http://libnt2.lib.tcu.edu/staff/lruede/autvacc.html
"THE ABCs OF MMRs AND DTPs: IS THERE AN
ASSOCIATION BETWEEN VACCINATION AND AUTISM?" BY ERIC LONDON:
A BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY
rev. 7-21-99
Laura J. Ruede, MLS
Prologue
The February 28, 1998 issue of the prestigious medical journal The
Lancet contained a preliminary report on a study which occasioned much
discussion and controversy: "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia,
non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children,"
by Andrew Wakefield and a team of British scientists.1 The British
group investigated, initially, a group of twelve children; by January 1998
Wakefield’s team totaled fifty-one investigations of children with regressive
autistic spectrum disorders and inflammatory bowel disease and, as of July
1998, had at least one year’s worth of additional examinations scheduled as
parents of similarly autistic children ‘queued up.' Intriguingly, the
scientists found measles virus proteins in the germinal centers of the
children’s intestinal lymphatic tissues, along with indications of classic
inflammatory bowel disease. The children had previously been vaccinated with
the MMR/MR vaccines or had experienced wild measles.
In a recent issue of NAARRATIVE, newsletter of the National
Alliance for Autism Research, issue number 3 from fall 1998, appears an article
entitled, "The ABCs of MMRs and DTPs: Is There an Association
Between Vaccination and Autism?" According to the organization’s web
site description, NAAR is a national nonprofit, tax-exempt organization begun
by parents in 1994, dedicated to finding the causes, effective preventive
strategies, effective treatment and, ultimately, the cure for the autism
spectrum disorders (www.naar.org). As a member of NAAR’s
Scientific Advisory Board, Joseph T. Coyle, MD, commented, "the
pervasive developmental disorders have been neglected unduly but are now
approachable by serious research efforts given the rapid advances in
neuroscience (www.naar.org :
Mission)." NAAR’s stated mission is to fund, promote and support
biomedical research on autism. "NAAR aims," the site states, "to
have an aggressive and far-reaching research program developed with the expert
guidance of its prestigious Scientific Advisory Board."
Unfortunately, the "ABCs" article in NAARRATIVE
newsletter treats pivotal issues using narrowly-selected details from an
equally narrow range of resources, and which contains vague allusions,
unfounded or false statements, and injudicious speculation. The issues raised
in Dr. London’s article are significant and should be considered at length by
autistic persons (where possible) and their families, as well as the
professionals, the pharmaceutical industry, and the units of government whose
work and decisions profoundly effect them. This paper is a work-in-progress
which is offered in the spirit of scholarly inquiry and critical thought, to
assist those attempting to make decisions regarding the vaccination/autism
issue. This paper or parts thereof may be reproduced for purposes of study or
reference. Concerning endnotes, several reference numbers will appear out of
sequence; initially, a traditional reference sequence was adopted--1, 2, etc.,
appearing consecutively; later in this paper's evolution, a random numbering
approach was adopted. Endnote numbers should lead readers to the correct
citations, regardless.
[Link to Eric London’s article on NAAR’s website (NAARRATIVE no. 3,
Summer/Fall 1998) at http://babydoc.home.pipeline.com/naar/naar.htm,
or www.naar.org : NAARRATIVE.]
Contents
Fundamental issues
Cause(s)
of autism
The attenuated
virus: infectious or not?
The Wakefield
study—and others
Vaccine necessity:
manufactured epidemics
The ‘Thalidomide
Connection’
Popular statistics
(Vaccine safety, efficacy and other figures)
Factoid Fallacies
Autism
and schizophrenia
Brain autopsies and
imaging
Scientific evidence
"Vaccinations
Save Lives"
The myth of disease
eradication
"Vaccines are
safe and effective"
The danger of
vaccine-preventable diseases
The autoimmune
theory of autism
The purpose of
vaccination
Measles vaccine
fears
Should you
vaccinate your children?
Caveats
Consider
the source
Conflicts of
interest
Scientific
propaganda
Parents vs.
professionals?
The psychology of
causal attribution
Autism research
overdue
NAAR representation
and support
Fundamental issues
The cause(s)
of autism
In "The ABCs…" London
asserts that autism has been proven to be a simple (single-faceted) genetic
disorder which begins before birth, and thus is not related in any way to
vaccination, but cites only a few selected studies in supporting this idea. In
formulating his argument he casts doubt on the validity of the memories and
reasoning of parents who observe a period of initial normality in their
children, before vaccination. The first major failure of reporting in this
article lies in the lack of differentiation between typical, or
"Kanner’s," autism and atypical or regressive autism, and childhood
disintegrative disorder—or any of the other pervasive developmental disorders.
The next lies in London’s argument that autism is either solely genetic, or a
result of genetic traits combined with prenatal environmental influences, as
opposed to immunological insults after birth. In fact, the only proven genetic
causes of autism to date are well-defined syndromes like the Fragile X
chromosome anomaly—which do not explain the autism of any of the children
"ABCs" concerns. London’s thesis is contradicted in important works
from the autism literature, and even in some of the works he cites:
Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV (fourth edition), 1994, pages 66 and 69. DSM-IV specifies that "Autistic
Disorder (defined as "early infantile autism…or Kanner’s autism")
must be differentiated from other Pervasive Developmental Disorders…
Autistic disorder differs from Childhood Disintegrative Disorder,
which has a distinctive pattern of developmental regression following at least 2 years of normal development.
In Autistic Disorder, developmental abnormalities are usually noted within the
first year of life," pages 66 and 69 [emphases mine]. [It is important to
note that DSM-IV’s definition of autistic disorder differs markedly from
earlier definitions, and that autistic spectrum subtypes are still very much in
the definition stage.]
Cohen and Volkmar, eds., Handbook of Autism
and the Pervasive Developmental Disorders, 2nd edition, 1997:
Chapter 18, MEDICAL CONDITIONS[:] Infections…Immunological Association[:]
The claim has been made that a small but significant proportion of children
develop autism as a result of pre-or post-natal infections—for example, with rubella, cytomegalovirus, herpes
simplex, HIV, and so on…Interest in the immune system and autism arises from
the various case reports in which infections (and possibly altered immune
response) are associated with the development of autism or autistic
features" (p. 398).
Margaret L. Bauman
and Thomas Kemper’s The Neurobiology of Autism (Johns Hopkins Press),
1994, is listed among London’s references at the conclusion of "ABCs;"
the work of Bauman and Anthony Bailey are also used by London as supports for
the idea that autism results from a genetic, prenatal maldevelopment of the
brain—yet the Introduction to Neurobiology, written by Isabelle Rapin,
clearly states, "missing from this book, because of the dearth
of prospective information, is a focus on the many potential nongenetic
etiologies of the autistic spectrum… Another topic of interest,
because of its potential therapeutic implications, that is not considered as
such in this book is autistic regression. At least 40 percent of
parents report that their infant or toddler, whose development may or may not
have been entirely normal up to then, experienced a regression, usually
insidious but occasionally abrupt,
in language, sociability, and play… Development resumes after a plateau…but, in
most cases, never returns to its previous level… Many speculations have
been offered…to explain autistic regression: slow viral infection, autoimmune
phenomenon, lack or insufficiency of a growth factor at a particular
time in development... Data need to be collected to investigate these
speculations" (pages 13-14).
Bauman and Kemper resume, in chapter 2, "The Genetics of Autism,"
with the following passages occurring on pages 30 to 31 of Neurobiology:
Environmental
Factors[:] In examining the
importance of genetic factors in the etiology of autism, evidence for
environmental factors should be reviewed as well. Unfavorable pre-, peri-, and
neonatal factors have been shown to occur more commonly in autistic individuals
than normal controls….. Modes of Inheritance[:] Although the importance
of hereditary factors in the etiology of idiopathic autism is well established,
particularly genetic mechanisms have not yet been identified…it is almost
certain that autism is an etiologically heterogeneous [multi-causal]
disorder. It is known, for example, that autism can develop in
association with etiologies as diverse as congenital rubella, tuberous
sclerosis, and the fragile X anomaly, as well
as in the absence of any identifiable, co-occurring, etiologically defined
condition [emphases mine]. Among autistic individuals without identifiable,
associated etiologic conditions, several points suggest that there may also be
genetic heterogeneity. [See also the discussion of T. C. Binstock's research
paper, "Changing the autism paradigm: a critique of Kemper &
Bauman's speculations regarding in-utero timing," in Factoid fallacies, below.]
Journal
of Autism and Developmental Disorders, vol. 28, no. 5. 1998 (entirely devoted to the genetics of autism; preface
by Eric Fombonne): as one would surmise, the general tone of the separate
contributions indicate the strong possibility of a genetic component in autism
(though the writers rarely differentiate between subtypes), but this research
is far from finished, and does not exclude other factors, as London implies. In
P. Szatmari, et al., "Genetics of Autism: Overview and New Directions,"
the authors observe that the genetics of autism in its various manifestations
is likely to involve the complex interaction of multiple genes, but even in
this event "it is too early to say what type of complex genetic disease
autism/PDD represents." A variety of factors may interact to produce these
conditions (pages 355; 365)—possibly different mechanisms for each ‘type’ of
autism (page 365). The authors venture so far as to say that "certain
severe insults" during pregnancy and birth might "play a causative
role in the development of PDD: "For some children, genetic
vulnerability may interact with insults on the developing nervous system to
lead to autism." Such insults might
lead to PDD even in the absence of genetic factors—for instance, thalidomide
exposure or congenital rubella (page 364). The authors do not examine the
period of development after birth, but it is likely that the same reasoning
could apply to the developing nervous system during the first three years of life—or
even later.
Marian Sigman and
Lisa Capps’ Children With Autism: a Developmental Perspective (Harvard
University Press), 1997 asks, in Chapter 8, In Search of Core Deficits and
Causes: "What Are the Causes of Autism?" "Autism
is not a unitary disease with a single etiology," the authors state.
"It is a heterogeneous behavioral syndrome found in association with
many etiologies…Complications in any part of… development…could cause damage
that leads to autism. Infections affecting the central nervous system in
early life could also have this effect (pp. 171-2). Evidence for genetic
factors is mounting, they note, but "it is not clear, however, whether
all forms of autism are genetically transmitted in the same way (pp.
172-3)." Syndromes like the fragile X-chromosome anomaly and tuberous
sclerosis are distinct from other pervasive developmental disorders.
"Autism accompanied by mental retardation is inherited differently than
when not…" Evidence suggests that multiple genes are involved (pp.
173-4).
C. Gillberg and M.
Coleman, The Biology of the Autistic Syndromes—2nd edition, 1992.
Chapter 8, GENETIC FACTORS[:] "It is currently believed that a genetic
disease underlies 10 to 20 percent of all autism cases…" (page 96);
"There is another autism subgroup in which the autistic symptomatology is
linked to disease processes currently thought to be, in many instances, of a
non-genetic (or at least ‘non-inherited’) character" (page 103). Chapter
18, INFECTIOUS DISEASES[:] Postnatal infections[:] …Can an infection
after birth cause an autistic syndrome? "…In summary…infectious
agents in the prenatal or postnatal period may be a factor in the development
of autism. The most common mechanism appears to be a direct toxic effect on
brain cells from the infection (encephalitis)… It is of interest that, in
reports concerning both rubella and HSV infections, cases with late onset are
found. An infectious aetiology is a strong contender in the
differential diagnosis of autistic symptoms…"
(pages 222-4).
Schopler and Mesibov,
eds., Diagnosis and Assessment in Autism (1988). Chapter authors
Schopler and Michael Rutter note on page 28, "[Considering] the very
fact that the clinical picture of autism can arise from diseases as diverse as
congenital rubella, tuberous sclerosis, encephalopathy…cerebral lipoidosis, and
neurofibromatosis…it remains quite uncertain whether the…cases with a known
pathologic cause represent phenocopies of some other unitary disorder with
(an as yet undiscovered) single etiology…." Page 86 quotes
Volkmar and Cohen, "…it is clear that the preponderance of available
evidence suggests the importance of multiple biologic factors acting through
one or more mechanisms to produce the autistic syndrome." On pages
295-6, chapter authors Watson and Marcus note the importance of a medical
assessment paralleling psychological and other testing: "it is
important to recognize the possible medical factors associated with autism. A
variety of biologic conditions have been documented including…certain viral
infections, abnormalities in purine metabolism and intestinal absorption…" The authors refer readers to Coleman and
Gillberg, quoted above, for comprehensive information on the medical aspects of
autism.
Shirley Cohen, Targeting
Autism, 1998, pages 139 and 140: "There is increasing evidence of
immune system abnormalities in autism. A substantial number of reports of
research on this subject have appeared in medical journals since the 1980s, and
most of these articles present data that appear to support the theory of a
connection between immune system dysfunction and some cases of autism…study
of immune system abnormalities in autism has attained the status of mainstream
medical research."
The Centers for
Disease Control, [1998],
"Vaccines and Autism: Is There a Relationship?" (http://www.cdc.gov/nip/vacsafe/vac_autism.htm):
Notoriously pro-vaccine, the CDC nevertheless says, of autism, "Some
prenatal factors included intrauterine rubella; tuberous sclerosis;
chromosomal abnormalities, such as Down’s Syndrome, as well as brain
abnormalities, like hydrocephalus. …postnatal conditions associated with
autism are untreated phenylketonuria, infantile spasms, and herpes
simplex encephalitis. …Evidence that genetics is an important,
but not exclusive, cause of autism includes a three to eight
percent risk of recurrence in families with one affected child. …An
issue unresolved [by a working group convened by the National
Institutes of Health in 1995] was
the role of immune factors in autism spectrum disorders; it was suggested that
studies to clarify the situation are needed."
Uta Frith,
Autism: Explaining the Enigma, 1989/1994, p. 79, "The theory
that psychotic illness can be due to immune dysfunction and/or viral infection
has particular justification in the area of Autism. It has been shown …that a
virus infection in a young child preceded the onset of typical symptoms of
Autism, before which there was a period of apparently normal development…If the
central nervous system becomes infected at a critical time, either before or
after birth, Autism may result…Of special
interest are certain types of virus called retrovirus, which totally integrate
themselves in genetic material in the body cells…These can remain dormant for
years but from time to time can be reactivated."
Van Gent, et al. present a review of the
literature in the emerging field of "psychoneuroimmunology" through
1997 in "Autism and the Immune System," Journal of Child Psychology
and Psychiatry, vol. 38 no. 3, March 1997, pp. 337-349. "Over the last
30 years increasing evidence has been found for the existence of complex links
between the immune system, the central nervous system and the endocrine system
on the one hand, and psychological phenomena…on the other…: prenatal and early
childhood experiences could have prominent effects on the development of the
responsiveness of the immune system, with far-reaching and long-lasting
consequences for the immune capacity at a later age. Conversely, early
derailments in the normal development of immune function, as, for instance, in
the induction of autoimmunity in an early phase of the immunological
developmental traject, could have important effects on the development of the
nervous and endocrine systems… [Regarding autism,] two etiologically relevant
immune hypotheses in particular have emerged: a viral and an autoimmune
hypothesis, which are interrelated (p.345). The basic neuroimmunologic premise of these hypotheses
is that autoimmune and/or viral processes in some way affect the nervous system
and alter central nervous system activity" (pages 337-8).
William Shaw, Biological
Treatments for Autism and PDD, 1998. Shaw reports finding in children with
autism and PDD none of the signs characteristic of known, inborn (genetic)
conditions causing metabolic disorders (pages 31; 35-37; 68-9; 129). On pages
103-4, "Role of immunizations in causing immune deficiencies[:]
"In several cases, electron microscopy has revealed live measles virus in
the intestinal lining of children with autism,
raising the possibility that the MMR may actually be responsible for some of
the gastrointestinal abnormalities common in children with autism." Shaw
also notes "some interesting parallels between autism and tetanus," citing Ellen Bolte’s paper, "Autism and
Clostridium Tetani: An Hypothesis" [Medical Hypotheses, vol.
51, 1998, pages 133-144] (Shaw page 22).
H. H. Fudenberg,
NeuroImmuno Therapeutics Research Foundation, "Classic Infantile
Onset Autism is an Autoimmune Disease,"
http://members.aol.com/nitrf/autism1.htm,
accessed May 20, 1998:2 In the process of describing transfer factor
therapy studied in 40 autistic patients, Fudenberg notes, "The gene for
classic autism has been localized to human chromosome-6, the site of human
immune response genes and [is] linked to haplotypes containing the C4 null
allele."
"Role of
Immunogenetics in the Diagnosis of Postvaccinal CNS Pathology,"
Massimo Montinari, et al., Department of Pediatric Surgery, University of Bari,
Italy, presented May 9, 1996 (text available http://www.healthy.net/library/articles/coulter/biochem.htm):
after thirty children were found to have signs of central nervous system and
genetic damage following vaccination, the authors remark, "A
study of the disease associated with genes of the HLA system has shown that
this genetic complex can be responsible for a particular genetic
susceptibility, predisposing to various diseases characterized predominantly by
immune-system pathogenesis… results indicate
that autoimmune pathology is more frequent in countries where vaccination is
more widespread….." [A fuller description of this study will be found in
"The attenuated virus--infectious or not?" below.]
T. Binstock,
Researcher in Developmental & Behavioral Neuroanatomy, Denver, Colorado,
"Familial does not mandate genetic[:]…Four categories of familial
illness or disorder." "Only one of [the first] three categories
is purely genetic [--category A:]" A) familial occurrences indicating an
actual gene-mutation that is hereditary; B) familial occurrences reflecting a
genetically encoded susceptibility factor; C) familial illness via
environmental factors. D) familial clustering of increased small intestinal
permeability in families with Crohn's Disease. In category B, "the mutated
gene is not the primary cause but is merely an inborn way that a person
is more statistically likely, over time, to experience the primary cause. Genetically
encoded immunodeficiencies are an example of 'susceptibility factor.' [With
autism,] the most common genetic susceptibility factor is having a null allele
of complement 4b" (referenced communication
to Autism listserv originating at St. Johns, University, New York
[autism@maelstrom.stjohns.edu], September 16, 1997, 08:39:13 -0700).
G. Trottier et al.,
"Etiology of infantile autism: a review of recent advances in genetic
and neurobiological research" (Journal of Psychiatry and
Neuroscience, vol. 24, no. 2, March 1999, pp. 103-15): "The etiology
of autism is complex, and in most cases the underlying pathologic mechanisms
are unknown… Recent research has investigated…immunological factors. On the basis of family and twin studies, there
appears to be a genetic basis for a wide 'autistic syndrome.' …Autoimmunity
also may play a role; antibodies against myelin basic protein are often found
in children with autism, who also have increased eosinophil and basophil
response to IgE-mediated reactions. In summary, the prevailing view is
that autism is caused by a pathophysiologic process arising from the
interaction of an early environmental insult and a genetic predisposition."
A. M. Comi, et al.,
"Familial clustering of autoimmune disorders and evaluation of medical
risk factors in autism" (Journal of Child Neurology, vol. 14,
no. 6, June 1999, pp. 388-94): "Autism is an age-dependent neurologic
disorder that is often associated with autoimmune disorders in the patients’
relatives… The most common autoimmune disorders…[are] type 1 diabetes, adult
rheumatoid arthritis, hypothyroidism, and systemic lupus erythematosus… An
increased number of autoimmune disorders [in patients’ families] suggests that
in some families with autism, immune dysfunction could interact with various
environmental factors to play a role in autism pathogenesis."
Barak, Y., et al.,
"Autistic subjects with comorbid epilepsy: a possible association with
viral infections" (Child Psychiatry and Human Development, vol.
29, no. 3, Spring 1998, pp. 245-51): "This study evaluates the comorbidity
of epilepsy as a variable supporting a viral hypothesis in Autism. Data
covering a thirty-year period (1960-1989)…were collected… The annual birth
pattern of subjects with comorbid epilepsy fit the seasonality of viral
meningitis. These findings support the role of viral C.N.S. infections in the
causality of this disorder."
"Serological
Association of Measles Virus and Human Herpesvirus-6 With Brain Autoantibodies
in Autism" (Clinical Immunology and Immunopathology vol. 89,
number 1, October 1998, pp. 105-8): this study is the first to report an
association between virus serology and brain autoantibody in autism; it
supports the hypothesis that a virus-induced autoimmune response may play a
causal role in autism.
The pattern of normality
followed by regression, loss of development, or halted development and
appearance of odd behavioral features was not fabricated by parents, as London
implies; it is well represented in the autism literature. Probing the issue of
genetics in autism, an important possibility goes unmentioned in London’s
"ABCs:" the genetic factor in regressive autisms and PDDs
could well be a particular configuration of immune system components—in
essence, vulnerabilities in the immune system such that affected children
cannot adequately deal with the challenges posed by the current, frequently
trivalent live-virus vaccines. Like Fudenberg, Van Gent, et al. observe that
"the immune response is regulated by genetic material located mainly on
the sixth chromosome." Failure or lack of crucial components within
this system can lead to disruption of normal cell-mediated immune responses.
Virus infections may induce autoimmunity, and autoimmunity may result in
increased susceptibility to infections and subsequent damage to the CNS.
Besides viral infections as a cause, it is possible that "a genetic predisposition to
a relative deficiency of specific immune cells may be involved" (pp.
344-5).
The
attenuated virus: infectious or not?
