made from diluted tissues or material infected with a particular disease and are sometimes presented as vaccine alternatives.

A statement from the U of T's health sciences deans said their faculties "teach our students that vaccines are safe, effective and vital to children's health … The best evidence that science can provide demonstrates that the proven health benefits of vaccines far outweigh their potential side effects, and we instruct our students accordingly."

- Anti-vaccine professor takes leave of absence from Queen's