November 11, 2003

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Autism in a Needle? The toxic tale of vaccinations and mercury poisoning - In These Times - NOW ONLINE!

Experts clash over danger of vaccine - Cape Times via www.iol.co.za - "Confused? If not, you probably haven't been paying attention to the debate on the safety of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine...But then came the most dramatic development. There was now proof of the danger from the MMR, said Wakefield - and it had not been made public."

Colorado's immunization woes - Health officials launch effort to get shots to more children - Rocky Mountain News

CDC: Critical Decisions Count - new website - Medical citations and articles on immunizations for concerned parents to discuss with their pediatricians and doctors.

Recall of Hepatitis A Vaccine, Inactivated (VAQTA) (Packaged in single-dose prefilled syringes) - Date Recall Initiated: December 10, 2001 - FDA

Flu jabs for rare illnesses - Taipei Times - "The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is offering people with rare disorders free flu vaccines this winter for the first time, according to the Taiwan Foundation for Rare Disorders."

Get that flu shot, and you may save yourself a heart attack - Houston Chronicle - "Influenza is thought to trigger heart attacks and strokes by destabilizing fatty deposits clinging to artery walls. Inflammation caused by the flu can help blood clots form around the fatty deposits, or the infection can cause one of the deposits to break apart, ultimately blocking a blood vessel and setting off a stroke or heart attack...A growing body of research has shown that flu shots reduce heart attack risk by 50 percent to 67 percent. Other studies show influenza vaccination may cut stroke risk in half. In comparison, statin drugs, which lower blood cholesterol, reduce cardiovascular disease deaths by 30 percent on average."

Concerns over flu vaxxine charges - Limerick Post - "The Consumers Association has expressed concern over the affordability of the flu vaxxine among vulnerable income groups."

New vaccine may hold hope for AD (Alzheimer's Disease) patients - www.inpharm.com

HIV vaccine trial ends in failure - A major trial into a possible vaccine for HIV has ended in disappointment for researchers. - BBC - "Those given the vaccine were no less likely to contract HIV, and the jab did not slow the progress of the disease."

Effective Pain Reduction for Multiple Immunization Injections in Young Infants - journal article

Old TB vaccine can improve immune response to TB in HIV patients - www.aidsmap.com

Family Gets State Radio Tracker for Son, 6 - Reuters via Yahoo! - "A Norwegian family may use a state radio surveillance device to help track down their six-year-old son if he runs away, an Oslo appeals court ruled...The court ruling, obtained by Reuters on Monday, agreed with the family that the boy needed extra care because he suffered from autism and was prone to running off."

The child within autism - The cause remains unknown, but with more cases diagnosed, parents can only cope - The Star-Telegram - "St. Patrick's Cathedral was particularly quite and solemn just after the consecration at a recent Sunday morning Mass when Scott Gammage became aware that his 11-year-old son, Nicolas, was growing restless...'I decided it was time to go, and we were slipping out the back when Nicolas suddenly turned around, waved real big and shouted, very clearly, "Bye, God! See you tomorrow!"'"

Family's justified faith in a son flowers in support for others - AP via Star-Tribune - "Annette Levine's question was one that no parent wants to ask: "What's wrong with our baby?"...Now the Levines have become big boosters of Fraser, the Twin Cities nonprofit organization that operates a school, intensive social services and housing for more than 2,200 children and adults with autism-related and other developmental disabilities."

A Chance at Independence - D.C.'s Developmentally Disabled Could Be Eligible for More Services - The Washington Post - "Eight-year-old Deion Hawkins can fasten a button, but he needs help with a zipper. He is proficient with the computer, but he cannot ride a bicycle. He knows how to warm food in the microwave, but not how to tie his shoes. He can vacuum the floor, but he can't bathe himself...Michelle A. Hawkins worries what will happen when her son, found to have autism at age 3, grows up and leaves the District's public school system, where he receives one-on-one classroom instruction. 'I intend for my son to be independent and as close to normal as possible,' she said. 'I believe he can achieve that, but he must have support.'"