Oddly, rubella and other
viral infections have been considered causal for autism if they occur before
birth, or after birth if they occur ‘naturally,’ as in measles encephalitis,
but not if they occur after vaccination. On page 16 of the NAARRATIVE issue in
question, London claims that the viruses in vaccines are either dead or
attenuated, and thus "can no longer cause disease." That live,
attenuated viruses cannot cause disease is an astounding assertion given that,
first, many polio cases have been caused by the oral polio vaccine—sometimes in
persons caring for the vaccinee.3 Jonas Salk, its inventor, once
commented that the polio vaccine is the leading cause of polio today. An issue
of Pediatrics (vol. 84, no. 5, November 1989, pp. 851-5) studies "Anemia
of a mild viral infection: [using] the measles vaccine as a model."
In this study, live attenuated measles virus was given to 93 infants in order
to induce mild viral infections, in order to study hematologic changes
(hemoglobin was shown to drop significantly in these infants). According to Molecular
Virology, 1994, Chapter 3, Vaccines and Immunotherapy, "all
live viruses are subject to a range of concerns… (p. 76)." Page 78
charts advantages and disadvantages of the different types of vaccines: live
attenuated vaccine viruses can not only revert to virulence, but "may cause
[a] mild form of disease;" or, due to the presence of viral genomes,
"may be[come] pathogenic or oncogenic (cancer causing) in some [people’s]
systems."4 Aside from these forms of infection, persistent
(also called chronic, or ‘slow’) or latent infections may be engendered by
viruses (MV, pp. 39-41). Viral "replication strategies may enable
them to remain intracellular, either as latent or as persistent infections.
Their replication, or their mere presence in the cell, may interfere with
differentiated cell functions…Viruses have the potential to cause a number
of pathological changes, which may have profound and long-lasting clinical
effects even after the virus has been eliminated from the body" (Van
Gent, pages 340-341). In Van Gent, p. 341, the authors warn that the immune
system is particularly susceptible to tolerance induction when the cells of the
immune system have not yet reached maturity. The condition of viral ‘tolerance’
is explained in Molecular Virology (David R. Harper, Bios Scientific
Publishers, 1994), pages 39-40, and in The Immunology of the Immune System
(Oxford University Press, 1977), pages 77-78.
Chronic viral infections can reactivate,
moreover—sometimes years after initial infection. In Subacute Sclerosing
Panencephalitis (SSPE), "virus replicates at low levels without producing
infectious virus with altered production of viral proteins and an atypical
immune response" (MV, p.39). But there is still another means by which a
live virus vaccine can cause disease: since vaccine viruses are grown in animal
or human cells, contaminating or endogenous (‘produced from within’) animal
viruses can inhabit the vaccine and infect a vaccinated individual. Early
batches of killed polio vaccine, for instance, were found to be contaminated with
Simian Virus 40 (Molecular Virology, pp. 39-43; 75-6; 78-9), which has
been linked with cancer years after infection. Other animal viruses—and viral
proteins—have been known to contaminate vaccines, due to the use of particular
animal cells or tissues in vaccine-making. Dr. John W. Martin has done
extensive work in detecting such "stealth viruses" in the systems of
vaccinees (texts of numerous papers and conference presentations are available
at http://www.ccid.org ). Contamination can
also occur in a more limited setting, as with bacterial contamination during
the manufacturing process. Accidents of other kinds can occur with vaccine
manufacture, as with incomplete or incorrect inactivation or attenuation.
Viral infection--whether by vaccine viruses
or those contacted in the environment--can cause or precipitate chronic disease
in astonishing variety. Determined and skillful survivors, viruses can change
form when "eradicated" by vaccines and reappear as new diseases,
which seemingly unrelated to the original infection (at least, until viral
proteins or other indications are discovered in researching these diseases).
Live viruses from vaccines can bring about the death of vaccinees--either
immediately after vaccination or years afterward--and can interact dangerously
with antibodies already present in "second-generation" vaccinees
(e.g., vaccinated children of fully-vaccinated parents). Due to their nature
and methods of survival, in addition, vaccine viruses can change the very
nature of their human hosts by altering genetic coding.
SELECTED STUDIES AND ARTICLES CONCERNING
VACCINE VIRUSES
Acute reactions to vaccines
"Febrile
seizures in the developing brain result in persistent modification of neuronal
excitability in limbic circuits," (Nature Medicine, vol. 5, no. 8,
August 1999, pp. 888-894):
Acute infection by
vaccine viruses
"Mumps
meningitis following measles, mumps, and rubella immunisation
[letter]" (The Lancet, vol. 2, July 8, 1989, p. 98; comments in
vol. 2, August 12, 1989, pp. 394-5; vol. 2, September 16, 1989, p. 677): in the
primary letter, mumps meningitis was reported in a three-year-old girl
twenty-one days after measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) immunization. The child
exhibited lethargy, vomiting, headache, dry cough, fever, irritability, and
meningeal irritation. There was no known exposure to the measles, mumps or
rubella natural infections. No bacterial or other infections were found. In the
August 12 issue of Lancet, a West German physician reported, also in a
letter, a two-year-old boy with mumps meningitis twenty-one days following a
different manufacturer's MMR vaccine. There was no exposure to natural mumps
virus. The author of August 12 concludes, "The incubation time for
mumps is about 21 days. In some patients, time-lag between immunisation and
manifestation of meningitis was very close to 3 weeks, without known previous
mumps contacts. These facts strongly suggest that some patients may have had
vaccine mumps meningitis, and not wild mumps infection." In the
September 16 issue of Lancet, two British physicians report two
16-month-old boys with mumps meningitis admitted to the hospital 18 and 19 days
following MMR immunization. Mumps virus was isolated from cerebrospinal fluid
of both boys. One boy did not exhibit a rise in mumps antibodies in spite of
vaccination and post-vaccinal meningitis. [Other vaccinal mumps meningitis
citations: "Mumps meningitis, possibly vaccine related," Canada
Disease Weekly Report, vol. 14-40, 1988, pp. 209-11; "A case of mumps
meningitis: a post-immunization complication?" Canada Disease Weekly
Report, vol. 13-35, 1987, pp. 155-6; "A case of mumps meningitis: a
complication of vaccination?" Canadian Medical Association Journal,
vol. 138, 1988, p. 135; "Vaccine-induced mumps-like disease," Development
of Biological Standards, vol. 43, 1978, pp. 269-72; "Aseptic
meningitis after vaccination against measles and mumps," Paediatric
Infectious Diseases, vol. 8, 1989, pp. 302-8.]
"Epidemics
of aseptic meningitis due to enteroviruses following national immunization days
in Bahrain" (Annals of Tropical Paediatrics, vol. 18, no. 2,
June 1998, pp. 101-9): Two successive epidemics of aseptic meningitis due to
enteroviruses were observed after national immunization days against polio,
comprising 286 and 169 cases, respectively, from July 1995-September 1996.
Another report, "Update of enterovirus infection in infants and
children" states, in a section titled "Viral meningitis,"
that natural polioviruses were an important cause of viral meningitis before
vaccination (cases were called "nonparalytic poliomyelitis"). Now,
"rare" cases of viral meningitis are attributed to the attenuated
polioviruses in vaccines, in both vaccine recipients and their contacts (Pediatric
Bulletin, http://home.coqui.net/myrna/virus.htm).
"Disease
caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b in the immediate period after
homologous immunization: immunologic investigation" (Pediatrics,
vol. 85, number 4 part 2, April 1990, pp. 698-704): "One concern with the
use of [current HIB vaccines] was the suggestion that the incidence of invasive
disease caused by H influenzae type b in the immediate period after
immunization might be increased; this idea was supported by evidence from
several sources." In one case-controlled study, 4 children were
hospitalized for invasive disease within 1 week of immunization; the rate of
invasive disease was 6.4 times greater than the background rate in unvaccinated
children.
"Neurologic
complications associated with oral poliovirus vaccine and genomic variability
of the vaccine strains after multiplication in humans," Acta
Virologica, vol. 42, number 3, June 1998, pp. 187-94: The oral poliovirus
vaccine (OPV) sometimes occasions paralytic poliomyelitis in vaccine recipients
and their susceptible contacts. Molecular biology studies of polioviruses from these
patients demonstrate genomic modifications known or suspected to increase
neurovirulence. The same genomic modifications have been identified in strains
isolated from non-symptomatic vaccinees. Other neurologic complications such as
meningitis, encephalitis, convulsions, transverse myelitis and Guillain-Barre
Syndrome have also been associated with this vaccine.
"Paralytic
poliomyelitis in a rural area of north India" (National Medical
Journal of India, vol. 10, no. 1, January-February 1997, pages 8-10): In a
house-to-house survey conducted between 1990 and 1991, several cases of
paralytic poliomyelitis were identified, 60 percent of which had had
intramuscular injections preceeding paralysis, in treatment of minor fevers.
"Poliomyelitis
trends in Pondicherry, south India, 1989-91" (Journal of
Epidemiology and Community Health [London], vol. 51, no. 4, August 1997,
pages 443-48): About 54 percent of children lamed as a result of poliomyelitis
had received three doses of oral polio vaccine before the onset of paralysis.
"Paralytic
Poliomyelitis -- United States, 1980-1984" (Morbidity Mortality
Weekly Report, vo. 46, no. 4, January 31, 1997, pp. 79-83): The Advisory
Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) observes that vaccine-associated
paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP) continues to occur; the risk of VAPP has not
decreased. Of 125 cases associated with the vaccine, 46 cases occurred among contacts
of vaccine recipients.
"Comparative
evaluation of immunization with live attenuated and inactivated polio vaccines"
(Annals of the New York Academy of Science, vol. 754, May 31, 1995, pp.
97-107): With both oral attenuated polio vaccine (OPV) and the enhanced potency
inactivated polio vaccine (EP-IPV), revertant or non-revertant viral shedding
occurred in body wastes for up to 60 days following vaccination. The authors
concede, after saying the combined polio vaccines should be effective in
establishing immunity in recipients, and should lower the rate of
vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP) in recipients, that VAPP is
expected to continue effecting susceptible contacts.
"Poliomyelitis
associated with type-2 poliovirus vaccine strain. Possible transmission from an
immunised child to a non-immunised child" (The Lancet, vol. 1,
March 30, 1968, pp. 661-3): a sixteen-month-old boy hospitalized for high fever
and paralysis had never received any poliovirus vaccine. From playing and
sharing a bed with a cousin, he apparently had contracted paralytic
poliomyelitis from the cousin, who had received type-2 oral poliovirus vaccine
thirty-three days before. Virological and serological investigation revealed a
vaccine-like strain of type-2 poliovirus. The patient's history revealed no
particular susceptibility to infections.
L. J. Morse, et
al., Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 197, 1966, p.
1034: A case of paralytic poliomyelitis in an unvaccinated mother was reported,
apparently acquired after exposure to her infant, who had received trivalent
live, oral polio vaccine twenty-two days earlier.
"Transmission
of vaccine strain varicella-zoster virus from a healthy adult with
vaccine-associated rash to susceptible household contacts" (Journal
of Infectious Disease, vol. 176, no. 4, October 1997, pp. 1072-5): Twelve
days after receiving an investigational Oka strain live attenuated varicella
vaccine, a 38-year-old healthy woman developed a rash consisting of 30
scattered lesions. Sixteen days later, her two children also developed a rash.
Varicella-zoster DNA obtained from the skin lesions was determined to be the vaccine
type. "This case documents transmission of varicella vaccine type virus
from a healthy vaccinee to susceptible household contacts…ongoing studies will
define the frequency of this transmission."
"Live Virus
Vaccines, High-Dose Steroids Don't Mix" (Pediatric News, cited
November 28, 1998, via@access1.net, 10:49
a.m.): Dr. Larry K. Pickering, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics'
"Red Book Committee," was quoted following a meeting at the
University of South Dakota, saying children receiving more than 2 mg/kg per day
of systemic glucocorticoids should not be given live virus vaccines, due to the
risk of disseminated infection from the vaccines. Killed virus vaccines do not
present the same risk. [Note: steroids such as prednisone partially suppress
the immune system.]
"Acute
encephalopathy followed by permanent brain injury or death associated with
further attenuated measles vaccines: a review of claims submitted to the
National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program," Pediatrics, vol.
101, no. 3, Part 1, March 1998; pages 383-387: This study details cases wherein
48 children, ages 10 to 49 months, who had been so affected. Eight children
died, and the remainder had mental regression and retardation, chronic
seizures, motor and sensory deficits, and movement disorders. "CONCLUSIONS: This
clustering suggests that a causal relationship between measles vaccine and
encephalopathy may exist as a rare complication of measles immunization."
[Note regarding rarity: A huge number of vaccine reactions are never
reported, and most of the thousands of vaccine injuries which are reported do
not meet the current, very narrow VAERS/FDA criteria (a very few specific
symptoms must occur within a very short timespan, in order for symtoms to be
considered vaccine-related), and thus are not reported as vaccine-injury cases
by government tabulators. Serious vaccine complications thus are said to be
"rare" in quoted statistics. If independent research proves that the
measles vaccine and PDD/autism are causally related, this kind of vaccine
damage will inflate by thousands the cases of vaccine damage now on record.
This tally, then, may be inflated further by the number of ADD/ADHD-diagnosed
children with inflammatory bowel disorders, per the Georgetown University study
cited in "Wakefield," below.]
"Measles-Mumps-Rubella
(MMR) Vaccine as a Potential Cause of Encephalitis (Brain Inflammation) in
Children," Harold E. Buttram, MD, Townsend Letters, December 1997
(available at http://www.mercola.com/issue5.htm).
Childhood autism is the result of encephalitis affecting primarily the limbic
system of the brain, located below the cerebral cortex. A relatively few number
of cases are due to genetic causes, but officially the great majority are of
unknown causes. It is now generally thought that the process of encephalitis,
whether from wild viruses of live-virus vaccines, is associated with an
interference with the myelination process brought about by the development of
antibodies against myelin basic protein, a constituent of the myelin sheaths.
Chronic infection by
vaccine viruses
"Effect
of subclinical infection on maintaining immunity against measles in vaccinated
children in West Africa" (The Lancet, vol. 353, January 9,
1999, pp. 98-102): Exposure to natural measles in 87 vaccinated children
yielded 39 subclinical cases of measles. Antibody concentrations increased
45-fold and remained raised for at least six months [note: in such a recent
study, opportunity has not yet presented itself to ascertain antibody levels
one or two years after vaccination, etc.].
E. R. Bolte, "Autism
and clostridium tetani" (Medical Hypotheses vol. 51, 1998, pp.
133-144): "This paper outlines the possibility of a subacute, chronic
tetanus infection of the intestinal tract as the underlying cause for symptoms
of autism observed in some individuals. A significant percentage of individuals
with autism have a history of extensive antibiotic use. Oral antibiotics
significantly disrupt protective intestinal microbiota, creating a favorable
environment for colonization by opportunistic pathogens. Clostridium tetani is
an ubiquitous anaerobic bacillus that produces a potent neurotoxin. Intestinal
colonization by C. tetani, and subsequent neurotoxin release, have been
demonstrated in laboratory animals… The vagus nerve is capable of transporting
tetanus neurotoxin (TeNT) and provides a route of ascent form the intestinal
tract to the CNS…once in the brain, TeNT disrupts the release of
neurotransmitters by the proteolytic cleavage of ynaptobrevin… Lab animals
injected in the brain with TeNT have exhibited many of these behaviors. Some
children with autism have also shown a significant reduction in stereotyped behaviors
when treated with antimicrobials effective against intestinal clostridia… A
review of atypical tetanus cases, and strategies to test the validity of this
paper's hypothesis, are included."
T. Zecca, D.
Grafino, et al., University of Medicine and Dentistry, New Jersey and
Children's Hospital of New Jersey, Newark, "Elevated rubeola [measles]
titers in autistic children linked to MMR vaccine" (abstract
submitted to the National Institutes of Health, 1997-8; text available at http://webpages.netlink.co.nz/~ias/mmraut1.htm):
Rubeola (measles) titers were compared in autistic and normal children.
Children diagnosed with autism revealed "a three fold increase" in
their rubeola titers over expected normal range. "A Wilcoxon Kruskal
Wallas test comparing 13 rubeola titers from normal children reveals a
statistically significant P-value of 0.0050." The authors note that
neurological sequelae following MMR are widely reported: "MMR therefore
may play a role in the pathogenesis of Autism. The elevated titers of
anti-measles antibodies in Autistic children may signify a chronic activation
of the immune system against this neurotropic virus."
H. Trier and T.
Ronne, "Duration of immunity and occurrence of secondary vaccine
failure following vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella" (Ugeskr
Laeger, vo. 154, no. 29, July 13, 1992, pp. 2008-13): While discussing loss
of immunity after vaccination, the authors observe, "Subclinical infection
is not uncommon after all three vaccines."
"Characterisation
of poxviruses from sporadic human infections" (South African
Medical Journal, vol. 72, no. 12, December 19, 1987, pp. 846-8): An
orthopoxvirus was isolated from…a man in Natal who died in coma… Analysis of
the viral DNA showed that it was a vaccinia virus, more closely related to the
virus of South African smallpox vaccine than to other [natural] vaccinia
viruses. DNA analysis also showed that an orthopoxvirus isolated from a
sporadic case of severe pustular rash in Nigeria was a vaccinia virus closely
related to the smallpox vaccine virus used there… [It was] suggested that some
natural transmission of the virus had occurred…originat[ing] from the use of
smallpox vaccine. No similar cases have been detected since smallpox
vaccination was discontinued."
"Vaccinia
virus persistence in a child against the background of immune deficiency"
(J. Hyg. Epidemiol. Microbiol. Immunol., vol. 30, no. 2, 1986, pp.
177-83): " A young girl, vaccinated against smallpox 6 years before[,]
suffered from a persistent vaccinia virus infection and a congenital skin
disesase, i.e. epidermolysis bullosa. The virus was isolated from skin lesions
at the vaccination site and remote sites and repeatedly from the blood…
Examination of the child did not show any quantitative immune deficiency… The
possible genesis of the virus persistence and the role of the virus in the
clinical course of the disease are discussed." (A selected Medline [National
Library of Medicine] "MESH" subject tracing for this report is
"Smallpox Vaccine--adverse effects.")
O. Laitinen and A.
Vaheri, University Central Hospital and Department of Virology, University of
Helsinki, Finland, "Very high measles and rubella virus antibody titres
associated with hepatitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and infectious
mononucleosis" (The Lancet, vol. 1, February 9, 1974, pp.
194-7): When patients with typical acute measles or rubella infections and
their complications were excluded, certain groups of patients with very high
antibody levels to measles and/or rubella viruses remained and were studied.
These "patients showed very high measles or rubella antibodies although
there had been no recent typical rubella or measles infection… Our data suggest
that atypical viral infection plays an active role in the pathogenesis of at
least some of the abovementioned conditions… these viruses may cause chronic
infections with raised antibody levels…moreover, sera from some patients with
other diseases…show very high levels of antibody against these two viruses… In
multiple sclerosis raised levels of measles antibodies have been previously
reported." Antibodies to many other viruses and to Mycoplasma and
Toxoplasma were normal. The authors acknowledged the possibility that an
abnormal immunological defense mechanism had lead to an abnormal virus
infection—"e.g., carrier infection, reinfection, or incomplete measles or
rubella virus infection—in some susceptible individuals…[;] however[,]…no 4-fold
or greater changes occurred in virus antibody levels in any patient with
systemic lupus erythematosus, chronic active hepatitis, or infectious
mononucleosis [as happens with autism, in
which titers are often four to seven times that of normal]…" Evidence did not exclude chronic virus
infection as an important factor in these diseases.
Reactivation of vaccine
viruses "after the fact"
"Measles, Mumps, Rubella Vaccine
Induced Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis," Journal of the Indian
Medical Association, November 1997, vol. 95 no. 11, page 594: a particular
case of SSPE is described in a thirteen-year-old girl who had been
immunized against all childhood diseases; receiving the MMR vaccine at the age
of nine months. The girl’s intellectual functioning until development of
illness had been very good. After illness developed, the child verbalized
little and was socially inappropriate; her memory and thinking abilities were
impaired. She grew progressively worse, and added myoclonic jerks of the upper
limbs, with depressed deep tendon reflexes. The authors concluded that
Subacute, Sclerosing Panencephalitis was engendered as a delayed adverse effect
of measles vaccine. The authors note other cases of SSPE induced by the
attenuated measles vaccine.
"Measles Encephalomyelitis
in a Patient With a History of Vaccination," Acta Paediatrica
Japonica, vol. 37, number 3, June 1995, pp. 374-376: A twelve-year-old girl
vaccinated with a live attenuated measles vaccine developed an
encephalomyelitis ten years post-vaccine. "The patient’s definite history
of measles vaccination, high titers of HI and IgG antibodies…indicated that
this patient has an encephalomyelitis due to Secondary Vaccine Failure of
measles. It is suggested that measles virus can be a pathogen of encephalitis
without symptoms indicative of ordinary measles in individuals who received
live attenuated measles vaccines."
"Polymerase
chain reaction detection of the hemagglutinin gene from an attenuated measles
vaccine strain in the peripheral mononuclear cells of children with autoimmune
hepatitis," Archives of Virology volume 141, 1996, pages
877-884: "The measles virus is known to be persistent in patients with
subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) and measles inclusion body
encephalitis (MIBE). Since the introduction of measles vaccines,
vaccine-associated SSPE has increased in the USA. Therefore, we should
pay attention to SSPE after inoculation with measles vaccine, despite the
decrease in the incidence of [wild] measles."
Infection by vaccine
contaminants
"Children
exposed to CJD infecton risk from vaccines" (Antony Barnett, Public
Affairs Editor, The Guardian/The Observer [Guardian Media Group],
Sunday May 30, 1999; text available http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archiv…le/0,4273,3870082,00.html?cantsetcookie=0): from 1989 to 1993 thousands of human vaccines for
such diseases as tetanus and pertussis were knowingly approved for use by the
Department of Health (UK), which may have been based on matter derived from BSE
("mad cow disease")-infected cattle. Before "mad cow
disease" became a concern in 1988, vaccines were made with bovine serum
without awareness of the possibility of contamination. Sir Richard Southwood,
Professor of Zoology at Oxford University, stated that injection posed a far
greater risk of CJD than eating foods made from infected cattle. When BSE is
contracted by humans, it becomes Creutzfeld-Jacob Disorder, or CJD.
"[Infectious
diseases of animals and their prevention]" (Bratisl. Lek. Listy.,
vol. 99, nos. 8-9, August-September 1998, pp. 465-73): "Infectious
diseases of animals are the subject of continuous concern… Undoubtedly,
microbes and parasites take part also in the development of malignant
transformation of cells. The question of possible transfer of animal oncogenic
[cancer-causing] microorganisms (retroviruses in particular) to humans remains
open. The study points to the changes in the incidence of orthopoxviruses which
occurred after 'eradication' [quote marks added] of human variola [smallpox]
and the increasing importance of bartonelloses… We enter a period in which the
resistance of animal organism begins to affect the transfer of genes encoding
non-specific and specific protective [immunological] mechanisms of
organisms."
"The
African polio vaccine-acquired immune deficiency syndrome connection"
(Medical Hypotheses, vol. 48, no. 5, May 1997, pp. 367-74):
"Seroepidemiological, clinical and molecular findings suggest that the
acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1*
was introduced into the human species at the the (late 1950s) and in the
geographic area (Zaire) in which millions of Africans were vaccinated with
attenuated poliomyelitis virus strains that were produced in kidney tissue
obtained from monkeys. …it is reasonable to suspect that a then non-detectable
monkey virus with human-1-like properties was unknowingly cocultured with the
attenuated poliovirus and subsequently administered to the vaccinees. The
possibility of such a polio vaccine-acquired immune deficiency syndrome
connection is a reminder of the unpredictable danger of artifically crossing
natural species-barriers in biomedical laboratories" [*bold
text capitals added].
"The origin
of HIV-1, the AIDS virus" (Medical Hypotheses, vol. 41, no. 4,
October 1993, pp. 289-99): "a substantial case is presented that HIV-1 is
a natural recombinant of Bovine Leukemia Virus (BLV) and Visna Virus. This
natural recombinant may have been inadvertently transferred to humans through
the Intensified Smallpox Eradication Program conducted in sub-Saharan Africa in
the late 1960s and most of the 1970s."
"Simian
cytomegalovirus-related stealth virus isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid of
a patient with bipolar psychosis and acute encephalopathy" (Pathobiology
, vo. 64, no. 2, 1996, pp. 64-6): a cytopathic 'stealth' virus was cultured
from the cerebrospinal fluid of this patient, who developed a severe
encephalopathy leading to a vegetative state. DNA sequencing of a polymerase
chain reaction-amplified product from infected cultures revealed kinship to the
African green monkey simian cytomegalovirus.
Immunosuppression and
opportunistic infection
Abstract: also relevant to the London
article, occasioned by concern over the MMR vaccine, the measles virus is noted
for its ability to suppress the immune system, particularly cellular immunity.
A person sustaining a chronic measles infection may therefore be increasingly
subject to numerous other infections, whether viral, bacterial, or fungal [such
abnormalities are well documented in autism].5 Measles and rubella
virus themselves, in addition, are associated with distinct central nervous
system pathologies.6
"Epidemiology
of encephalitis in children. A prospective multicentre study," European
Journal of Pediatrics, vol. 156, number 7, July 1997, pp. 541-5:
Investigators found 175 cases with acute encephalitis in children aged 1 month
to 15 years during a two-year surveillance period in 1993-1994. Varicella
zoster, respiratory and enteroviruses, Epstein-Barr virus, herpes simplex and
rota viruses, and the new infections chlamydia pneumoniae and HHV-6 were found.
While mumps, measles, and rubella virus associated encephalitis had been almost
eliminated due to vaccination programs, these other viruses had increased in
frequency and occurred in younger age groups. "Conclusions:
The spectrum of encephalitis in children has changed due to vaccination
programs. The incidence, however, appears to be about the same due to
increasing frequency of other associated old and new microbes"—i.e., the
number of cases of MMR-encephalitis eliminated have been replaced by an equal
number of encephalitis cases from other microbes, previously not seen.
[Note: the
following report does not address the cause of the systemic viral infection
detailed; Epstein Barr is, however, capable of arising opportunistically when
immune system responses are inhibited, as occurs in measles immunosuppression.
Temporary or permanent neurological damage, or chronic disease, can result from
such unhindered viral activity.] Ito, H., et al., "Antineuronal
antibodies in acute cerebellar ataxia following Epstein-Barr virus infection,"
(Neurology, vol. 44, no. 8, August 1994, pp. 1506-7): A 29-year-old man
developed acute cerebellar ataxia following Epstein-Barr infection. The ataxia
gradually improved. The authors concluded that their findings in this case
suggested a role for autoimmune mechanisms in the pathogenesis of acute
cerebellar ataxia.
Pathogenesis:
proliferation of disease
Persons—especially children—with Crohns
disease, asthma, diabetes, ear infections and disorders; immunosuppression and
secondary viral infections (EBV, CMV) have been found to harbor organisms,
often those associated with vaccine-preventable diseases. Addressing bacterial
infections, G. J. Domingue and H. B. Woody of Tulane University School of
Medicine state, "A considerable body of experimental and clinical evidence
supports the concept that difficult-to-culture and dormant bacteria are
involved in latency of infection and that these persistent bacteria may be pathogenic…
A series of experimental studies involving host-bacterium interactions
illustrates the probability that most bacteria exposed to a deleterious host
environment can assume a form quite different from that of a free-living
bacterium… These organisms can survive and persist in a latent state within the
host, and they can cause pathologic responses compatible with disease. A series
of cases illustrating idiopathic conditions in which cryptic bacteria have been
implicated…include nephritis, rheumatic fever, aphthous stomatitis, idiopathic
hematuria, Crohn's disease, and mycobacterial infections…[;] nonculturable
bacilli have been identified in patients with Whipple's disease and bacillary
angiomatosis" ("Bacterial persistence and expression of disease,"
Clinical Microbiology Review, vol. 10, no. 2, April 1997, pp. 320-44).
"Polymerase
chain reaction detection of the hemagglutinin gene from an attenuated measles
vaccine strain in the peripheral mononuclear cells of children with autoimmune
hepatitis," Archives of Virology, volume 141, 1996, pages
877-884: the authors observe, "Apparently, the attenuated vaccine is also
capable of persisting, like sporadic wild strains, in certain immune
diseases."
H. C. Huber, "The
pathogenesis of postvaccinal complications" (Fortschr. Med.,
vol. 99, no. 11, March 19, 1981, pp. 380-1): "Paraspecific reactions to
vaccines are--induction of autoimmune mechanisms, --immunosuppression,--
induction of inflammation (e.g. "reactogenicity"). These undesirable
side effects of vaccination are important factors in pathogenesis of
postvaccinal complications."
Myocarditis
Diabetes
"Hemophilus
vaccine and increased IDDM, causal relationship likely" (British
Medical Journal, vol. 318, May 7, 1999); this letter conveys a re-interpretation
by J. Bart Classen of data reported in "Association between type 1
diabetes and Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccination: birth cohort study"
(British Medical Journal, vol. 318, May 1, 1999, pp. 1169-1172), which
Classen Immunotherapies initiated and funded. "…the potential risk of the
vaccine [in fact] exceeds the potential benefit." Classen discusses this
data in the context of compensation for vaccine-damaged children with diabetes.
Coulter, Harris,
Ph.D., Center for Empirical Medicine, Washington, D.C., "Childhood
vaccinations and juvenile-onset (type-1) diabetes: testimony before the
Congress of the United States, House of Representatives…April 16, 1997"
(Committee on Appropriations, subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services,
Education, and Related Agencies; text available at http://909shot.com/hcdiabetes.htm):
the incidence of diabetes in the U. S. had increased 20 times since 1947.
Healthcare costs are significant, both from the primary disease and from its
complications such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, gangrene of the
extremities, kidney failure, and blindness. A shortened lifespan is to be
expected. Diabetes appears to be influenced by a genetic susceptibility, but
environmental factors tend to lead to onset. Both pertussis toxin and rubella
virus, ingredients of two mandated childhood vaccines, are capable of acting on
the insulin-producing portions of the pancreas. "There is copious
evidence[, also,] of a causal relationship between clinical mumps and
subsequent development of diabetes [through pancreatitis]…many reports in the
literature of Type-1 diabetes [report the condition] emerging after mumps
vaccination." "There is no reason to make a distinction between…the
disease process and…a vaccination… In both cases immune complexes are formed
and persist in the host organism for lengthy periods. Immune complexes from a
vaccination can attack the pancreas just as easily as if they were from
contenital rubella syndrome. The actual mechanism of such an attack[, however,]
is probably multifactorial[, …the most probable one being] the generation of an
autoimmune state….." References are given to medical case reports
describing the emergence of type-1 diabetes following vaccination.
Adverse Events
Associated with Childhood Vaccines: Evidence Bearing on Causality (Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences,
Institute of Medicine, 1994): About the issue of vaccination and type-1
diabetes, the IOM Committee stated that "biologic plausibility data
implicating the mumps virus in the pathogenesis of Type-1 diabetes include: 1)
the association between viral infections, including mumps, and Type-1 diabetes
in humans; 2) the detection of circulating autoantibodies against pancreatic
antigens, particularly islet cells, during convalescence from mumps infection
as well as early in the course of Type-1 diabetes; and 3) in vitro studies
demonstrating that the wild-type mumps virus can infect human pancreatic beta
cells" (p. 159).
Asthma
"Measles
virus infection synergizes with IL-4 in IgE class switching" (Journal
of Immunology, vol. 162, no. 3, February 1, 1999, pp. 1597-1602):
"Increasing evidence suggests that viral infections are associated with
the induction and exacerbation of asthma… These data provide the first
indication of a potential mechanism for M[easles] V[irus] induced IgE
up-regulation and suggest a model for a viral-induced exacerbation of
IgE-mediated disorders such as asthma.
"Is infant
immunization a risk factor for childhood asthma or allergy?" (Epidemiology,
vol. 8, no. 6, November 1997): "Results of the Christchurch Health and
Development Study, conducted by a team of New Zealand researchers, found a
greater rate of asthma and allergy episodes among immunized children… The
comparison produced similar results at ages five and 16, and the discrepancy
does not appear to result from use of health services, ethnicity, socioeconomic
status, or parental atopy or smoking."
"Risk
factors for invasive Haemophilus influenzae disease among children 2-16 years
of age in the vaccine era, Switzerland, 1991-1993" (International
Journal of Epidemiology, vol. 25, no. 6, December 1996, pp. 1280-5):
"Continued surveillance, and detailed investigation of direct and indirect
effects of conjugated vaccines and risk factors…are important." 143 cases
with invasive disease were selected, and vaccination status ascertained.
"Cases more often than controls reported suffering from asthma and
allergies… The observed association between asthma and epiglottitis is novel
and deserves further investigation."
"Very high
measles and rubella virus antibody titres associated with hepatitis, systemic
lupus erythematosus, and infectious mononucleosis" (The Lancet,
vol. 1, February 9, 1974, pp. 194-7). The authors note the existence of high
viral titers in several diseases, including asthma: "[in] the other
patients in whom only very high antibody levels to rubella…could be
measured…bronchial asthma [was the only disease which was not rare, and for which]
a possible viral role in their pathogenesis cannot be excluded."
Disorders of the ear
Blood disorders
"Thrombocytopenic
purpura as adverse reaction to recombinant hepatitis B vaccine" (Archives
of Disease in Childhood, vol. 78, no. 3, March 1998, pp. 273-4): Three
cases of [auto]immune thrombocytopenic purpura after the first dose of
recombinant hepatitis B vaccine occurred in infants under six months of age.
There were no other possible causes; defect in platelet production was excluded
in two children. Antiplatelet antibodies were present. The babies were treated
with corticosteroids.
Hepatitis
"Polymerase
chain reaction detection of the hemagglutinin gene from an attenuated measles
vaccine strain in the peripheral mononuclear cells of children with autoimmune
hepatitis," Archives of Virology volume 141, 1996, pages
877-884: Four pediatric and two adults patients with autoimmune hepatitis were
tested and followed in this study. Twelve healthy children served as controls,
who had either been infected with measles or vaccinated with an attenuated
measles vaccine in the past. All controls were negative for measles virus
except a recent (two week) vaccinee. Of the hepatitis patients, all were
positive for measles virus—the children with vaccine-strain measles
virus, and the adults with different strains. Conclusion: "our results
demonstrated that children with autoimmune hepatitis can have persistence of
the vaccine strain in vivo for many years after vaccination [abstract, page
877]." The authors state that the persistence of the measles virus might
play some role in the pathology of autoimmune hepatitis, but further studies
are needed to prove this hypothesis (page 883).
Also in "Polymerase,"
the authors observe that high levels of serum antibodies to measles virus have
been reported in patients with autoimmune hepatitis (p. 877). References add
systemic lupus erythematosus and infectious mononucleosis to the tally of
autoimmune diseases with connections to measles (pages 883-4). [Note: high
antibody titers of measles and rubella are also associated with autism.]
Some provocative quotes, page 882: "Apparently, the attenuated vaccine is
also capable of persisting, like sporadic wild strains, in certain immune
diseases. The measles virus is known to be persistent in patients with subacute
sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) and measles inclusion body encephalitis
(MIBE). Since the introduction of measles vaccines,
vaccine-associated SSPE has increased in the USA. Therefore, we should
pay attention to SSPE after inoculation with measles vaccine, despite the
decrease in the incidence of [wild] measles."
[Note: the
following study did not broach the subject of vaccine involvement in diseases;
rather it serves to point out the relationship of viral presences to disease.]
…Department of Virology, University of Helsinki, Finland, "Very high
measles and rubella virus antibody titres associated with hepatitis, systemic
lupus erythematosus, and infectious mononucleosis" (The Lancet,
vol. 1, February 9, 1974, pp. 194-7): In patients without preceding rubella or
measles infection, "raised levels of viral antibodies were a constant
finding in two repeated analyses" of hepatitis patients. The authors felt
that "it is conceivable that rubella and/or measles infections or
reinfections may cause acute hepatitis and persist in some individuals…such
aberrant virus infection might be responsible for some clinical manifestations….."
Chronic virus infection could not be excluded as an important factor in these
diseases.
Inflammatory and autoimmune bowel disease
"Paramyxovirus
infections in childhood and subsequent inflammatory bowel disease" (Gastroenterology,
vol. 116, no. 4, April 1999, pp. 796-803): "Measles virus has been
implicated in the etiology of both inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), Crohn's
disease and ulcerative colitis… Mumps infection before age 2 years was a risk
for ulcerative colitis… Measles and mumps infections in the same year of life
were significantly associated with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease…but
not with IDDM… Atypical paramyxovirus infections in childhood may be risk
factors for later I[nflammatory] B[owel] D[isease.]" [Notes: measles-mumps-rubella vaccine is usually given
around the age of 16 months. When vaccine viruses induce infection, the
resulting illness is often atypical in character. A Reuter's Medical news
release pertaining to this study, found at http://www.reutershealth.com/frame_about.html,
cited mumps infection in the same year as monovalent measles vaccination
appeared to increase the risk of later Crohn's disease.]
Lupus, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis
Abstract: autoimmune diseases
are becoming increasingly common. The majority seem to have viral associations.
"Vaccine-induced autoimmunity"
(Journal of Autoimmunity, vol. 9, no. 6, December 1996, pp. 699-703):
the authors summarize of case reports attributing autoimmune diseases and
autoimmune phenomena to vaccines, and suggest possible mechanisms by which the
two could be related. "The subject is complicated," they say,
"by the fact that one vaccine may cause more than one autoimmune phenomenon,
and a particular immune process may be caused by more than one vaccine.
Furthermore, vaccines differ in their pathogenic influence on the immune
system... The subject of the vaccine-autoimmunity relationship is still
obscure; reports have been rare, [and] no laboratory experimentation on this
topic has been undertaken....." (Oddly, the authors state that the
benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of disease, but given the authors'
contentions that vaccines can cause one or more types of autoimmune disease,
that reports are few and research non-existent, this statement is unsupported.
Further, they conclude that "laborious clinical and laboratory studies
should be initiated in order to evaluate the ...subject.")
C. M. Poser, Harvard Medical School, "The
pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis. Additional considerations" (Journal
of Neurological Science, vol. 115, April 1993, Supplement pp. S3-15):
"Multiple sclerosis is acquired as a systemic "trait" by
individuals who are genetically susceptible…It develops as the result of an
antigenic challenge by a viral protein, either from a viral infection or a
vaccination."
"Multiple sclerosis and infectious
childhood diseases" (Neuroepidemiology, vol. 17, no. 3, 1998,
pp. 154-60): multiple sclerosis patients studied had had measles, mumps, and
varicella (chicken pox) infections at a later age than healthy controls.
"These results are compatible with the hypothesis that the risk of
developing multiple sclerosis may be associated with acquiring certain infectious
childhood diseases at a later state in comparison to normal controls."
[Early vaccination for these diseases, therefore, may predispose vaccinees to
MS, as immunity from vaccinations frequently wanes in the years following early
childhood vaccination (unlike immunity to natural infection). In the event of
such a vaccine failure, natural infection may occur at a later age.]
"Chronic arthritis after rubella
vaccination" (Clin. Infectious Disease, vol. 15, no. 2, August
1992, pp. 307-312. After reviewing a wide range of information sources, The
Institute of Medicine, Washington, DC, found a causal relationship between
rubella vaccination and chronic arthritis in adult women.
--for lupus, see <<cognitive disorders
in systemic diseases,>> below--
Parasthesias/paralytic
and muscular diseases
"Drug Points:
Transverse Myelitis After Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccine," BMJ
[British Medical Journal], vol. 311 (7002), August 12, 1995, p. 422: a
twenty-year-old man was vaccinated against rubella with the MMR vaccine. Five
days later he developed fever, malaise, sore throat, and a transient,
upper-body rash. Within the next two weeks, he developed an ascending
paraesthesia. He was hospitalized on developing a rapidly progressive flaccid
paraplegia. Serological tests showed a significant rise in rubella antibodies.
Postvaccination transverse myelitis was diagnosed.
"Poliovirus vaccine options" (American
Family Physician, vol. 59, no. 1, January 1, 1999, pp. 113-8, 125-6):
"Of 142 confirmed cases of paralytic poliomyelitis reported in the United
States from 1980-1996, 134 were classified as vaccine-associated paralytic
poliomyelitis (VAPP). Persons with VAPP have a disabling illness….."
"Demonstration of specific antineuronal
nuclear antibodies in sera of patients with myasthenia gravis" (Neurology,
vol. 24, no. 7, July 1974, pp. 680-3).
Other disorders of
the brain and nervous system
Vijendra K. Singh and others have found a significant association between
autoimmune processes in autistic patients and viral presences--in particular,
anti-myelin basic protein (anti-brain) antibodies, often in association with
high antibody titers against specific microbes. In this regard, see also "Demonstration
of specific antineuronal nuclear antibodies," above, and the
description of T. Zecca's report, "Elevated rubeola [measles] titers
in autistic children linked to MMR vaccine," above. Study of other
cognitive, behavioral, and movement disorders has revealed immune system
involvement.
<<seizure
disorders>>
"Autistic subjects with comorbid
epilepsy: a possible association with viral infections" (Child
Psychiatry and Human Development, vo. 29, no. 3, Spring 1998, pp. 245-51):
Data covering a 30-year period was examined in Israel. The annual birth pattern
of 290 autistic subjects with comorbid epilepsy fit the seasonality of viral
meningitis. "These findings support the role of viral C[entral] N[ervous]
S[ystem] infections in the causality of this disorder."
"Neurologic complications after
vaccination against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough (Cesk.
Pediatr., vol. 47, no. 2, February 1992, pp. 122-4): Both in children free
from neurological disease and in children with neurological disease the most
frequent type of complications from DTP vaccination were "encephalopathies
and febrile attacks as a consequence of metabolic and toxic changes following
vaccination." Persisting neurological disorders were, in the majority,
epileptic in character.
"Vaccination against whooping-cough.
Efficacy versus risks," The Lancet, vol. 1, January 29, 1977,
pp. 234-7: "Adverse reactions and neurotoxicity following
vaccination was strongly related to pertussis vaccine in 79 of 160 cases
studied. A shock reaction and cerebral disturbance was seen, in
most of these cases followed by convulsions, hyperkinesis, and severe mental
defect. The authors conclude, "It seems likely that most adverse
reactions are unreported and that many are overlooked…existing provisions,
national and international, for epidemiological surveillance and evaluation are
inadequate. The claim by official bodies that the risks of whooping-cough
exceed those of vaccination is questionable, at least in the U.K."
O. Tonz and S. Bajc, "Convulsions after
whooping-cough vaccination" (Schweiz. Med. Wochenschr., vol.
110, no. 51, December 20, 1980, pp. 1965-71): Convulsions or status epilepticus
in 11 infants after pertussis vaccination are reported. In three of 11 cases,
grand mal epilepsy persisted and two children developed infantile epileptic
encephalopathy (Lennox Syndrome). "The following conclusions are drawn
from these observations: 1) In view of the usually benign course of whooping
cough today, current vaccination is hardly satisfactory. Improvement of the available
vaccines is an urgent necessity… 2) Parents whould be better informed about the
risks involved in pertussis vaccination. 3) Booster inoculations should be
abandoned. 4) Health authorities should decide whether the current pertussis
vaccination program should be abandoned. 5) Complications following vaccination
should be registered….."