A conflict of interest? - An audit suggests that a flaw in state law keeps the state from efficiently funding services for those with developmental disabilities. - The Wichita Eagle via www.kansas.com - "Taking care of disabled youngsters and adults at home -- or as close to home as possible -- was the point of a 1995 state law that led to closing state hospitals in favor of community-based care...A recent audit, however, raises questions about whether the money is being spent effectively."

Cancer drugs' side effects often identified late after FDA approval - Reuters Health

Comment: And what, pray tell, of other drug side effects? For instance, what of drugs (i.e., vaccines) which are pushed on healthy children by the government and medical profession prior to proper study (i.e., long-term studies using never-vaccinated children as controls)? What's the chance they are even particularly followed up on, given that there are 35,688 VAERS reports for which it is apparently "Unknown" whether or not the person RECOVERED. (Note estimates of under-reporting that may or may not be applicable to VAERS.)

Can't stop coughing? Whooping cough hits adults, too - www.post-gazette.com - "A child visits a pediatrician, who fails to diagnose that the young patient has pertussis, also known as whooping cough. The child infects the doctor, who then passes the respiratory tract infection on to others...That's what happened in September in the Allentown-Lehigh area of the state. As a result, 20 cases of pertussis were confirmed and the Pennsylvania Department of Health issued an advisory to doctors, alerting them to be on the lookout for the disease."

Influenza in children - journal article (CMAJ) - "Prevention: The key to controlling influenza infection is prevention.The importance of hand-washing cannot be overemphasized. Vaccination works to prevent cases;⁹ one of the biggest factors influencingwhether a child is vaccinated is whether the family physicianrecommends it..."

Early spike in flu cases has California doctors fearing bad winter bug - www.sfgate.com

Bone disorder in Sars survivors - www.health24.co.za - "Hong Kong hospital officials said Sunday that 49 Sars survivors are suffering from a degenerative bone disorder, possibly a side-effect of the steroids used to treat them...Many Hong Kong Sars patients who contracted the potentially fatal respiratory illness were treated with an antiviral drug and high dosages of steroids, and some experts had warned that the regimen may be harmful, the Associated Press reports."

Comment: Recognizing what appeared to many to be an emergency in this case, still, how often are the treatments devised to deal with illness the cause of long-term consequences attributed to the disease? (See also Doctors Probe Whether Medication Hurt Hepatitis Victim)

Prevalence of Group A Streptococcal Carriers in Asymptomatic Children and Clonal Relatedness among Isolates in Malatya, Turkey - journal article

Virus hits home - The Advertiser, Australia - "Adelaide is in the grip of a gastroenteritis epidemic that is straining hospital resources...The Women's and Children's Hospital emergency department has seen more than 100 cases since Saturday and Flinders Medical Centre also reports its paediatric wards are full of sufferers...The highly contagious illness, which is predominantly being caused by rotavirus, has forced hospital staff to create a makeshift isolation bay for each child admitted."

FDA shift could transform market for statins - The Wall Street Journal (requires subscription) via www.healthleaders.com - "The FDA will soon have to decide if statins, the best-selling drugs widely used to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart attacks, are safe enough to be sold over-the-counter."

Drugmakers' paths of influence need to be less hidden - The Wall Street Journal (requires subscription) via www.healthleaders.com - "Wall Street Journal columnist Alan Murray says that although drugmakers should be allowed to lobby for influence with the federal government, their tactics should be public knowledge."

Comment: Hmmm, does this mean the FDA is dropping any pretense that its job is to protect the consumer?

Federal government fails to warn public about Hepatitis C - AP via www.semissourian.com - "Despite repeated promises, the federal government has failed to warn Americans about the potential dangers of hepatitis C, a virus that infects millions and kills thousands every year...The Kansas City Star reported Sunday that nearly every public education campaign about the virus has sputtered, with the government often citing a lack of money as the reason...The government also did not follow through on a plan to notify tens of thousands of patients that they might have been infected by hepatitis C from blood transfusions before 1992."

Global rise in fake drugs - The worldwide use of fake drugs has increased because they are so easy to make and sell cheaply, says the World Health Organization - BBC

Needle Found in New Shoe at Wal-Mart - AP via Newsday - "The mother of a 5-year-old boy who says he was pricked by a hypodermic needle left inside a shoe at Wal-Mart wants the world's largest discount retailer to pay for his HIV and hepatitis tests."