<<behavior
and movement disorders >>
"A controlled study of serum anti-locus
ceruleus antibodies in REM sleep behavior disorder" (Sleep,
vol. 20, no. 5, May 1997, pp. 349-51): "The newly identified association
of human nonnarcoleptic rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD)
with human leukocyte antigen (HLA) DQwl class II genes raises the possibility
that RBD may arise from autoimmune mechanisms."
[The following reports are not
vaccine-specific; rather they serve to underline one of the possible conditions
resulting from altered permeability of, or damage to the intestine, as occurs
in association with measles and other viruses. Note: strep-type bacteria are
among those which can translocate from the gut; strep bacteria have been
implicated in cases of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Tourette Syndrome.]
"Bacterial translocation from the gastrointestinal tract" (Trends
in Microbiology, vol. 3, no. 4, April 1995, pp. 149-54): Viable indigenous
bacteria from the gastrointestinal tract can migrate to other sites within the
body, such as the mesenteric-lymph-node complex, liver, spleen, and
bloodstream. Three mechanisms support bacterial translocation: intestinal
bacterial overgrowth, deficiencies in host immune defenses and increased
permeability or damage to the intestinal mucosal barrier.
"Case study: a new
infection-triggered, autoimmune subtype of pediatric OCD and Tourette's
syndrome" (Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry, vol. 34, no. 3, March 1995, pp. 307-11): the authors
hypothesize that infections with group A beta-hemolytic streptococci, among
other bacterial agents, may trigger autoimmune responses that cause or exacerbate
some cases of childhood-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or tic
disorders including Tourette's Syndrome. In this study, four boys aged 10 to 14
years presented with OCD or Tourette's Syndrome in the moderate to very severe
range. Two had evidence of recent group A beta-hemolytic streptococci
infections, and the others had histories of recent viral illnesses.
"Speculations on antineuronal
antibody-mediated neuropsychiatric disorders of childhood" (Pediatrics,
vol. 93, no. 2, February 1994, pp. 323-6): "Several converging lines of
evidence suggest that some behavioral and neurological abnormalities of
childhood may be mediated through antineuronal antibodies. These antineuronal
antibodies appear to arise in response to group A [beta]-hemolytic
streptococcal (GABHS) infections and to cross-react with cells within the
central nervous system (CNS). Based on clinical observations of children with
Sydenham's chorea, Tourette's syndrome (TS), and/or obsessive-compulsive
disorder (OCD), we hypothesize that neuroimmunological dysfunction secondary to
antineuronal antibodies may result in behavioral disturbances, such as anxiety,
emotional lability, obsessive compulsive symptoms, hyperactivity, and sleep
disturbances, and neurological abnormalities, such as motor and phonic tics,
ballismus, chorea, and choreiform movements."
"Antineuronal antibodies: tics and
obsessive-compulsive symptoms" (Journal of Developmental and
Behavioral Pediatrics, vol. 15, no. 6, December 1994, pp. 421-5): 19 or 38
cases from an ongoing study of childhood neurodevelopmental disorders had
existing or previously documented OCS [OCD] and attention-deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD), with or without concomitant tics. 19 controls had ADHD, but no
tics or OCS. Evidence was found of basal ganglia involvement in OCS, and a
generalized central nervous system response [to infection] was suggested.
"Bipolar disorders, dystonia, and
compulsion after dysfunction of the cerebellum, dentatorubrothalamic tract, and
substantia nigra" (Biological Psychiatry, vol. 40, no. 8,
October 1996, pp. 726-30): the mechanism of the legions was not abstracted in
this report; however, after focal cerebellar circuit lesions, these disorders
presented in three of fifteen subjects.
"Antineuronal antibodies in movement
disorders" (Pediatrics, vol. 92, no. 1, July 1993, pp. 39-43):
24 children with recent-onset movement disorders (Tourette Syndrome, motor
and/or vocal tics, chorea, and choreiform movements) as well as ADHD, behavior
disorders, or learning disabilities were studied. The authors concluded that
their data strongly suggests an association between antecedent group A
beta-streptococcal infection and serum antineuronal antibodies, which may, in
turn, be linked to childhood movement disorders.
"Antibodies to human caudate nucleus
neurons in Huntington's chorea" (Journal of Clinical Investigation,
vol. 59, no. 5, May 1977, pp. 922-32): IgG antibodies against nervous system
components were detected in patients afflicted with Huntington's and
Parkinson's Diseases, as well as in asymptomatic spouses of patients.
"These data may support an environmental or infectious factor somehow
involved in the ultimate expression of HD."
[The following report is not
vaccine-specific, but underlines a radical shift in thinking about cerebral
palsy, and a variety of other neurological impairments, toward an infectious
etiology.]
"Infections may underlie cerebral palsy"
(Science News, vol. 154, no. 16, October 17, 1998, p. 244; available at http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc98/10_17_98/fob1.htm): "Most doctors have believed that cerebral
palsy--a form of brain damage that impairs movements--results from a difficult
birth… While asphyxia may indeed be a cause of cerbral palsy, a new study
provides evidence that the brain damage might often arise from some
other…assault on an unborn child. Molecular clues now lead to inflammatory
infection as a possible culprit, says Karein B. Nelson, a pediatric neurologist
at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesday,
MD." A study was performed by Nelson and colleagues which compared blood
from normal and CP infants: the team found that all the stricken children
harbored greater concentrations of substances indicating immune activation. In
some of the children, indications of autoimmunity were seen as well. (Study
citation: "Neonatal cytokines and coagulation factors in children with
cerebral palsy," Annals of Neurology, vol. 44, October 1998, p.
665.)
"Increased
prevalence of antibrain antibodies in the sera from schizophrenic patients"
(Schizophrenia Research, vol. 14, no. 1, December 1994, pp. 15-22);
"Antibodies to brain tissue in sera of schizophrenic
patients-preliminary findings" (European Archives of Psychiatry and
Clinical Neuroscience, vol. 242, no. 5, 1993, pp. 314-7): Antibrain
antibodies have been found in the sera of schizophrenic patients, but not in
normal controls. These seem to be directed against brain centers affected in
schizophrenia. (More notes on schizophrenia are available under "Factoid Fallacies," below.)
<<cognitive disorders in systemic diseases>>
"Characteristics
of antineuronal antibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus patients with and
without central nervous system involvement: the role of mycobacterial
cross-reacting antigens" (Israeli Journal of Medical Science,
vol. 26, no. 7, July 1990, pp. 367-73): indirect immunofluorescence of human
brain tissue sections revealed, in thirteen of sixteen patients, high
antineuronal antibody titers. Competition assays showed that the binding of the
antineuronal antibodies was blocked by mycobacterial glycolipids and bovine
brain extracts. "This finding suggests an additional link between
mycobacterial infection and SLE."
<<cognitive
disorders of the aged>>
"Neuroautoimmunity:
pathogenic implications for Alzheimer’s disease" (Gerontology,
vol. 43, no.s 1-2, 1997, pp. 79-94): "Immune factors such as cellular
immunity, autoimmunity, and inflammation may play a pathogenic role in
Alzheimer’s disease… Antibrain antibodies may contribute through a
cell-specific autoimmune assault leading to neurodegeneration of the
A[lzheimer’s ] D[isease] type."
"Immunoblot
detection of antibodies to myelin basic protein in Alzheimer’s disease patients"
(Neuroscience Letters, vol. 147, no. 1, November 23, 1992, pp. 25-8): 16
of 18 Alzheimer’s disease patients, as opposed to 7 of 90 controls (healthy
adults and elderlies, and adult and child patients with other diseases or disorders
such as Parkinson’s disease and Down syndrome proved positive for anti-MBP
antibodies.
"An
immunological approach to dementia in the elderly" (Age and Ageing,
vol. 5, no. 3, August 1976, pp. 164-70): Immunofluorescence studies showed
"an excess of antineuronal reactivity and a fall in antinuclear antibody
in females with senile dementia."
<<cognitive
developmental disorders>>
"Serum
autoantibodies to brain in Landau-Kleffner variant, autism, and other
neurologic disorders" (Journal of Pediatrics, vol. 134, no. 5,
May 1999, pp. 607-613): "Etiologically unexplained disorders of language
and social development have often been reported to improve in patients treated
with immune-modulating regimens. Here we determined…children with L[andau]
K[leffner] S[ydrome] V[ariant] and A[utistic] S[pectrum] D[isorder] have a
greater frequency of serum antibodies to brain endothelial cells and to nuclei
than children with non-neurologic illnesses or healthy children. The presence
of these antibodies raises the possibility that autoimmunity plays a role in
the pathogenesis of language and social developmental abnormalities in a subset
of children with these disorders.
"Serological
Association of Measles Virus and Human Herpesvirus-6 With Brain Autoantibodies
in Autism." Clinical Immunology and Immunopathology, vol. 89,
number 1, October 1998, pp. 105-8. This study is the first to report an
association between virus serology and brain autoantibody in autism; it
supports the hypothesis that a virus-induced autoimmune response may play a
causal role in autism.
"Positive
Titers of Measles and Measles-Mumps-Rubella Antibody Are Related to Myelin
Basic Protein Autoantibody in Autism." Abstract of study prepared for
the annual meeting of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) /
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), San
Francisco, April 1998. A significant number of autistic children exhibit
positive titers of measles and MMR [measles-mumps-rubella] antibody, which in a
vast majority of cases is associated with the presence of MBP [myelin basic
protein, or brain] autoantibody. A measles- and/or MMR-triggered autoimmune
response to myelin may play a pathogenesis role in autism.
"Association
of Anti-MBP and Anti-NAFP Antibodies With HHV-6 Antibodies in a Child With
Autistic Regression." Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology,
vol. 101.1, S122, January 1998, part 2 (in section entitled, "Program
and Abstracts of Papers to Be Presented During Scientific Sessions [at the] 54th
Annual Meeting, March 13-18, 1998").
"Circulating
Autoantibodies to Neuronal and Glial Filament Proteins in Autism." Pediatric
Neurology, vol. 17, number 1, July 1997, pp. 88-90. A significant increase
in incidence of anti-NAFP [neuron-axon-filament-protein] and anti-GFAP was seen
in autistic subjects, but not in mentally retarded subjects. Clinically, these
autoantibodies may be related to autoimmune pathology in autism.
"Hyperserotoninemia
and Serotonin Receptor Antibodies in Children With Autism but Not Mental Retardation."
Biological Psychiatry, vol. 41, number 6, March 15, 1997, pp. 753-5.
"Elevated
Serotonin Levels in Autism: Association With the Major Histocompatibility
Complex." Neuropsychobiology, vol. 34, number 2, 1996, pp.
72-5. Two of the most consistently observed biological findings in autism are
increased serotonin levels in the blood and immunological abnormalities
(including autoreactivity with tissues of the central nervous system). The
major histocompatibiligy complex (MHC) regulates the immune system, and is
associated with autoimmune disorders. In this study, a positive relationship
was observed between elevated serotonin levels and the MHC types previously
associated with autism.
"Plasma
Increase of Interleukin-12 and Interferon-gamma. Pathological Significance in
Autism." Journal of Neuroimmunology, vol. 66, numbers 1-2, May
1996, pp. 143-5. Immune factors such as autoimmunity have been implicated in
the genesis of autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder. Since autoimmune response
involves immune activation, the plasma levels of interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha),
IFN-gamma, interleukin-12 (IL-12), and IL-6 were measured, along with tumor
necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) and soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1
(sICAM-1). The levels of IL-12 and IFN-gamma were significantly higher in
autistic patients than in controls (the remaining measures were not
significantly different). It is suggested that IL-12 and IFN-gamma increases
may indicate antigenic stimulation of Th-1 cells pathogenetically linked to autoimmunity
in autism.
"Immunogenetic
Studies in Autism and Related Disorders." Molecular Chemistry and
Neuropathology, vol. 28, numbers 1-3, May-August 1996, pp. 77-81. The major
histocompatibiligy complex comprises a number of genes that control the function
and regulation of the immune system. One of these, the C4B gene, encodes a
product that is involved in eliminating pathogens such as viruses and bacteria
from the body. A deficient form of the C4B gene, termed the C4B null allele (no
C4B protein produced) was previously seen to have an increased frequency in
autism. In this study, this finding was confirmed, and this same condition was
detected in related [neurodevelopmental] disorders as well. In addition, two
alleles of the DR beta 1 gene also had significantly increased representation
in autistic subjects.
"Antibodies
to Myelin Basic Protein in Children With Autistic Behavior." Brain,
Behavior and Immunity, vol. 7, number 1, March 1993, pp. 97-103.
Approximately 58% of the sera of autistic children were found to be positive
for anti-MBP [anti-brain antibodies]. This result was significantly different
from that of the controls, among whom were children with normal health, idiopathic
mental retardation, and Down syndrome. It is possible that anti-MBP antibodies
are associated with the development of autistic behavior.
"Possible
Association of the Extended MHC Haplotype B44-SC30-DR4 With Autism." Immunogenetics,
vol. 36, number 4, 1992, pp. 203-7. The complement C4B null allele appears to
be associated with infantile autism. In this study, the incidence of
B44-SC30-DR4 was increased by almost six-fold in the autistic subjects as
compared with healthy controls. Moreover, the total number of extended
haplotypes expressed on chromosomes of autistic subjects was significantly
increased as compared with those expressed on chromosomes of healthy subjects.
Conclusion: a gene related to, or included in, the extended major
histocompatibility complex may be associated with autism.
"Increased
Frequency of the Null Allele at the Complement C4b Locus in Autism." Clinical
Experiments in Immunology, vol. 83, number 3, March 1991, pp. 438-40.
Associations between C4 deficiency and autoimmune disorders have been found
over the past several years. In this study, autistic subjects and their mothers
had significantly increased phenotypic frequencies of the C4B null allele,
compared with controls. The siblings of the autistic subjects also had an increased
frequency of the C4B null allele, but this was not significant. The fathers did
not display this allele. All family members had normal frequencies of the C4A
null allele, all normal C4A and C4B alleles and all BF and C2 alleles.
"Changes of
Soluble Interleukin-2, Interleukin-2 Receptor, T8 Antigen, and Interleukin-1 in
the Serum of Autistic Children." Clinical Immunology and
Immunopathology, vol. 61, number 3, December 1991, pp. 448-455. Findings
indirectly indicated that the activation of a subpopulation of T cells occurs
in some children with autism, as opposed to healthy children or children with
mental retardation (non-Down's syndrome).
"Deficiency
of Suppressor-inducer (CD4+CD45RA+) T Cells in Autism." Immunological
Investigations, vol. 19, number 3, June 1990, pp. 245-51. Autistic subjects
as compared to a group of 35 healthy age-matched subjects had a significantly
reduced number of lymphocytes, a decreased number of CD2+ T cells and reduced
numbers of CD4+ and CD4+CD45RA+ lymphocytes. Results suggest that an alteration
in the suppressor-inducer T-cell subset is associated with autism.
"CD4+
Helper T Cell Depression in Autism." Immunology Letters, vol.
25, number 4, September 1990, pp. 341-5. Autistic subjects had a significantly
lower percentage and number of CD4+ cells, a lower number of T cells (CD2+
cells) and B cells (CD20+ cells), and a lower percentage and number of total
lymphocytes than siblings and normal subjects. The level of blood values for
female subjects appeared lower than those for males as compared to normal
subjects of the same sex. Results suggest that a decrease in CD4+ cells is
associated with autism.
--for
cognitive disorders see also "Vaccination against whooping-cough.
Efficacy versus risks," The Lancet, vol. 1, January 29, 1977,
pp. 234-7, above, in <<seizure
disorders>>.
"Survival of the
fittest"—‘morphing’ of eradicated viral diseases into new diseases
Dr. Bruce P. Squires remarked, "it is
ironic that as smallpox was finally being eradicated in the late 1970s, another
virus [HIV] was being transmitted to unsuspecting hosts" (Canadian
Medical Association Journal, vol. 149, 1993, p. 919). Dr. James H.
Battershill comments on this in the January 15, 1994 issue of the Journal
(vol. 150, no. 2, p. 128): "…I have often wondered whether there was a
relation between the cessation of small-pox vaccination and the appearance of
AIDS. A shared antigen, perhaps?" Whatever the case, viruses are extremely
clever survivors, able to mutate into new disease forms when their original
presentations are defeated by vaccines. In Factoid Fallacies, below, the
section on "Disease eradication" deals with this theme in part.
"Is
RA27/3 rubella immunization a cause of chronic fatigue?" (Medical
Hypotheses, vol. 27, no. 3, November 1988, pp. 217-20): "Patients with
chronic fatigue syndromes (primary fibrositis syndrome, major affective
disorder, etc.) have elevated IgG serum antibodies to multiple common viruses.
Only IgG rubella antibodies are positively correlated with the intensity of
symptoms and have a height that is clearly significant compared to healthy
controls…A new more potent strain of live rubella vaccine (strain RA27/3) was
introduced in 1979. Within three years reports of patients with chronic fatigue
began surfacing in the literature. Considering all this, the possible role of
rubella immunization in the etiology of chronic fatigue syndromes deserves
further study."
"Second generation" --
layered -- antibodies
A problem unforeseen in the development of
vaccines for common diseases is the advent of high antibody counts in
fully-vaccinated parents who, in time, have children who are also vaccinated.
Similarly, the effects of repeated vaccination or vaccination of persons with high
antibody levels warrants careful observation and study. In "Combination
vaccines for childhood immunization: Recommendations" (American
Academy of Pediatrics/American Academy of Family Physicians), the safety and
efficacy of administering combination (multivalent) vaccines to patients who
already have immunity to one or more vaccine component (natural or via
monovalent vaccine) is listed as a future research priority, indicating that
the safety of this practice has not been proven. Even for persons not already
immune to vaccine components, "the effects on immunogenicity and safety of
simultaneous or repeated exposures to the same proteins used as antigens…and/or
as carrier components" is at issue (pp. 10-12, Morbidity and Mortality
Weekly Report, vol. 48, RR05, May 14, 1999, pp. 1-15; text available http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr4805a1.htm).
"Associations
of prevaccination antibody levels with adverse reactions to pneumococcal and
influenza vaccines" (Vaccine, vol. 15, no. 10, July 1997, pp.
1133-7): The authors studied 85 elderly subjects vaccinated simultaneously with
pneumococcal and influenza vaccines. Those subjects higher prevaccination
antibody levels experienced a greater rise in body temperature
post-vaccination. Injection site pain was more common with patients with higher
pre-existing antibody counts in the case of the pneumococcal vaccine.
Death
SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) has been
associated with the diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) vaccine. The new
hepatitis B vaccine seems to present similar risks in use with infants. Cancer
is an end result more and more frequently linked with viral contaminates of
vaccines cultured in animal tissues. Other vaccine-precipitated diseases
(featured above) can also result in death.47
"Association
says numbers show mandatory vaccinations not best for children" (New
York Times Syndicate news release, April 28, 1999): the Association of American
Physicians and Surgeons found that children younger than 14 are three times
more likely to be killed or seriously injured by the hepatitis B vaccines than
they were to catch the disease, which is not spread by casual contact, but
rather by injection, sex, or an infected mother.
Alteration of human genetic code
Viruses are able to infiltrate cells,
inserting their genetic material into them. Indications have been found of
changes to human genetic characteristics as a result of viral invasion.
"Role
of Immunogenetics in the Diagnosis of Postvaccinal CNS Pathology,"
Department of Pediatric Surgery, University of Bari, Italy, presented May 9,
1996 (text available http://www.healthy.net/library/articles/coulter/biochem.htm):7
initially, thirty young children were tested and followed who showed the first
symptoms of CNS pathology with or immediately after vaccination with polio, DT,
measles, DPT, anti-tuberculosis, or Hepatitis-B vaccines. Immediate reactions
to the vaccines included convulsions, high fever, or diarrhea with or
immediately after vaccination. Among the post-vaccinal symptoms were
encephalopathies, food allergies, constipation, diarrhea, and other central
nervous system pathology. Diagnoses applied to subjects after vaccination and
before this study were epilepsy of various types; epileptigenic encephalopathy,
autism, West Syndrome, and Angelman's Syndrome.
There were no
genetic or metabolic anomalies revealed during testing which might have
explained the CNS symptoms. The viral encephalopathies which presented with or
following vaccination were not due to transplacental viral infection. EEGs
after initial symptoms were negative in 92 percent. Following vaccination and
CNS symptoms, serologic investigations for herpes viruses were positive in all
cases for IgG. IgG for Epstein-Barr virus and cytomegalovirus were estimated to
be positive in 73.8/71.4 percent respectively, herpes simplex in 47.6 percent,
and varicella zoster in 21.4 percent of patients. 73.3 percent of subjects
showed an increase in the HLA-A3 and HLA-DR7 antigens as compared with the
Italian population at large.
The authors found
and describe, in this paper, biochemical markers of vaccine damage (e.g.,
changes in inherited HLA type). They also point out that most vaccines contain
thimerosal, a toxic substance associated with neurologic and gastrointestinal
symptoms. The fact that post-vaccinal pathologies of the central nervous system
are often not thoroughly investigated occasioned this study. Additional
cases are under study to better define the possible association of HLA A3
and/or HLA DR7 with this CNS pathology following vaccination.
"New
Genetic Study Points Way for Vaccine Reaction Research/Novel Genetic Clinical
Marker Found in Blood of Gulfwar Vets" (Press release, National
Vaccine Information Center/PR Newswire, Washington, D.C., May 3, 1999, 5:48
p.m.; original source is Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology,
May 1999): A three year study funded and conducted by the Chronic Illness
Research Foundation in collaboration with the University of Michigan School of
Medicine found abnormal RNA in the blood of 50 percent of sick Gulf War
veterans, indicating that chromosomal damage had occurred. This genetic
material was not found in any of the healthy controls. Damage to chromosome
22q11.2 has been linked in other published studies to autoimmune diseases such
as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and other illnesses like multiple myeloma
cancer. The discovery of RNA in the cell-free fractions of blood is an anomaly,
as it is not normally present in serum. RNA can exist outside the cell only if
it is protected, as RNA viruses can. Gulf War soldiers were given 17 different
viral and bacterial vaccines, including experimental anthrax and botulinum
toxoid vaccines. Experimental drugs were also given and [in veterans actually
deployed to the Gulf] there were exposures to pesticides, low-level chemical
warfare agents, low-level radiation, toxic combustion products, etc. The
resultant symptoms are similar to those of vaccine-damaged children. Dr. Howard
B. Urnovitz, microbiologist and Science Director of the Chronic Illness
Research Foundation, interpreted findings to indicate that certain genotypes
may be particularly at risk for sustaining chromosomal damage after exposure to
toxic events; ways to identify and prescreen for individuals who may be at high
risk for chromosomal damage should be found.
The
Wakefield study---and others
Work at the Royal Free Hospital, London
The February 28, 1998 issue of the
prestigious journal The Lancet contained the study which occasioned
London’s "ABCs" venture: "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular
hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in
children," by Andrew Wakefield and a team of British scientists.8
Dr. Wakefield, an internationally-known gastroenterologist, and colleagues had
been searching for nearly a decade for the origins of Crohn’s disease, a
debilitating, increasingly common inflammatory bowel disorder. In "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular-hyperplasia,"
the British scientists investigated, initially, a group of twelve children ages
three to ten; by January 1998 Wakefield’s team totalled fifty-one
investigations of children with regressive autistic spectrum disorders and
inflammatory bowel disease and, as of July 1998, had at least one year’s worth
of additional examinations scheduled as parents of similarly autistic children
queued up.9
The measles virus had long been a part of
Wakefield, et al.’s investigations of Crohn’s disease because of the virus’
vascular effects.10 The children in Wakefield et al.’s study met
developmental milestones normally until the administration of the MMR or MR
vaccine or until experiencing wild measles. At varying intervals following
these events, the patients regressed noticeably, as susceptible people have
been known to do in cases of complicated wild measles, and even with vaccines;
eventually they were diagnosed with autism, PDD, disintegrative psychosis, or
vaccinal encephalitis.11 Known causes of childhood neurodegenerative
disease were excluded through testing. There were no focal neurological
abnormalities. MRI and EEG testing in these young sufferers of autistic
enterocolitis"12 was normal.13 Ultimately, each was
found to have classic signs of inflammatory bowel disease, with immune
activation markers.14 Measles virus proteins were discovered in the
germinal centers of inflamed lymphoid tissue in the guts. Tissue samples proved
negative for other viruses, parasites or other organisms.15
Wakefield, et al.’s conclusions in
perspective
Before the Wakefield "early report"
of February 1998, the measles virus and measles vaccination had been identified
as a risk factor for Crohn’s disease, and persistent (chronic) measles
vaccine-strain virus infection had been found in children with autoimmune
hepatitis.16 That the intestinal and ‘autistic’ behavioral
pathologies occurred together in these children might have happened by chance,
but for the uniformity of the intestinal signs and the findings of intestinal
dysfunction in previous studies of autistic children. Extensive metabolic
dysfunction in autism had also been described previously, and in great detail.
Disintegrative disorders had long been linked to measles and rubella infection
("Ileal-lymphoid-nodular-hyperplasia," February 1998;
conference, Tulane University, July 1998). Researchers such as Fudenberg and
Gupta and others had previously commented on similar developments in children
in relation to vaccination.17 Billed as an "Early Report"
in the Lancet’s terminology, "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular-hyperplasia"
did not demonstrate a link between the MMR vaccine and "autistic
enterocolitis," but underlined clearly the need for further research into
this intestinal/developmental syndrome and its possible relation to the MMR
vaccine. Wakefield, et al. offer a possible explanation for the syndrome’s
prevalence in certain children:
Published
evidence is inadequate to show whether there is a change in incidence [of this
syndrome] or a link with measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine… In the context of
susceptibility to infection, a genetic association with autism, linked to a
null allele of the complement C4B-gene located in the class III region of the
major-histocompatibility complex, has been recorded by Warren and colleagues.
C4B-gene products are crucial for the activation of the complement pathway and
protection against infection: individuals inheriting one or two C4B null
alleles may not handle certain viruses appropriately, possibly including
attenuated strains.18
Investigative work continues
in this area, as the British team of scientists look for molecular evidence of
persistent measles virus infection in the intestinal tissues (conference). A
first effort to accomplish this failed as chosen methods proved insufficiently
sensitive.19
Vaccine-theory reactions and support
A firestorm of criticism met the Wakefield
study. Though scrutinized pre-publication by four peer-reviewers, rather
than the usual two, for inclusion in The Lancet, public health
officials, their medical associates, and others denigrated the study and its
author. Normally, commentaries on such Lancet publications are brief and are
placed in subsequent issues of The Lancet, in the "letters"
section, using the title of the article commented upon. In the case of "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular-hyperplasia,"
however, a rebuttal article by Robert Chen of the Centers for Disease Control
was placed in the same issue, and given equal presence in the table of
contents.20 In the NARRATIVE article, "The ABCs of MMRs and
DTPs," London begins his discussion of the Wakefield study ‘on the
wrong foot,’ misquoting the name of its principal author. London cites a
selectively few studies or opinions critical of Wakefield’s work, ignoring
several which are compellingly supportive, both from previous publications and
publications which followed the February 28th Early Report—most
notably, the replication of Wakefield’s work with a group of children with ADD
and ADHD and food allergy symptoms, at the International Center for
Interdisciplinary Studies of Immunology and Department of Pediatrics,
Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, D.C. A reactionary study by a
Finnish group is used by London in "ABCs," and has been used
by others, as proof of no association between autism, inflammatory bowel
disease and measles, though its methodology was in actuality poor, and its
conclusions not applicable to the Wakefield findings. The Georgetown University
study is reported in The Lancet as follows:
A
J Wakefield and co-workers have identified a new relation between
gastrointestinal disease and developmental disorders in children; it opens a new
avenue for the study of the gastrointestinal tract and other diseases that may
be immunologically mediated. Their findings of ileal-lymphoid-nodular
hyperplasia and non-specific colitis gastrointestinal manifestations in
connection with autistic-spectrum disorders is the first description of this
relation, with strong data suggesting the anatomical and histological
alteration of the gut in such disorders. Although these workers suggest
possible mechanism(s) of increased permeability for exogenous molecules they do
not offer any explanation for these gastrointestinal alterations. The
endoscopic and histopathological findings of ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia
and non-specific colitis have so far escaped explanation and have evaded
pathogenetic definition.
In support of
the findings of Wakefield et al are several behavioural and clinical features
known to be related to the central nervous system (CNS), such as migraine,
infantile colic, abdominal epilepsy, allergic-tension-fatigue syndrome, and
attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder, which have been related to food
allergy, although the precise relation is still unclear. IgE-mediated food
allergy is plainly not the only mechanism of tissue injury, and these specific
disorders could involve other mechanisms.
A major
investigative effort of our laboratories has been directed to the study of food
allergy and the immunological involvement of the gut as a central focus for
injury of other target organs (skin, lungs, and gastrointestinal tract). We
have noted a striking appearance of ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia in
patients with non-IgE-mediated food allergy who present with asthma, atopic
dermatitis, and attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder. We have also studied
two patients with this hyperactive disorder who were allergic to various foods,
and our findings obtained by colonoscopy of their terminal ileum, shown
in the figure, match with those reported by Wakefield and co-workers.
In our study,
ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia is the hallmark lesion of the
gastrointestinal tract, which allows entry of antigens across the inflamed
mucosa of the bowel as a result of the reactive inflammatory response in the
adjacent lymphoid tissue of Peyer's patches in patients with non-IgE-mediated food
allergy. We propose that similar mechanism(s) may be involved in the
pathogenesis of the CNS dysfunction in the patients described by Wakefield and
co-workers.
Although
Wakefield's study, which suggests a connection between the CNS and the gut in
patients previously immunised with measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, did not
prove an association [Wakefield did
call for further research which would be required to accomplish this], it
has stimulated further discussion and opened unanticipated lines of investigation
concerning the role of ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia as a predictive
marker of gastrointestinal inflammation responsible for immunologically
mediated tissue injury in other target organs sites.21
Wakefield's
recommendations
London asserts, on page 15 of "ABCs,"
that Wakefield, et al. advocated use of existing vaccination schedules and
products in the absence of further information about possible relationships
between vaccine viruses and conditions such as autism. In "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular-hyperplasia,"
however, Andrew Wakefield, et al. actually suggest that, until research can be
done to further clarify possible MMR problems in some children, that measles,
mumps, and rubella vaccines be given monovalently (separately, during
separate office visits, spaced widely), to avoid interactions that may
encourage pathogenesis.
There is precedent for this line of thought.
In 1989, a physician responds to reports of mumps encephalitis following MMR
administration with a report of a case of mumps encephalitis after simultaneous
mumps and adenovirus infections, noting "the possibility that children are
more vulnerable to complications if they are exposed to more than one virus
simultaneously" (The Lancet, vol. 2, August 12, 1989, pp. 394-5).
In "Adverse reactions associated with simultaneous administration of
multiple vaccines to travelers" (Journal of General Internal
Medicine, vol. 9, no. 5, May 1994, pp. 255-60), the authors conclude,
"Increasing the number of vaccines [and thus the number of viruses
contacted simultaneously] is associated with increasing the rates of [both]
local and systemic reactions." "Mumps and Measles in [the] same
year [is] linked to Later Inflammatory Bowel Disease," stated
a Reuters Medical News release dated April 6, 1999, and "mumps
infection in the same year as monovalent measles vaccination appeared to
increase the risk of later Crohn's disease."22 The tender
age at which children are vaccinated for—at present count—some 22 diseases may
also contribute to the number of pathogenic reactions. In "Age-dependent
susceptibility in mumps-associated hydrocephalus: neuropathologic features and
brain barriers," Acta Neuropathologica, vol. 94, no. 3,
September 1997, pp. 207-15, the authors state, "central nervous system
susceptibility to viral infection is often age dependent for unclear reasons…
Our results suggest that tight junctions in the early postnatal period are more
immature and fragile than in the adult. We concluded that brain susceptibility
in mumps virus-induced hydrocephalus is intimately related to the maturity of
brain barriers." In "Evaluation of humoral responsiveness in
children," Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, vol. 11, no.
4, April 1992, pp. 304-10, the authors relate, "the wide age-dependent
variation in antibody responses makes careful interpretation necessary in
concluding that a pateitn falls outside the ‘normal’ pattern… Interpretation of
antibody responses in children younger than 2 years of age is probably
hazardous since manyu patients may have relative retardation in their normal
development of polysaccharide antibody responsiveness."
Repeated challenges may also be a problem. In
"Over-immunization--an ever present problem" (Australian
Family Physician, vol. 5, no. 6, July 1976, pp. 734-55) the authors warn
against a sense of false security [about immunization] and notes a tendency
among the medical community to over-immunize. "Repeated antigenic
challenge may cause hypersensitivity reactions which could harm the individual…
The need to appreciate the dangers inherent in all immunization procedures in
general, and in certain vaccines in particular, is emphasized [in the full-text
article]." In "Combination vaccines for childhood immunization:
Recommendations" (American Academy of Pediatrics/American Academy of
Family Physicians), the Academies list as future research priorities the safety
of administering combination vaccines to patients who might already have
immunity (natural or vaccine-conveyed) to one or more component, as well as the
safety of repeated exposures to the same proteins used as antigens and/or
carrier components in existing and future conjugated vaccines is listed as a
research priority--implying that the safety of this prevailing practice has not
been satisfactorily proven. "Chemical incompatibility or immunologic
interference when different antigens are combined into one vaccine could be
difficult to overcome" (p. 8; pp. 10-12, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly
Report, vol. 48, RR05, May 14, 1999, pp. 1-15; text available http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr4805a1.htm).
Broader implications
Their association with a variety of diseases
and conditions such as learning disabilities, hyperactivity, and conduct
disorders seems to implicate viral activity, as discussed in Harris Coulter’s
Vaccination, Social Violence, and Criminality (Center for
Empirical Medicine, 1990).
The
"Thalidomide Connection"
Prior to birth, thalidomide
embryopathy has been associated with autism ("Etiology of infantile
autism," Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, vol. 24, no.
2, March 1999, pp. 103-15). Environmental insults are thought to play a role in
the etiology of autism after birth as well. Unknown to most consumers, toxic
substances like thimerosal (mercury) and formalin (a formaldehyde derivative)
are commonly used in vaccines.
"Reactions
to thimerosal in hepatitis B vaccines" (Dermatologic Clinics,
vol. 8, no. 1, January 1990, pp. 161-4): "Hypersensitivity to thimerosal
in vaccines had been reported to induce persistent local reactions, urticarial
and generalized exanthematic eruptions, and, in the case of the hepatitis B
vaccine, urticaria with asthma. The authors describe two cases of extensive
reactions…Although not all thimerosal-sensitive patients develop adverse
reactions to vaccines containing this material, there is a potential risk, and
the reactions can be very long lasting."
Vaccine
necessity: manufactured epidemics
Historically the medical profession, and even
more frequently the United States and foreign agencies responsible for disease
prevention and control, have forecast epidemics or exaggerated the prevalence
and threat of vaccine-preventable diseases many times, urging immediate,
mandated vaccination of all persons, without actual epidemics or other evidence
manifesting to justify these efforts. Invoking the memory of the worldwide
influenza pandemic of 1918-19, government scientists and bureaucrats spread
fear of a new pandemic of this "Swine flu," predicted for the late
1970s, in spite of the fact that "virologic science had no way to predict
in advance the severity of a pandemic" (pp. 23 and 30, Pure Politics
and Impure Science: The Swine Flu Affair, Johns Hopkins University Press,
1981). A vaccine was concocted, hastily, and a national immunization program
was legislated into action. Not only did the pandemic fail to arrive, but many
Swine Flu vaccinees contracted Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a body-wide, paralyzing
autoimmune disorder. Some died from the Guillain-Barre, or died from the
vaccine itself.
Investigative journalist Janine Roberts
documents an urgent warning issued in the United Kingdom in November 1994,
forecasting a measles epidemic which would infect between 100 and 200,000
children, of which some 50 would die--if children ages 5 to 15 were not
immediately revaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella ("The
Fraudulent Measles Epidemic;" posted as part of The Web Inquirer,
September 29, 1995, http://www.gn.apc.org/inquirer/fraud.html;
posted April 8, 1999, 12:13 a.m. on Vaccine Information and Awareness
discussion list, via@access1.net). Roberts quotes Dr. Richard Nicholson, editor of the Bulletin of
Medical Ethics, who studied government reports and declared that there was
no proof that such an epidemic was about to begin. The government's estimate of
the number to be infected and killed, Nicholson stated, was based on
"improper use of statistics and out of date death rates."
Interestingly, a British law firm
investigating vaccine deaths and injuries notes a change in the way the
diseases measles, mumps and rubella are regarded in medical reference
texts, before and after vaccines for these became available--i.e., the
diseases are first described as mild and transient, with low incidence of
complications, then potentially serious, with considerable risk of
complications, after the vaccine came into existence (Richard Barr and
Kirsten Limb, "Vaccines. Fact Sheet," section three,
"Background: Setting the illnesses in context;" text available
from the Society for the Autistically Handicapped, http://www.rmplc.co.uk/eduweb/sites/autism/index.html).
--see also Factoid Fallacies: …the
severity of vaccine-preventable diseases…"all of these illnesses
are killers," below--
Popular
statistics (Vaccine efficacy, safety, and other figures)
The purvey of statistics is an art—and a science—which is
fascinating and useful but highly manipulable. Statistics are easily concocted
and are literally bought and sold in support of a wide variety of enterprises.
Statistics on vaccine safety and efficacy have been published by the Centers
for Disease Control which are favorable to the pharmaceutical industry and the
government's efforts to promote immunization, but these have been widely
challenged. As important as the statistics themselves are the methods, sources,
and motives by which they are assembled. Government statistics which describe
the number of incidents of death or serious injury by vaccines as
"rare" are based on a set of criteria which exclude almost every case
on record with VAERS, the government-established vaccine injury reporting
facility--most often because the vaccine-caused death, injury, illness or
disability occurred beyond a very narrow time period, such as seventy-two hours.
Because of the lack of conclusive, long-term studies, many disabilities and
diseases thought to be connected with viral activity are not included in the
government's vaccine injuries compensation table, and as a result are not
included in published statistics. Increasing the unreliability of these
statistics is the unfortunate reality that most vaccine reactions are not
reported; VAERS is a passive reporting system heavily dependent on physicians'
and citizens' abilities to recognize, and willingness to report, vaccine
reactions. Government statistics on vaccine efficacy and safety are listed and
analyzed in Neil Z. Miller’s Vaccines: Are They Really Safe and Effective?
(Santa Fe: New Atlantean Press, 1992/1998).
To date, there has been no concerted national effort to determine the
actual incidence of autism--one of the many disabilities/diseases that can be
caused by immunization--since it was described by Kanner in the 1940s. The most
frequently quoted incidence figure, based on large-scale surveys in the United
States in England, is 4.5 in 10,000--not including other autism spectrum
disorders.23 Presently the CDC admits to an estimated autism
incidence of 1 in 500 (contrasted with an earlier estimate of 1 in 10,000). The
actual incidence is suspected by the autism community to be at least this high,
perhaps higher than 1 in 200, and to be increasing exponentially
[coincidentally or not, the number of mandated or recommended immunizations is
also rapidly expanding].24 In response to a recent inquiry, the Assessment,
Evaluation and Support Unit of the California Department of Education's Special
Education Division gave the following statement about increases in the numbers
of special education students with autism:
"…the only info I can
provide on Autism is the number of students, ages 0-22, with IEPs receiving
special education services in California. We first started collecting
enrollments count on Autism in the 1992-93 school year. On April 1, 1993, there
were 2,157 students (out of 540,472) reported [to have autism]. Five
years later, on April 1, 1998, there were 8,084 students (out of 632,238)
reported."25
The California Department of Developmental Services recently produced A
Report to the Legislature: Changes in the Population of Persons with Autism and
Pervasive Developmental Disorders in California's Developmental Services
System: 1987 through 1998 (text available at http://www.dds.ca.gov/autismreport.cfm). In 1987 there were 3,864 autistic children enrolled
in the department's twenty-one regional programs; in 1998, 11,995 autistic
children were counted--a 210% increase. Children with other disorders such as
cerebral palsy and epilepsy increased at a rate consistent with the state's
population growth (from 30-48%). The Illinois State Board of Education lists
figures for the incidence of both autism and learning disabilities:
autism cases on hand were 317 in 1991, and 2,305 in 1997. The number of
children with learning disabilities was, in 1991, 111,326, and in 1997, 126,
065.26
While reviewing published statistics on
vaccine safety and efficacy, a wide variety of statistics need to be compiled
and considered in the same context--e.g., the overall number of children
presently in special education, against the number in special schools or
institutions, or at home due to disability, thirty to forty years ago, prior to
widespread immunization; the number of children on public assistance
(disability) rolls, and the present number of juvenile criminals and the types
of crimes committed, presently and pre-immunization. Also highly relevant to
this study are the incidences of pediatric illnesses such as asthma, leukemia,
Crohn's Disease, disorders of the ear, autoimmune diabetes, etc., before and
after the advent of vaccination. These should, of course, be weighed against
population increases and other factors. These considerations are targeted in
Harris Coulter’s Vaccination, Social Violence, and Criminality (Center
for Empirical Medicine, 1990).
Factoid fallacies
A number of short statements or rhetorical
questions in the Eric London's "ABCs of MMRs and DTPs" should
be reconsidered in the light of existing information:
(Page
14, London) "…Schizophrenia may
work the same way [as autism]: researchers have now found a great deal
of evidence that schizophrenia happens in the womb..… [no citations]"
In adjacent
passages, London strongly implies that schizophrenia and autism are not only
similar, but are purely genetic—not immunological or viral.
Autism was at one
time called "childhood schizophrenia." It is now known to be a very
different phenomenon. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, fourth edition, 1994, says, on page 66, "there is
considerable evidence to suggest that the Pervasive Developmental Disorders are
distinct from Schizophrena…" Michael Rutter and Eric Schopler
observe, in Diagnosis and Assessment in Autism (1988), pages 16 and 17,
"The likely discontinuity between autism and schizophrenia is strongly
indicated by the bimodal distribution of age of onset…[it is] improbable that
autism and schizophrenia constitute subvarieties of the same basic condition…in
addition, autism and schizophrenia differ sharply in family history (a familial
loading of schizophrenia is rare with autism), in phenomenology (delusions and
hallucinations are rare in autism), in course (often episodic with periods of
normality or near-normality in schizophrenia, but persistent in autism), and in
the association with epileptic seizures (rare in schizophrenia but present in
about a quarter of cases of autism)." On page 84, Volkmar and
Cohen, also in Diagnosis and Assessment, 1988, elaborate on the
differences between "childhood schizophrenia" and autism, referring
to research. Gary Mesibov and colleagues reflect this same viewpoint in Autism:
Understanding the Disorder, 1997: "today, with the accumulation of
much evidence distinguishing them, autism and schizophrenia are viewed as
completely separate disorders," giving a history of thought concerning
these two illnesses and contrasting them further (pp. 42-3).