Clinical Trial Patients Don't Care About Study Sponsors Or Physician Conflicts Of Interest - Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions via Life Science News - "Many patients will volunteer for a clinical trial if asked, even if the physician who inquires is a stockholder in the sponsoring company or has other potential conflicts of interest, a Johns Hopkins study demonstrates...'Many people don't trust pharmaceutical companies because they feel they are being overcharged for medications,' Braunstein adds. 'But given a chance to get involved in the testing of a new drug that may provide them some health benefit, they want to do this.'"

Comment: This is just plain hard to believe. And, if true, equally hard to interpret.

Emerging field of epigenetics hints at new culprits in disease - Dallas Morning News via www.sunherald.com - "After scientists decoded the human genetic blueprint, the mysteries of disease were supposed to be simpler to solve...But researchers are starting to warn that the genetic blueprint has extra text that's only beginning to emerge. Solving some disease mysteries, they say, won't happen until this extra information is fully understood."

What Is the Next Plague? - The New York Times - "No one knows when or where the next plague will occur, or whether it will be from a natural or bioterrorist attack...But it is coming."

Should We Improve Our Genome? - The New York Times

What Did We Learn From AIDS? - The New York Times - "AIDS exploded a scientific complacency that seems inconceivably naïve today. Few experts were ruminating about new plagues in the 1970's because it was widely assumed that vaccination, sanitation and antibiotics were making infections obsolete. The retroviruses, the family of viruses that includes the AIDS virus, H.I.V., were felt to be of academic interest only."

Do We Still Hurt Newborn Babies? - A Prospective Study of Procedural Pain and Analgesia in Neonates - journal article - "Conclusions Clinicians estimated that most neonatal intensivecare unit procedures are painful, but only a third of the neonatesreceived appropriate analgesic therapy. Despite the accumulatingevidence that neonatal procedural pain is harmful, analgesictreatment for painful procedures is limited. Systematic approachesare required to reduce the occurrence of pain and to improvethe analgesic treatment of repetitive pain in neonates.^"

Surgery risk from CJD prions - Prions in muscle flag transmission hazard and diagnostic lead. - Nature

Antibacterial eases phobia - TB drug plus virtual reality relieves fear of heights. - Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, New Orleans, November 2003 via Nature

Elements Of Green Tea Prevent HIV From Binding To Human T Cells - American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology via www.intelihealth.com

Diet High In Vitamin C Decreases Stroke Risk, Especially Among Smokers - American Academy of Neurology via www.intelihealth.com

Fusion of old and new - The Star Online - "Dr Nor Shahidah said that before integrated medicine is endorsed, there should be adequate scientific evidence on the potential clinical benefits, safety and risks of TCM; this is still lacking in this country, she said."

German Company Says Baby Formula Lacked Vital Ingredient - The New York Times

Comment: What about doing more to encourage breastfeeding?

Immune protein clue to cot death - High levels of an immune system protein may increase the risk of cot death, say researchers. - BBC - "They believe high levels of the chemical may make the nervous system less responsive to danger signs...However, critics of the research, published in Neurology, say it failed to compare children of the same age."

SIDS Linked to Protein Build-up - Ivanhoe - "Researchers from Belgium have linked Sudden Infant Death Syndrome to abnormal amounts of a key protein in the brain...These proteins normally assist in fighting infections, but if levels are too high, they could throw brain functions, such as breathing, off track."

Bug makes bats bad for brains - Bacterial poison damages brains of Pacific islanders - and perhaps others. - Nature

People to Watch: John Bonfiglio - www.signonsandiego.com - "As the new chief executive of Immune Response Corp., John Bonfiglio is leading an effort to revive the biotechnology company's troubled finances and restore confidence in its science...The company was co-founded by the late Dr. Jonas Salk with the purpose of using his experience and success with the polio vaccine to develop an immune-based therapeutic vaccine to treat HIV and AIDS."

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DISCLAIMER: All information, data, and material contained, presented, or provided here is for general information purposes only and is not to be construed as reflecting the knowledge or opinions of the publisher, and is not to be construed or intended as providing medical or legal advice. The decision whether or not to vaccinate is an important and complex issue and should be made by you, and you alone, in consultation with your health care provider.