It is worth noting,
however, certain similarities between schizophrenia and autism which go
unremarked in London’s article: Dr. Kalle Reichelt of the Pediatric Research
Institute, Oslo, Norway, describes a body of research linking both
schizophrenia and autism to faulty metabolism of gluten and casein-containing
foods, permeable gut, and raised antibody levels against gluten and other food
proteins.32 Knight, et al., ask the riveting question, "Can
autoimmune mechanisms account for the genetic predisposition to schizophrenia?"33
Spivak, et al. note a diminished total haemolytic activity in schizophrenia not
attributable to drug treatment, which might be related to the involvement of an
autoimmune process in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.34 A
study performed by Sirota, et al., found that anti-nuclear antibodies and
anti-DNA autoantibodies were significantly more frequent in both schizophrenic
patients and healthy relatives than in normal subjects, concluding, "The
data indicate that an autoimmune process may be involved in the etiology of a
subset of patients with schizophrenia."35 A. E. Henneberg,
working with various colleagues, found significant increases in the numbers of
certain T-lymphocyte subpopulations in schizophrenic patients compared to
controls. Antibodies to brain tissue were found in schizophrenic patients, but
not in controls; the action of these was mainly directed against neurons in the
frontal cortex and septal areas, which are regarded as important in the
development of schizophrenia.46
In Immunologic
Mechanisms in Neurologic and Psychiatric Disease, 1990, the authors examine
psychiatric disorders from an neuroimmunological perspective—especially
schizophrenia. On page 162 of Immunologic Mechanisms it appears that,
though the role of viral infection in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia has
been studied, the findings did not (as of 1990) show substantial evidence
linking a specific virus to schizophrenia [unlike in autism]—although
"schizophreniform disturbances" have been noted in HIV infection (pp.
302-3). "Recently, it has been suggested that retroviruses may be
involved in the etiology of schizophrenia; however, this notion also lacks
support [i.e., sufficient research]." Instead, "numerous studies
have considered the possibility that schizophrenia is owing to an autoimmune
disorder that involves the brain (page 162)."36 However, a
slightly earlier Russian study found statistically significant elevation in the
anti-smallpox antibody titers of 77 schizophrenics, compared with 44 normal
controls. There was also "a certain increase" in antibody levels to
measles virus. There was no difference between the schizophrenics and controls
concerning two other viruses. A relationship between antibody production and
the severity and course of the disease, as well as the age of the subjects, was
noted ("Antibodies to measles, smallpox, influenza and arenaviruses in
schizophrenic patients," Zh Nevropatol. Psikhiatr., vol. 86,
no. 1, 1986, pp. 106-8).
Since Immunologic
Mechanisms was published, the hypothesis that viruses or other infectious
agents may cause schizophrenia or bipolar disorder has been revived. The
Stanley Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine devotes
itself, as its overall goal, to the development of a training and research
program devoted to the "elucidation of the role of infection and immunity
in the etiology of schizophrenia and biopolar disorders http://www.med.jhu.edu/stanleylab/labinfo.html). "The scientific goals of the Stanley
Laboratory are based on the premise that human neuropsychiatric diseases arise
from the interaction of infectious agents, the immune response, and the genetic
susceptibility of an individual. This approach assumes that complex human
diseases represent multiple interactions between environmental and genetic
constituents…Working Hypothesis: Environmental factors include infection
and the immune response occurring during the prenatal or postnatal periods or
later in life; genetic factors may include the determinants of the response to
infection and the regulation of cytokines and other immune mediators" (http://www.med.jhu.edu/stanleylab/research/intro.html). The theoretical bases for this approach is outlined in
"Viruses as Etiologic Agents of Schizophrenia" (Advances in
Biological Psychiatry, vol. 18, nos. 1-12, 1997; http://www.med.jhu.edu/stanleylab/etiologi.html).
(Pages 1, 13-14,
London) "Margaret Bauman’s
and Anthony Bailey’s brain autopsies both show many brain changes that must
occur before birth; Joseph Piven’s MRI studies indicate a prenatal defect in
brain development…" The foregoing passages are a part of London’s
argument that autism is genetic—occurring before birth—not immunological, and
is not caused or triggered by immunization. But it is difficult to come to
London’s conclusion—that MRI studies indicate a prenatal defect in brain
development in autistic children which is responsible for their autism—on
actually reading Piven’s work. In the Discussion section of Piven’s study, the
following passages appear (p. 738):
"In
our study, cortical malformations were not confined to any particular lobe and
were detected at the same rate in both hemispheres. The failure of these
lesions to coincide topographically suggests that it is unlikely that they
have a direct role in the pathogenesis of autism, but, rather, that in a
subgroup of autistic individuals, they are linked to the underlying
mechanism in the disorder…Both extrinsic and
instrinsic factors, including fetal anoxia, maternal cytomegalovirus
infection…have been implicated in the pathogenesis of cerebral cortical
malformations. Rakic, in addition, has hypothesized that cell-cell
interactions resulting from viral infection, cell-mediated immune reactions, or defects in the recognition of specific
proteins essential for cell movement may be responsible for
abnormal neuronal migration. Immunologic abnormalities have been
demonstrated in autism…these
studies suggest that the relationship between cortical malformations and
prenatal immunologic, neurochemical, and genetic abnormalities in autistic
subjects warrants further exploration. Our findings raise several
questions regarding the validity of MRI in detecting cerebral cortical
malformations….."37
That structural defects of the
brain are implicated in autism seems to be true only of a small segment of the
autistic population (recall the normal MRIs in Wakefield’s study). As regards
brain studies via autopsy, few autistic children—particularly regressively
autistic children—have been autopsied, to date—far too few to come to any firm
conclusions, as London does in "ABCs." Children with regressive
autism almost always have normal MRIs, or MRIs that are normal except for the
kind of demyelination seen in diseases like multiple sclerosis, which is
autoimmune in nature. EEGs, however, often show abnormalities. DSM-IV
says, describing features of Autistic Disorder (page 68), "Imaging studies
may be abnormal in some cases, but no specific pattern has been clearly
identified [in autistic disorder]. EEG abnormalities are common….." In
"Autism and the Immune System," Journal of Child Psychology and
Psychiatry, vol. 38 no. 3, 1997, the authors conclude their study and
review of the literature by suggesting that the brain abnormalities that have
been found in autism may be "but one consequence of abnormal brain
development, which in turn may be linked with disordered immune function in a
yet unknown way" (page 346). They stress the importance of further
research on the immunological abnormalities in autism, and suggest some
specific avenues for study.
Bauman and Kemper's belief that cerebellar
abnormalities in autism are the result of an in-utero process is subject to a
number of criticisms. T. C. Binstock's research paper, "Changing the
autism paradigm: a critique of Kemper & Bauman's speculations regarding
in-utero timing" observes that B/K's conclusions are contrary to other
recent findings in many crucial respects. Part of the authors' rationale is
based on work that is extremely dated (e.g., 1908). Binstock's critique offers
three particular conclusions regarding the work of Bauman and Kemper: 1) not
all autistic persons have cerebellar features identical to those described by
B/K--thus, B/K's findings can only be taken to represent a subset of autistics,
rather than all cases of autism (there may even have been an induced selection
bias affecting B/K's observations, due to narrow criteria for selection of
subjects); 2) neither lack of gliosis nor lack of retrograde cell loss in the
interior olivary nucleus necessarily implies in-utero timing of altered
cerebellar morphology. Binstock's final conclusion is that 3) some cases of
autism are in-utero with regard to timing of causality--not all.38
(Page 1, London) "…there has
been little if any scientific evidence to substantiate an association between
vaccination and autism."
The terminology used in discussing causation issues—such
as "scientific;" "evidence;" "cases"—should be
closely defined within the context of any such discussion; otherwise statements
such as London's, above, are apt to seriously mislead the public. London offers
the above passages as proof that there is no causal relationship between the
vaccination and autism, but his statements actually underline a critical
problem: in spite of the fact that most vaccine reactions are never reported,
there are in fact many case reports, research articles, and even books spanning
thirty years or more, written by highly-esteemed scientists, which report the
numerous deaths, illnesses, and disablements associated with vaccine viruses
but, paradoxically, these are not considered by the government or by much of
the scientific community to be evidential.27 Surveying the
literature, the matter of "evidence" of relationships between disease
conditions and microbes must be evaluated very carefully to determine the
reliability of information presented, and the objectivity of its presenters.
At least three working
definitions of the term "evidence" can be discerned in literature. In
Clinical Aspects of Hearing (Springer Handbook of Auditory Research,
vol. 7, Springer-Verlag, 1996; chapter 6, "The Role of Viral Infection in
the Development of Otopathology," pp. 157-8), chapter author Nigel Woolf
discusses the difficulty of proving viral causation for various otopathologies.
The conditions to be satisfied in order to attribute a viral etiology to an
auditory or vestibular pathology may include Koch's postulates, "as
modified for infectious agents." These requirements include identification
(isolation) of the virus from the location in question; a close association of
the virus with a specific clinical syndrome; the ability to transfer the viral
infection to an experimental animal model; and the capacity to recreate a
homologous disease in the animal model following viral transfer. The latter are
often impossible, as human viruses frequently will not transfer to experimental
animal models (for many viruses, the different viral isotypes have been shown
to be species-specific both in vivo and in vitro). However, the authors of Psychoneuroimmunology
(Academic Press, 1991) point out that, while it is difficult to prove that a
virus causes an illness, it is also "difficult to rule out viral causality
because ‘absence of proof is not absence of absence (pp.750-1).’" Working
with bacteria, G. J. Domingue and H. B. Woody of Tulane University Medical
School state, "A considerable body of experimental and clinical evidence
supports the concept that difficult-to-culture and dormant bacteria are
involved in latency of infection and that these persistent bacteria may be
pathogenic…A series of cases illustrating idiopathic conditions in which cryptic
bacteria have been implicated in the expression of disease is presented."
The authors suggest that Koch's postulates, one mechanism for determining
causation, may have to be redefined in terms of molecular data when dormant and
nonculturable organisms involved in latent or persistent infection are
implicated as causative agents of "mysterious" diseases.28
There is little reliable "scientific"
evidence in terms of formal, controlled studies chiefly because thorough,
independent (non-industry or government-connected) studies examining the
long-term influence of vaccinations on children have rarely been funded or
conducted--particularly in the United States. Similarly, research has rarely
been conducted in examination of the neurologically impaired, to ascertain the
impact of vaccination. A recent post to an electronic mail newsgroup describes
the problem in a nutshell:
The central defect in the
numerous, recent mandatory vaccination requirements is that the same people who
are profiting from these vaccines are also in control of the research on[,] and
publication of[,] the dangers of the vaccines. The fox is pretending to guard
the henhouse. …foreign research has found problems with the Hepatitis B vaccine
for children. Note that I said "foreign," because there is no
independent US medical research on this.29
Incredibly, even industry
safety studies on the MMR vaccine have not extended beyond three weeks
following vaccination.
Oddly, viruses like rubella have long been
considered causal for autism if encountered congenitally, or if encountered
naturally in the environment after birth, but not if acquired through
vaccination--even though scientific literature confirms that attenuated viruses
CAN cause disease. Using case reports, research articles, and uncontrolled
studies as platforms, medical scientists like Montinari, et al. (University of Bari, Italy, "Role of
Immunogenetics…"), Wakefield, et
al., and many others have, and continue to, urge further study on the impact of
vaccines on a variety of medical conditions. Few have emerged, and reporting in
the few published accounts of vaccine injury and death is frequently hindered
by several factors. A study concerning bias, originating at the Institute of
Vaccinology and Virology, Hamburg, Germany, was published in Acta
Paediatrica Japonica in August 1991, volume 33, number 4, pages 421-7,
titled, "Bias in evaluating CNS complications following pertussis
immunization." An abstract of this paper briefly states that, in the
evaluation of central nervous system complications following pertussis
immunization, bias contributed to all of the following:
The author notes
that the reporting and claims processes in Germany are simpler than in the
United States, resulting in far more reported instances of adverse reactions in
Germany than in the USA.
reactions
Vaccine
manufacturers in Germany do not hesitate, says the author, to publish
statistics and narratives concerning complications from vaccination. German
manufacturers reported far more reactions and deaths than comparable firms in
the United Kingdom.
Reactions to the
DPT vaccine were significantly more numerous than those to the DT vaccine,
pointing to problems with tolerance of the pertussis component in the DPT, but
the evaluators of these cases put this down to bias, even though their case
findings did not support this conclusion. When cross-examined in a court of law
later, one of the evaluators, a former member of the Wellcome [pharmaceutical]
Foundation, revealed that he had sent a draft of this evaluation to Wellcome
[presumably for approval of its content]. Similarly, a judge dismissed many
cases of "Reye-like syndromes" following DPT immunization, though
they were well-founded.
The author alludes
to a "conspiracy of silence" among doctors reluctant to report
serious events for which they were partially responsible; others may be so
caught up in the prevention movement that they fail to realize that adverse
events really occur. Still others may not report lest the reports fuel
anti-vaccination debate. At the Fifth International Congress of Infectious
Diseases, circa 1980, the author states, a clinic head from West Germany
claimed never to have seen a neurological complication following pertussis
immunization; later, after his retirement, his clinical staff recovered records
of complications and stated that cases had usually been ignored with a
"what must not be therefore cannot be" attitude (p.
424).
The incidence of
convulsions following vaccination are weighed against a calculated rate of
"chance occurrences" of convulsions. The differences in the number of
convulsions or serious disabilities following DPT as compared to DT vaccination
in the Federal Republic of Germany were significant, though the judge in a key
vaccine trial refused to acknowledge this, and ruled accordingly.
DPT vaccination may
provoke encephalitis indirectly via a previously-existing herpes or coxsackie
virus infection, either through over-stimulation or suppression of immune
system components, or directly through a hyperacute allergic reaction; this
connection, however, has been missed by many practitioners and insufficiently
considered by others.
"Normally one
expects scientific statistics to be reliable," this paragraph begins. The
most relied-upon expert in a particular trial presented statistical evidence to
a judge which was skewed by incorrect grouping of data, and assessment of 50
patients as "normal" who had abnormal EEGs. This scientist claimed to
have taken care to ensure…overestimation rather than under estimation of the
risks of pertussis vaccine.
Reporting of severe
vaccine-related complications is hampered by an arbitrary temporal limit on
seizure activity: if post-vaccination seizures, or seizures followed by coma,
paralysis or other neurological signs occur within the first 3 days and last
two hours or more, they are considered complications of vaccination. Seizures lasting
less than two hours were discounted (many cases handled by the author lasted
less than half an hour.
The
author notes that of 85 cases claiming postimmunization pertussis damage, he
had dismissed 22 cases out of concern that he might be biased toward the
plaintiffs. The authorities dismissed another 20 cases. That total of
dismissals was equivalent to the number of cases the author felt were wrongly
dismissed by others in this study.
The
abstract of "Bias in evaluating…" tersely concludes, "A
review of these points indicates an underestimation of CNS complications after
pertussis immunization."
Dr. Harris Coulter,
President of the Center for Empirical Medicine, Washington D. C., testified
before the House of Representatives, United States Congress, in April 1997
saying, "The fact that the federal medical establishment - which would be
the major source of funds for such an epidemiologic investigation - is itself
highly committed to the childhood vaccination program, goes far to explain the
absence of any official interest in this connection. This is a major
disadvantage of all research on damage from the childhood vaccination
program" ("Childhood Vaccinations and Juvenile-Onset (Type-1)
Diabetes," April 16, 1997, page 2; text available at http://www.909shot.com/hcdiabetes.htm).
In the United States, the federal government and the pharmaceutical industry
have been united for years in the task of developing and mandating
immunizations (witness the Childhood Vaccine Industry Act). The combined
influence of this government/drug industry alliance has thus far curtailed most
efforts to probe the matter more fully. Put simply, the modus operandi of both
drug industry and government, regarding vaccines, has been ‘no studies, no
evidence.’ Such conflicts of interest in medicine and scientific research
heavily contributes to the "no evidence" problem, as regards
vaccine-related injury and illness. It is a serious and much-addressed concern
within the medical community regarding many other concerns as well (for further discussion, see "Caveats").
Strongly affecting
the lack of "evidence" is the fact that funding for independent
immunological studies of autism, particularly those targeting the viral aspects
of autism, is rarely forthcoming. Independent researchers in this area are
aggressively discredited, combated through the use of flawed, concocted
'studies' such as the Finnish work mentioned above—or attention is directed
away from studies and literature on the subject. Simultaneously massive
"PR" campaigns for vaccines—more and more vaccines—accelerate,
together with efforts to make immunization mandatory in all cases, and track
via computer networks the medical records of children. (The mechanism of such
dis-information campaigns, with their intermingling of government and special
interests, can easily be understood in the context of tobacco industry events,
or in the carefully-maneuvered relaxing of environmental restrictions to
include the use of toxic "biosolids" in food production.30)
In view of all the circumstances, statements such as "there is no
scientific evidence" should not be taken to mean that there is no reason
for considerable caution or change in methodology.
(Page 14,
London) "Vaccinations Save
Lives" (section subtitle) "…Before we had immunization, many,
many thousands of children died of now-preventable disease. Others suffered
permanent injury and/or brain damage…
"Vaccines save
lives" is a frequently-heard claim which makes no reference to the number
of lives lost or drastically changed by vaccines, and offers no concrete
evidence. Proof of this statement is largely by prognostication--prediction of
'what would have happened if---.' Interestingly, the Pharmaceutical Advertising
Advisory Board, Toronto, Canada, recently ordered Merck-Frosst Canada to
withdraw advertising that claims that its new chickenpox vaccine saves lives.
Said the Board, "There's no proof the claim made by Merck-Frosst Canada
about the drug, Varivax, is true" (CBC News Canada news release,
web-posted Friday, April 2, 1999; posted
to the Australian Vaccination Network e-mail discussion list May 4, 1999,
09:41:51 +1000).
The import of
numberless--and even 'numbered'--"statistics" such as London's
passage above is markedly reduced by lack of specificity. Unanswered are
questions arising, for example, from the above passage: "Over what time
period did 'many, many thousands of children' die (three hundred years, or
thirty)? Are these thousands drawn from worldwide scrutiny, or from a limited
geographic area? What disease or diseases are being discussed, and what were
the hygienic (and other) circumstances in the countries where this occurred?
The dramatic quality of this paragraph and its lack of specifics are more akin
to propaganda than to scientific reporting.
(Page 15 and 16,
London) The myth of disease
eradication is perpetuated in London's piece: "a…known cause of
autism…[rubella] has been virtually wiped out…if new parents faithfully
vaccinate their young children against measles, measles…could go the way of
smallpox and, soon, of polio. Why do so many people fear vaccines when they are
one of the greatest success stories in medical history?"
That rubella,
smallpox, and even polio have been wiped out is a widely-cultivated myth.
Global measles eradication has so far failed. Outbreaks of rubella, measles,
and polio continue to occur because of the frequent failure of vaccines to
establish and maintain complete immunity--in part due to viral mutation
(material on this theme is explored below, in 'Vaccines are very effective…').
Often, outbreaks of these diseases occur but are renamed by health officials
under pressure to achieve disease-free status. In addition, when impeded by
vaccination, natural viruses can mutate so far from their original form as to
become recognized as different diseases. Vaccine viruses can cause the diseases
they are created to prevent, possibly in a modified form, as earlier discussed;
polio is the most flagrant offender in this regard (see The attenuated
virus, infectious or not? above). Also, vaccine viruses can establish
persistent infections and diseases seemingly unrelated to the original. Viral
contaminants in vaccines, acquired through culturing in animal tissues, can
cause diseases also unrelated to the diseases the vaccines are formulated to
prevent--the most fearsome of which are AIDS and Ebola. At best, vaccination
appears to be a substitution process in the many who are immunologically
susceptible, involving the exchange of one disease for another—frequently the
substitution of a chronic, lifelong (perhaps eventually life-threatening)
autoimmune disease for an acute but transitory viral infection.
smallpox
"Is
smallpox history?" (The Lancet, vol. 353, no. 9164, May 8,
1999): "A pilgrim returned home to Yugoslavia from Mecca in February,
1972, with a fever… In the 4 weeks since the pilgrim first had his fever, 150
people were infected across the country. It took 4 weeks before doctors,
nurses, and health authorities knew they were dealing with smallpox… 175 people
contracted smallpox [thereafter] and 35 died… these events occurred in a
well-vaccinated population."
"Poxvirus
dilemmas -- monkeypox, smallpox, and biologic terrorism" (New
England Journal of Medicine, vol. 339, no. 8, August 20, 1998): "More
than 20 years have passed since the last case of smallpox was confirmed… Now,
new dilemmas confront the world. Could recent outbreaks of human monkeypox in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo [Zaire] represent the return of another
form of smallpox?… The first case of human monkeypox was identified in 1970…
The clinical picture of monkeypox resembles that of smallpox in Central
Africa."
"Is an old
virus up to new tricks?" (Science, vol. 277, July 18, 1997, pp.
312-3): "…an exotic infection …is alarming some public health experts: the
largest outbreak ever seen in humans of a well-known virus called monkeypox. A
first cousin of the once-dreaded smallpox, monkeypox causes nearly identical
symptoms… '…for practical purposes, smallpox is back,' says virologist Peter
Jahrling of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease in
Fort Detrick, Maryland… 'This could be worse than smallpox if it adapts to
humans,' acknowledges virologist Bernard Moss of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)…" Researchers were reluctant to
recommend a new vaccination program--which would use smallpox vaccine--for the
local population, because the vaccine can cause disease and death in persons
with inadequate immune systems.
"Lethal
animal pox virus infection in an atopic patient simulating variola vera [smallpox]"
(Hautarzt., vol. 42, no. 5, May 1991, pp. 293-7): An 18-year-old patient
acquired a cowpox-like virus infection clinically similar to smallpox from a
domestic cat as carrier. In spite of intensive care, with…the last available
vaccinia hyperimmunoglobulin, the patient died of pulmonary embolism…"
"Variola [smallpox]
or a severe case of varicella? A case of human variola due to monkeypox virus
in a child from the Cameroon" (Ann. Soc. Belg. Med. Trop.,
vol. 71, no. 2, June 1991, pp. 123-8): Human monkeypox was suspected on
clinical grounds in a seven year old child in Cameroon. (A selected Medline
[National Library of Medicine] "MESH" subject heading is
"Smallpox--diagnosis.")
"Human
monkey pox: its clinico-epidemiological characteristics" (Zh.
Mikrobiol. Epidemiol. Immunobiol. vol. 6, June 1988, pp. 23-30): During the
course of the smallpox eradication programme, a new eruptive disease clinically
resembling smallpox was discovered in Zaire…the virus can be transmitted from
man to man."
polio
(see especially the final case report in this section)
"Health
alert as virus paralyses six children" (The Australian, June
29, 1999): A "rare" gastrointestinal virus referred to as enterovirus
71 paralyzed six young children in west Australia. Of these children, aged six
to eighteen months, three are expected to be permanently disabled; for the
others the outcome is uncertain. 14 cases of meningitis, also caused by
enterovirus 71, were seen in addition. The virus is spread by fecal-oral transmission
or by respiratory droplets, and can be contracted by parents changing their
children’s diapers. Steroid treatment appeared to reduce the extent of
paralysis.
"Global
eradication of poliomyelitis and co-emergence of novel poliovirus strains"
(Epidemiology, vol. 7, no. 6, November 1996, p. 653 [Letters to the Editor]):
Recent experience has vindicated an old theory that polioviruses, harmless
around 1900, mutated to strains of enhanced virulence. During the recent
extensive usage of live polio-vaccines in endemic areas of Asia and Latin
America, mass immunizations resulted in "phenotypic mixing or genetic
reassortment" of different poliovirus strains. "Similar eventualities
would be common in currently polio-free countries offering live poliovaccines.
Such vaccines would also enhance the selection of virus mutants with increased
virulence. National immunization days in endemic areas and live vaccination in
disease-free areas could thus stimulate the emergence and selection for
virulent strains by the end of this century."
"Outbreak
of pokomyelitis-like paralysis associated with enterovirus 71" (Pediatric
Infectious Diseases, vol. 8, no. 9, September 1989, pp. 611-6): In summer
of 1987 five Philadelphian children experienced acute onset of flaccid paralysis
of arms or legs. There were documented exposures to oral poliovirus vaccine and
coxsackievirus B3 in some cases. Two children had residual paralysis with
weakness and muscle wasting.
"Enterovirus
type 71 infections: a varied clinical pattern sometimes mimicking paralytic
poliomyelitis" (Review of Infectious Diseases, vol. 6,
Supplement 2, May-June 1984, pp. S387-90): From 1969-1973 California suffered
outbreaks of enterovirus 71 with meningitis/encephalitis emphasis; in 1975
Bulgaria suffered more than 705 cases, with 149 developing paralysis, and 44
deaths. Hungary experienced an epidemic in 1978. Infants and young children of
polio vaccination age were the chief victims.
"Epidemiological,
clinical, and pathomorphological characteristics of epidemic poliomyelitis-like
disease caused by enterovirus 71" (Journal of Hygiene,
Epidemiology, Microbiology, and Immunology, vol. 23, no. 3, 1979, pp.
284-95): In May through September 1975 an outbreak of epidemic disease
"clinically and pathomorphologically simulating nearly all known forms of
poliomyelitis" occurred predominantly among young infants in Bulgaria.
Though the title of this piece lists enterovirus 71 as the culprit, the
abstract describes the virus in these cases as "antigenically related
to enterovirus 71." "The similarity to poliomyelitis and
precariously rapid increase in the incidence led to the decision to urgently
vaccinate the entire population with Sabin's live poliovirus vaccine." Soon
afterward, the number of new cases began to decrese.The authors note that
similar enterovirus epidemics were also suffered by Sweden in 1973 and
Australia from 1972-1973, and Japan, from 1972-3.
haemophilus influenza type b
"The
emergence of Haemophilus influenzae types e and f as significant pathogens"
(Clinical Infectious Disease, vol. 21 no. 5, November 1995, pp. 1322-4):
Before vaccination for Haemophilus influenzae type b, the other encapsulated
serotypes of H. influenzae rarely caused invasive disease. [Now] the clinical
features of non-type b H. influenzae meningitis are the same as those of type
b. "We report these four cases to document an increase in infection
due to non-type b serotypes of H. influenzae, and we postulate that this
change may result from the well-documented decrease in H. influenzae type
b...that has occurred because of universal vaccination for H. influenzae type
b."
"Meningitis
due to Haemophilus influenzae type f" (Journal of Paediatrics and
Child Health, vol. 34, no. 1, February 1998, pp. 95-6): "Despite the
great success of Hib vaccines in reducing H. influenzae, cases of H. influenzae
meningitis continue to occur, caused by less common encapsulated
serotypes...infection due to non-b serotypes requires close monitoring."
"Invasive
disease due to Haemophilus influenzae serotype f: clinical and epidemiologic
characteristics in the H. influenzae serotype b vaccine era" (Clinical
Infectious Disease, vol. 22, no. 6, June 1996, pp. 1069-76): "With the
decline in the rate of infections caused by Haemophilus influenzae serotype b,
H. influenzae serotype f (Hif) is becoming a relatively important cause of
invasive disease. .the proportion of all invasive H. influenzae disease caused
by Hif rose from 1% in 1989 to 17% in 1994…Continued surveillance is warranted
to evaluate the trend toward the increasing incidence of Hif disease that was
noted in this study."
measles-mumps-rubella
"Epidemiology
of encephalitis in children. A prospective multicentre study," European
Journal of Pediatrics, vol. 156, number 7, July 1997, pp. 541-5:
Investigators found that, while mumps, measles, and rubella virus associated
encephalitis had been almost eliminated due to vaccination programs,
encephalitis from other viruses had increased in frequency and occurred in
younger age groups. "Conclusions: The spectrum of encephalitis in children has changed
due to vaccination programs. The incidence, however, appears to be about the
same due to increasing frequency of other associated old and new
microbes"—i.e., the number of MMR-encephalitis cases eliminated have been
replaced by an equal number of encephalitis cases from other microbes,
previously not seen.
hepatitis
"A
hepatitis B virus variant found in the sera of immunised children induces a
conformational change in the HBsAg "a" determinant," Journal
of Medical Virology, vol. 58, no. 4, August 1999, pp. 346-52: "The
emergence of variants in the outer envelope proteins of hepatitis B virus (HBV)
are found among individuals vaccinated against HBV and asymptomatic carriers of
the infection… The implications of this work are that serodiagnosis of HBV
infections may be unreliable in populations where there is a possibility of
variant HBV infections emerging in the face of increasing herd immunity to HBV
as a result of vaccination… Such variants may play a role in the maintenance of
HBV infections in endemic regions."
(London) That ‘vaccines are very effective and almost
always safe’ is a pervasive theme in London's "ABCs" piece.
The efficacy of
common vaccines may be greatly exaggerated. In a 1998 study, it was stated that
"investigator bias probably has overestimated the efficacy of most
vaccines." Clinicians' compliance levels in monitoring illness in vaccine
recipients varied widely in trial protocols. "Less compliant investigators
were far more likely to report data making vaccines appear more effective
against mild or moderate disease. Our data suggest that observer compliance
(observer bias) can significantly inflate calculated vaccine efficacy…it is
likely that all recently completed efficacy trials have been affected by this
type of observer bias and all vaccines have considerably less efficacy against
mild disease than published data suggest" (Pediatrics, vol. 102,
no. 4, part 1, October 1998, pp. 909-912, reported as news release, "Clinical
Trials; Vaccine Efficacy Overestimated…," posted December 2 to Vaccine
Information and Awareness electronic mail discussion list [via@access1.net],
9:42 a.m.).
In reality,
outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases occur in spite of vaccination. This
is in part due to the fact that the immunity afforded by vaccines is typically
not permanent, unlike that gained through disease, but may be due to other
factors as well, such as poor bioengineering; unfavorable storage conditions;
improper use, viral mutation, and the ability of the vaccine viruses themselves
to cause infection in recipients or close contacts. The safety of vaccinations
is challenged by case reports and studies such as the above, and by numerous
research articles and books written by eminent scientists and medical
researchers, as well as the common belief that most vaccine reactions are not
reported. In "Vaccination against whooping-cough. Efficacy versus risks"
The Lancet, vol. 1, January 29, 1977, pp. 234-7, for example, the
authors conclude: "It seems likely that most adverse reactions are
unreported and that many are overlooked…existing provisions, national and
international, for epidemiological surveillance and evaluation are
inadequate." Author H. U. Albonico expresses both doubt and concern about
routine vaccination in "Arguments against routine mumps vaccination"
(Soz Praventivmed, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 116-23), "An unnecessary
vaccination proves to be of insufficient efficacy, yet [is] associated with an
unexpected high complication rate and bears thus the risk of discrediting also
other immunizations in the general public… The [MMR mass-immunization] project
remains epidemiologically highly vulnerable and thus hazardous…there are
concerns about the longterm effects of manipulations of the natural balance
between man and microorganisms." In "The Immunization Campaign
Against Measles, Mumps and Rubella…Medical Objections to a Continued MMR
Immunization Campaign in Switzerland" (Journal of Anthroposophic
Medicine, spring 1992; text available at http://www.trufax.org/vaccine/mmr4.html):
After three years of study, a medical working group representing 180 Swiss medical
doctors specializing in general medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics
pointed out that not only will a high vaccination rate in the U.S. fail to stop
measles outbreaks, deaths, and complications completely, but that "mandatory,
mass vaccination with MMR vaccine is ineffective and dangerous."
Further, the group stated that natural recovery from childhood diseases such as
measles plays a role in the maturation of the human immune system and helps the
individual develop resistance to disease, including chronic diseases such as
asthma and cancer." Continued mass vaccination of infants could destroy
the natural resistence of populations to childhood diseases and create virgin
populations at risk for future epidemics.
Efficacy
is challenged additionally by the plentitude of reports on vaccine failure,
exemplified below. Deaths, injuries, and vaccine-related disease in other
countries, as well as in the United States, plus existing information on
prevailing disease trends, the mechanics of viral activity and of the human
immune system, need to be considered carefully (and less selectively) in
evaluating the safety and efficacy of vaccines. [Readers should also see the
section titled "Wakefield's recommendations," above.]
"Reemergence
of invasive haemophilus influenzae type b disease in a well-vaccinated
population on remote Alaska" (Journal of Infectious Diseases,
vol. 179, no. 1, January 1999, pp. 101-106, reported via Vaccine Weekly,
NewsEdge Corporation news release, February 12, 1999): In 1996, after
administration of Hib conjugate vaccine (DTP whole-cell vaccine + Hib), cases
of invasive Hib disease, as well as "silent" Hib infections,
increased.
"The
incidence of rubella virus infections in Switzerland after the introduction of
the MMR mass vaccination programme" (European Journal of
Epidemiology, vol. 11, no. 3, June 1995, pp. 305-10): In evaluating the
impact of the MMR mass vaccination program begun in Switzerland in 1985,
"we conclude that MMR mass vaccination has not interrupted the circulation
of rubella virus in Switzerland, and that improvements in the implementation
and surveillance of the MMR vaccination campaign are necessary in order to
avoid [the] untoward effects of it."
"Temporal
trends in the population structure of bordetella pertussis during 1949-1996 in
a highly vaccinated population (Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol.
179, April 1999; 915-923. "Despite the introduction of large-scale
pertussis vaccination in 1953 and high vaccination coverage, pertussis is still
an endemic disease in The Netherlands, with epidemic outbreaks occurring every
3-5 years." One factor that might contribute to this is the ability of
pertussis strains to adapt to vaccine-induced immunity, causing new strains of
pertussis to re-emerge in this well-vaccinated population.
"High
incidence of breakthrough varicella observed in healthy Japanese children
immunized with live attenuated varicella vaccine (Oka strain)," Acta
Paediatrica Japonica, vol. 39, no. 6, December 1997, pp. 663-8: the rate of
varicella [chicken pox] occurrence among vaccinees was found to be much higher
than rates reported previously by other authors. "Varicella vaccine seems
to be effective in modifying the symptoms of varicella, but not potent enough
in protecting from VZV infection."
"The
characteristics of poliovirus strains circulating in Ukraine in 1982-1994"
(Mikrobiol[ogie] Z. vol. 60, no. 2, March-April 1998, pp. 44-49 [article
in Russian]): "The long-term use of the live poliomyelitis vaccine has not
stopped circulation of virulent polioviruses."
"Effect of
subclinical infection on maintaining immunity against measles in vaccinated
children in West Africa" (The Lancet, vol. 353, January 9,
1999, pp. 98-102): Subclinical measles occurred in 45 percent of vaccinated children
exposed to natural measles. "new epidemics, albeit milder in form, may
occur in vaccinated areas[, a fact] which should be recognised in campaigns to
eradicate measles." [Note: if sustained as chronic infections, subclinical
measles infections can result in numerous other diseases.]
"Is
smallpox history?" (The Lancet, vol. 353, no. 9164, May 8,
1999): "A pilgrim returned home to Yugoslavia from Mecca in February,
1972, with a fever… In the 4 weeks since the pilgrim first had his fever, 150
people were infected across the country. It took 4 weeks before doctors,
nurses, and health authorities knew they were dealing with smallpox… 175 people
contracted smallpox [thereafter] and 35 died… these events occurred in a
well-vaccinated population."
"Five cases
of measles secondary vaccine failure with confirmed seroconversion after live
measles vaccination" (Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Disease
vol. 29, no. 2, 1997, pp. 187-90): Two, five, seven and twelve years after
vaccination with further attenuated live measles vaccine, three of five
patients experienced modified measles infection, and the remaining two had
typical measles. "This may be the first SVF case report that confirms the
existence of completely waning immunity in recipients of the further attenuated
live measles vaccines."
"Clinical
and epidemiological findings during a measles outbreak occurring in a
population with a high vaccination coverage" (Rev. Soc. Bras. Med.
Trop., vol. 28, no. 4, Oct-Dec 1995, pp. 339-43): "The history of previous
vaccination [in very early childhood] did not diminish the number of
complications of the cases studied. The results of this work show changes in
age distribution of measles leading to sizeable outbreaks among teenagers and
young adults."
"Measles
serodiagnosis during an outbreak in a vaccinated community" (Clin.
Invest. Med., vol. 11, no. 4, August 1988, pp. 304-9): from a group of 30
measles-sufferers displaying IgM antibodies during the acute phase of illness,
17 had been vaccinated for measles. All 17 experienced measles again, showing
IgM antibodies indicating acute infection. "A history of prior vaccination
is not always associated with immunity nor with the presence of specific
antibodies."
"H[epatitis]
B V[irus] prevalence is unchanged by hepatitis B [vaccine]," report by
Michael Belkin, statistician, based on nationwide sampling of the prevalence of
hepatitis B by the Centers for Disease Control, 1988, to 1994, for comparison
with figures from 1976 to 1980 [American Journal of Public Health, vol.
89, no. 14, 1999]: "There was an age-adjusted prevalence of 5.5% in the
first study and 4.9% in the second; these differences are not statistically
significant. The authors concluded that the widespread use of HBV vaccine in
the 1980s has not had a major impact on the overall prevalence of this
infection (communication posted on the Vaccine Information and Awareness (VIA)
listserv [via@access1.net], March 11, 1999, 12:22 p.m.).
(London,
p. 14) Addressing the severity of
vaccine-preventable diseases, London asserts, "These diseases from
which we can now protect our children are no small thing…all of these
illnesses are killers."
In the main,
diseases like varicella zoster (chicken pox), measles, pertussis, rotavirus
diarrhea, etc., for which vaccines exist, are almost always temporary and/or
mild in their duration and effects. Interestingly, a British law firm
investigating vaccine deaths and injuries notes a change in the way measles,
mumps and rubella are regarded in medical reference texts, before and after
vaccines for these became available--i.e., the diseases are first described as
mild and transient, with low incidence of complications, before MMR
immunization was available, then as potentially serious, with
considerable risk of complications, after the vaccine came into
existence.31 In numerous other texts, the often beneficial—even
protective—effects of natural infection have been noted.
"The
epidemiology of pertussis in the Republic of Ireland" (Communicable
Disease Report[:] CDR Review, vol. 2, no. 3, February 28, 1992, pp. R31-3):
Following adverse publicity in 1973, uptake of the vaccine fell to 30% in 1976.
In recent years, it has leveled out at only 40-45%. Yet when large epidemics of
pertussis occurred in 1985 and 1989, mortality from pertussis fell to almost
negligible levels.
"Severity
of whooping cough in England before and after the decline in pertussis
immunisation" (Archives of Disease in Childhood, vol. 59, no.
2, February 1984, pp. 162-5): "Since the decline of pertussis
immunisation, hospital admission and death rates from whooping cough have
fallen unexpectedly… The severity of attacks and the complication rates in
children [who were] admitted to hospital were virtually unchanged."
O. Tonz and S.
Bajc, "Convulsions after whooping-cough vaccination" (Schweiz.
Med. Wochenschr., vol. 110, no. 51, December 20, 1980, pp. 1965-71):
Convulsions or status epilepticus in 11 infants after pertussis vaccination are
reported. In three of 11 cases, grand mal epilepsy persisted and two children
developed infantile epileptic encephalopathy (Lennox Syndrome). "The
following conclusions are drawn from these observations: 1) In view of the
usually benign course of whooping cough today, current vaccination is hardly
satisfactory. Improvement of the available vaccines is an urgent necessity… 2)
Parents should be better informed about the risks involved in pertussis
vaccination. 3) Booster inoculations should be abandoned. 4) Health authorities
should decide whether the current pertussis vaccination program should be
abandoned. 5) Complications following vaccination should be registered….."
"Whooping
cough and pertussis vaccine: a comparison of risks and benefits in Britain
during the period 1968-83" (Development of Biological Standards,
vol. 61, 1985, pp. 395-405): "Since 1975, acceptance of pertussis vaccine
has fallen from over 70% to 50% or less in most parts of Britain. This permits
evaluation of a continuing natural experiment in which the frequency and
severity of whooping cough can be compared [with] those of adverse events
following injections of pertussis vaccine… There is a significant correlation
between vaccine-acceptance and hospital admission by district of residence… It is
concluded that, in children living in non-deprived circumstances in Britain,
the risk of pertussis vaccine during the period 1970-83 exceeded those of
whooping cough. In some deprived sectors, the risks from whooping cough might
have been marginally higher but there was no evidence that this was associated
with any increase in deaths or permanent disabilities."
"Vaccination
against whooping-cough. Efficacy versus risks" (The Lancet,
vol. 1, January 29, 1977, pp. 234-7): Calculations based on the mortality of
whooping-cough before 1957 predict accurately the subsequent decline and the
present low mortality… Incidence [is] unaffected either by small-scale
vaccination beginning about 1948 or by nationwide vaccination beginning in
1957… No protection is demonstrable in infants."
advantages of natural infection
"Arguments
Against routine mumps vaccination" (Soz Praventivmed, vol. 40,
no. 2, 1995, pp. 116-23): "As the maturation of the immune system follows
learning principles, the question arises whether childhood diseases are not
essential for the normal development of immuno-competence….."
"The
Immunization Campaign Against Measles, Mumps and Rubella…Medical Objections to
a Continued MMR Immunization Campaign in Switzerland" (Journal of
Anthroposophic Medicine, spring 1992; text available at http://www.trufax.org/vaccine/mmr4.html):
After three years of study, a medical working group representing 180 Swiss
medical doctors specializing in general medicine, internal medicine and
pediatrics stated that "natural recovery from childhood diseases such as
measles plays a role in the maturation of the human immune system and helps the
individual develop resistance to disease, including chronic diseases such as
asthma and cancer." Continued mass vaccination of infants could destroy
the natural resistence of populations to childhood diseases and create virgin
populations at risk for future epidemics.
"A case of
myasthenia gravis with transient remission after influenza A virus infection"
(No To Hattatsu, vol. 31, no. 1, January 1999, pp. 70-4): researchers
from the Department of Pediatrics, Nagaoka Central Hospital, Niigata, Japan
found that a boy's intractable myasthenia gravis symptoms disappeared rapidly
after an influenza A virus infection. "These results suggested that
influenza A may improve the clinical signs of myasthenia gravis, as is the
improved case with measles."
M. Lovik, "Do
infections reduce the development of allergy? Do measles reduce the risk of
allergic disease?" (Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen, vol. 117, no. 5,
February 20, 1997, pp. 688-90): "Immunological theory indicates that
[natural] infections can prevent allergy by directing the immune reaction
against an antigen towards a Th1-type response, thus inhibiting an
allergy-associated Th2-type response." A recent study from Guinea-Bissau
demonstrates an apparently strong protective effect of [natural] measles
infection on incidence of positive skin tests for reactions to common
allergens. The author asks these medical and ethical questions: "do we
have to choose between measles [infection] and an increase in allergic
ciseases? And if so, who should decide--the individual or society?"
"Relation
between psoriasis and measles" (Z. Hautkr., vol. 57, no. 6,
March 15, 1982, pp. 439-40 [article in German]): Psoriatics with measles in the
history had a light type of psoriasis and low titers of measles antibodies;
psoriatics without measles in the history, however, had severe types of
psoriasis, and the titers of measles antibodies were high."
(Page
18) "The Autoimmune Question:
Although no one has found evidence that autism can be caused by an autoimmune
disorder, researchers have not ruled it out…Could the MMR vaccine so overheat
an already disordered immune system that it attacks…the brain? So far, given
the vast amount of data…the answer is no" [emphasis mine].
Unfortunately, the
"vast amount of data" is unspecified in the London piece, making it
difficult to assess this claim. In medical literature there is compelling
evidence, irregardless, of the involvement of autoimmunity in autism—possibly
as a causal factor (see The
attenuated virus: infectious or not?
above, as well as passages discussing the work of Van Gent, et al., in Causes).
(Pages 16/15,
London) "…the entire point of
vaccination programs is to end the need for vaccinations! "
"The moral:
we vaccinate children against disease in order to keep them alive and well."
Few would argue
that the immunization practices first arose out of concern for widespread
suffering and death from disease. Once vaccines became a commodity, however,
focus inevitably shifted to include other matters. The precedence of profit and
reputation over health was amply enough demonstrated when, as a Swine influenza
pandemic supposedly loomed in the late 1970s, U.S. government personnel
initially resisted industry pressures for federal government protection against
liability for the pending Swine Flu vaccine. Political concerns surfaced during
this period as key bureaucrats and scientists strove to appear concerned,
decisive, swift, and justified in their actions:
"A
public official might not only feel an obligation to protect the health of the
people but might also suspect that a wrong decision on such an important issue
might cost him his job. If he failed to act and an influenza pandemic did
appear, might he not be indicted for negligence or stupidity? Far better to act
positively, and run the lesser risk that if a pandemic failed to come, he could
only be accused of wasting taxpayers' money…the influenza virologist, normally
confined to his narrow circle of fellow specialists…must have felt a secret
thrill of anticipation at seeing his subject in the forefront...the specialist
in preventive medicine and public health would have been less than human not to
feel a certain elation at the prospect of showing, in so significant a fashion,
what disease control and epidemiology were capable of doing…(p. 33, Pure Politics, cited below)."
The
different pressures converging, industry and government pushed through a
national immunization program allotting financial protection to the
pharmaceutical industry, and legislative backing to government scientists and
bureaucrats. Though one school of thought had held that the hastily-concocted
Swine Flu vaccine should not automatically be given, but should be stockpiled
in case of a serious flu epidemic, the winning side pushed for immediate,
country-wide vaccination. The result has been infamous ever since, as not only
did the pandemic not appear, but many vaccinees contracted Guillain-Barre
Syndrome, a body-wide autoimmune paralysis. Some of the vaccinees died from
Guillain-Barre, and some from the vaccine itself (Arthur M. Silverstein, Pure
Politics and Impure Science: The Swine Flu Affair, Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1981).
In 1986 the federal
government responded to further pressure from the pharmaceutical industry,
which threatened to cease production of vaccines if it was not granted federal
protection against liability suits. Responsibility for vaccine-related deaths
and injuries was therewith globally assumed by the U.S. government through the
Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. The pharmaceutical industry had already
demonstrated a preoccupation with its financial well-being in the Swine Flu
affair of the 1970s; through the 1986 Act, the government created for itself a
flagrant conflict of interest wherein public monies are used to refute
citizens' claims of damage by government-mandated vaccines.
According to
investigative journalist Janine Roberts, [ethical] questions are now being
raised about an urgent warning issued in the United Kingdom in November 1994,
forecasting an epidemic which would infect between 100 and 200,000 children, of
which some 50 would die--if children ages 5 to 15 were not immediately
revaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella ("The Fraudulent Measles
Epidemic;" posted as part of The Web Inquirer, September 29,
1995, http://www.gn.apc.org/inquirer/fraud.html;
posted April 8, 1999, 12:13 a.m. on Vaccine Information and Awareness
discussion list, via@access1.net). Roberts quotes Dr. Richard Nicholson, editor of the Bulletin of
Medical Ethics, who studied government reports and declared that there was
no proof that such an epidemic was about to begin--and even if this had
happened, there had been no justification for the concomitant rubella
immunization proposed. Faulty statistics were used in compiling the
government's reasons for sudden mass immunization; further impropriety--and
motivation--was discovered when the British government did not collect bids
from a variety of vaccine vendors, as required by law. Instead, claiming
extreme urgency, the government immediately contracted with SmithKline Beecham
and Merieux UK, pharmaceutical firms which had earlier been forced to withdraw
their MMR vaccines when the mumps element of the vaccine was shown to cause
meningitis. This new contract reopened the market for their vaccines.
Caution regarding
the lives of prospective vaccinees is a means by which good intent might be
demonstrated; caution is not, however, built into the present immunization
regimen in the United States and elsewhere. Prescreening appears to be avoided
due to expense or loss or profit: a genetic weakness in autistic children and
other persons, resulting in the inability to mount a complete immune response
against viral and bacterial threats, has been identified (see "Causes"
and Wakefield's recommendations, above)--yet there are no pre-screening procedures in
place for distinguishing children with such a predisposition prior to
immunization. An existing high antibody count can also be a risk factor for
vaccine reactions and injury; as a recent British Medical Journal stated
(cited September 29, 1995, "The Reckless Vaccination Campaign").
Antibody status should be checked before immunization, the authors stated, so
that children do not incur risks through unnecessary vaccination. Currently,
prior immune status is not checked in the United States or United Kingdom
("The Fraudulent Measles Epidemic"). In Britain, the
Department of Health was shown to have saved on the costs of inoculation during
its November 1994 measles and rubella vaccination campaign by eliminating such
evaluations prior to immunization ("The Gamble," or "The
Reckless Vaccination Campaign," The Web Inquirer, http://www.gn.apc.org/inquirer/gamble.html). In addition, a family history of autoimmune disease is not
considered a contraindication to vaccination, though links between microbes and
autoimmune disorders have been established--including those represented in
vaccines. As neither the genetic nor the immune screenings are difficult to
obtain, a further motive such as financial and legal considerations must be
considered part of the motive for continuing to vaccinate along present lines.
In "Combination
vaccines for childhood immunization: Recommendations" (American
Academy of Pediatrics/American Academy of Family Physicians), combination
vaccines are preferred in order to fit the large number of available vaccines
into a relatively few well-patient visits between ages 0-6--this helps to
insure children will miss few if any shots, and reduce the cost for extra
health-care visits. It also will facilitate adding more vaccines into the program
(pp. 7-8). However, the Academies list as a future research priorities the
safety of administering combination vaccines to patients who might already have
natural or vaccine-conveyed immunity, as well as the safety, in any patient, of
repeated exposures to the same proteins used as antigens and/or carrier
components in existing and future conjugated vaccines --implying that the
safety of this practice has not been satisfactorily proven (pp. 10-12, Morbidity
and Mortality Weekly Report, vol. 48, RR05, May 14, 1999, pp. 1-15; text available http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr4805a1.htm).
Since much of our
current immunization program is geared to prevent diseases that are described
as mild in medical texts predating the corresponding vaccines, and for which
complications are extremely rare, and from the many vaccine-efficacy articles
that emphasize loss of work time and dollars from the economy due to caring for
the unvaccinated sick, as well as the above considerations, it can be inferred
that the aims of vaccination programs are not as single-faceted as implied by
London. The ever-increasing number of vaccines in various stages of conception,
development and implementation, together with the non-essential nature and/or
possible dangers of many of those vaccines, further demonstrates the existence
of motives other than concern for public health. Ironically, many of those
vaccines in various stages of conception and development at the present time
are geared to combat illnesses or conditions which may be vaccine-related.
--see also Caveats:
Conflicts of Interest, below--
(Page 16,
London) "If you’re not afraid
of measles (and most parents are not) then there is no reason to be afraid of
the measles vaccine."
Abstract: putting
aside the emotional, rather than scientific, character of this argument, the
statement itself is ill-founded: vaccine viruses are injected directly into the
bloodstream, bypassing important mucosal immune system barriers in the
digestive and respiratory tracts, giving the virus direct access to the body's
systems, and robbing the body of the signals necessary to produce a fully
developed immune response. Wild measles caught ‘naturally’ is filtered through
these barriers. Further, "There is good evidence that mucosal immunity may
be required for optimal protection against viruses that infect via such a
route…" (Molecular Virology, 1994, p. 89). "Combination
vaccines for childhood immunization: Recommendations" (American
Academy of Pediatrics/American Academy of Family Physicians), mentioned above,
notes that "research to develop and evaluate alternative means of antigen
delivery by the mucosal, parenteral, and cutaneous routes" would allow new
and existing vaccines to be administered more safely than with needles and
syringes (p. 12).
Measles
immunosuppression is an additional, serious consideration in weighing the
benefits and risks of MMR vaccination, as vaccine recipients are rendered
vulnerable to opportunistic infection. Existing vaccine safety studies are,
moreover, inadequate to evaluate the long-term safety of the MMR in any context
and, as well, most other vaccines. Safety testing of the MMR vaccine included
only three weeks' surveillance.
(Page 18,
London) "I am often asked…if
I have vaccinated my own children. The answer is yes…and if we were to have
another child, we would vaccinate him or her as well."
Many doctors do not
share this view. Medical surveys have repeatedly found that doctors and their
families are the least vaccinated group in their communities (JAMA
[Journal of the American Medical Association],1981 (vol. 245, no. 7, pp.
711-713; British Medical Journal, January 27, 1990). Reasons given for
their own lack of consent to vaccination include "I do not trust the
vaccine" and "Vaccination is of no proven benefit." Similarly, Practical
Parenting magazine, December 1998, found that parents who did not
vaccinate were those who had done the most research before making that
decision.
Caveats
Consider
the source
This work is designed to be a compilation of quoted and
paraphrased material from studies, articles, and books dealing with immunology
and autism, plus other topics, in an effort to bring together the expertise of
the original writers on the issue of autism and vaccination. In contrast,
"ABCs" is written by NAAR co-founder Eric London—not an
immunologist, virologist, or a geneticist; not a pediatric gastroenterologist,
nor indeed a specialist in any area which would seem to present minimal
qualifications for an authoritative, virtually unreferenced expression of facts
and opinions on this issue. He is, in fact, a psychiatrist, and the father of a
child with autism. London, interestingly, hails from the same institution—the
University of Medicine and Dentistry, New Jersey—where work a group of
excellent scientists with expertise relevant to London's article—including Dr.
James Oleske and Dr. Tina Zecca, of that institution’s Pediatric Allergy and
Immunology division. Recently a cluster of children with autism in Brick
County, New Jersey made national news.
The editor of London’s "ABCs" article, Catherine
Johnson, wrote a glowing review of Shirley Cohen’s recent book, Targeting
Autism, on page 9 of this same issue of NAARATIVE. Cohen points out the
ever-increasing evidence of immune system abnormalities in autism (pages
139-140; actual passage quoted above, in "Causes"). NAARRATIVE is the
house organ of the National Alliance for Autism Research; NAAR’s website and
newsletter issues refer not infrequently to grants from the National Institutes
of Health for NAAR projects, and workshops co-sponsored by NAAR and government
agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control.
Conflicts
of interest
Another possible criticism of
the London/NAARRATIVE article is that, typical of most research projects
and articles nowadays, there is no financial disclosure regarding either Dr.
London or NAAR. Carolyn Morelli, co-founder of Pennsylvania Parents for Vaccine
Awareness, asserts that authors of medical literature should make full
financial disclosure concerning all sources of income—including that from
consulting, and income in the form of gifts or other favors from pharmaceutical
companies such as Merck, Sharpe and Dohme, makers of the MMR vaccine. "The
results of medical studies," Morelli says, in a Reuters news release dated
this past July, "are likely to be tainted or flawed if they are funded by
industry," for (in the words of Hurst Hannum in the British Medical
Journal), "at a minimum, the recipient must be accountable for how
grants are spent. At a maximum, the recipient must deliver a particular product
that is acceptable to the donor." Morelli refers, most notably, to recent
ethics articles from the Journal of the American Medical Association
which note an alarming tendency toward conflict of interest in medical studies
and treatises, citing in particular those associated with the tobacco and
infant formula industries.39
Conflict of interest in the practice of
medicine and in the research arena is now such a serious and widespread problem
that numerous attempts to study and construct guidelines for physicians’
acceptance of gifts from industry have been made. Congress recently put
pressure on the American Medical Association to begin enforcing these. Drug
manufacturers are aggressive marketers with top-dollar public relations
machines, who are extremely active "educators" of medical school
students and providers of funding and incentives to practicing physicians and
scientists. As a matter of course these firms commonly promote the use of their
products through liberal gifts of product samples, together with other gifts and
incentives, to physicians. Some conflict of interest studies cited by the New
England Journal of Medicine and other publications are summarized in
"Headlines: Follow the Money," Environment and Health Weekly,
January 15, 1998.40 In moving against mandatory hepatitis B
vaccination of young children, the Association of American Physicians and
Surgeons noted that children younger than 14 are three times more likely to be
killed or seriously injured by the hepatitis B vaccines than they were to catch
the disease, which is not spread by casual contact, but rather by injection,
sex, or an infected mother. Kristine M. Severyn, a Ph.D. pharmacist and
director of Ohio Parents for Vaccine Safety, collected letters from twenty-four
individual physicians opposing the vaccine, together with a copy of a thank-you
letter from the The American Academy of Pediatrics to Merck & Co.,
manufacturer of the hepatitis vaccine, for a $100,000 donation to the Academy,
which had endorsed the vaccine ("Association says numbers show
mandatory vaccinations not best for children" (New York Times
Syndicate news release, April 28, 1999).
There is no disclosure of financial and
business interests in London’s article, "The ABCs of MMRs and DPTs,"
but one might reasonably assume that, as a psychiatrist, Dr. London dispenses
the psychoactive drugs that have become mainstays in the treatment of mental
disorders—antidepressants; anti-psychotics; substances like lithium for
management of bipolar disorders; beta blockers and OCD inhibitors—in treating
his patients, made by drug/vaccine manufacturers such as Merck, Sharpe and
Dohme. There is no direct disclosure of the interrelationships between NAAR and
the Centers for Disease Control or the National Institutes for Health, who work
closely with the drug industry, but in NAAR literature one observes references
to NIH funding of NAAR projects and a workshop sponsored jointly by NAAR and
CDC (http://www.naar.org). The relationship
between NAAR and the drug industry is evidenced in the Winter 1998 issue of NAARRATIVE,
which displays front-page coverage of the awarding of a
"NAAR/Bristol-Myers Squibb Research Fellowship in Autism and
Neuropharmacology."
Scientific
propaganda
Abstract: London’s "ABCs"
article is similar to other literature written and broadcast on medical topics,
in that the use of communicative (rhetorical) devices designed not to inform,
but to persuade are used. "Trade science" institutions
affiliated with drug and other industries have proliferated in the past decades
and have changed the course of environmental and health politics,41
sporting titles eerily similar in sound to that of NAAR, "National
Alliance for Autism Research."
The title of the "ABCs"
article belies the importance and complexity of its central issue—immunizations
and their ill-effects—which is of world-wide significance, now and in the
future. Vague allusions like "evidence indicates," and "geneticists
believe" (e.g., page 14, paragraph 1), dot the pages of London’s
article, appearing without specifics and references to back them up (there is a
very short list of sources at the end, but most ‘facts’ are not tied to sources
in a manner that can readily be checked). Numbers are airily summoned without
specificity as to time, place, population and other qualifiers, as on page 14,
paragraph 11, "many, many thousands of children died of now preventable
diseases" (it is not specified over how many years, and how much
geographical distance; also the ages of affected persons and disease specifics
are excluded, along with details regarding other relevant circumstances).
Paragraph 3 on page 14 is formed from purest conjecture:
"Why
do some children with autism seem normal until just after they have received
their vaccinations? The answer to this question COULD be that many
children with autism develop normally for 12 to 18 months, whether or not they
were vaccinated. That MAY be the nature of the disorder in SOME of
its expressions…A third-world child with autism who received no vaccinations of
any kind MIGHT show exactly the same pattern.
Having no other information,
some readers of the London article might be inclined to dismiss the issue of
vaccinations and autism.
The
psychology of causal attribution
"…it is
well known that OUR memories are not accurate enough to support medical
hypotheses one way or the other. RESEARCHERS have conducted studies in
which they cross-checked PARENTS’ accounts of their children’s medical
histories with the actual pediatric and/or hospital records—and often the
parents have remembered things differently from the way they actually occurred.
This is true of ALL parents, on ALL subjects….." (London,
p. 17)
Specifics are unfortunately
missing, in this statement, as to whom it is "well known" that
memories are not accurate; which researchers have checked which parents'
accounts; which studies were published describing this work; the details of
those studies and, particularly, why such studies should invalidate all parents’
every observation in all circumstances. Perhaps predictably—since
he is a psychiatrist—London attributes to psychological factors parents’ belief
that vaccinations precipitated their children’s developmental and medical
conditions (in spite of the fact that such histories are given credence in
works such as those in "Cause[s]," above). A
number of illnesses were pronounced "psychological" by physicians in
the not-so-distant past—e.g., lupus erythematosus, Sjogren’s Syndrome, and the
Chronic Fatigue and Gulf War syndromes. London’s thesis in this regard is
challengeable also in its apparent assumption that parents would rather believe
that their children's autism is the result of outside factors--e.g.
vaccines--than their own genes. In actuality, most parents of autistic children
reject out of hand the idea that the vaccinations commonly believed to be
safe—that are represented as safe by the United States government and
physicians around the country—could have harmed so many children, until
laboratory reports and existing information put an end to denial. One of the
strongest psychological drives of human beings is the need to cling to one’s
personal belief system or psychological "set"--which usually includes
belief in one's government as an authoritative source of information and a
protector of citizens. It is far less disturbing to believe that autistic
children’s conditions result from chance genetic encounters, problems at birth,
or unknown factors—where no one is at fault—than it is to realize that industry
concerns can and often do dominate those of government, in this case to mislead
both parents and physicians. One mother—a physician herself—whose child
regressed post-MMR wrote,
"Before…,
my husband and I assumed that Mike’s autism was completely genetic. It made the
whole thing much easier to accept—it wasn’t our fault…I did believe everything
I was taught about vaccines—they were safe…[but] last December removed every
trace of doubt from my mind when [a preeminent immunologist] reviewed Mike’s
labs with me and went over his history in great detail. I did this to my
child. I drove him to the pediatrician's office. I held him down while they
gave him the MMR. The guilt is almost overwhelming at times…I ruined his life."42
Parents vs.
professionals?
London’s skepticism toward parental
conclusions is not shared by most professionals who work with autistic
children. Rutter and Schopler, eminent in the field of autism, note the
importance of obtaining detailed information from parents in formulating a comprehensive
assessment of a child. Information (i.e., memories, as well as documented
information) on the child’s history is one of several types of information
specifically sought from parents in the renowned TEACCH program (Diagnosis
and Assessment in Autism, 1988, pages 294-5). This practice is standard in
speech and occupational therapy, as well. Parental input is even mandated by
federal law: in the special education arena, IDEA legislation made parents an
essential element in the "Assessment Review and Dismissal" or
"Individual Education Plan" committees which are charged with all
aspects of a child's educational fate.
Regarding parental vaccine damage reports,
even the medical community is not always prejudiced against parental input. In
"Measles, Mumps, Rubella Vaccine Induced Subacute Sclerosing
Panencephalitis" (Journal of the Indian Medical Association,
November 1997), the authors comment, "The parents proved to be extremely
reliable informants." Richard Moxon, Professor of Pediatrics at Oxford University,
gave his support to parents pleading for improved research into vaccine
side-effects, noting, "Over 200 [parents] had come forward…The reports I
heard were plausible…" (Janine Roberts, "A Horrendous Gap in
Research…, The Web Inquirer, October 7, 1995, http://www.gn.apc.org/inquirer/moxon.html). Even so, the parents of regressively autistic
children with bowel and metabolic problems do not expect their memories to
support medical hypotheses—only that these memories, together with the
information and evidence at hand concerning immune system abnormalities in
autism, provide the impetus for independent and thorough medical inquiry.
Autism
research needed
Inquiry should focus not only
on the immune abnormalities seen in autism, and the possible vaccine
connection, but should also go, as shorter-term goals, toward development of a
complete list of contraindications to vaccination (such as a family history of
immune system abnormalities; high serum antibody counts to viruses represented
in the prospective vaccines), screening procedures to eliminate persons
susceptible to vaccine damage from the immunization program, and, in the
long-term, toward development of safer types of vaccines. In the meantime,
monovalent (single-virus) vaccines should be available for separate, carefully
timed vaccination—particularly in the case of measles and rubella. This is
particularly important in the case of the MMR: as noted by Wakefield, et al.,
in "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia," measles and rubella
together may cause more damage than either alone.
Several scientists and authors have
designated directions for further research regarding autism, genetics and
immunology:
The
Centers for Disease Control, [1998],
"Vaccines and Autism: Is There a Relationship?" http://www.cdc.gov/nip/
vacsafe/vac_autism.htm). …An issue unresolved by [a working group
convened by the National Institutes of Health in 1995] was the role of
immune factors in autism spectrum disorders; it was suggested that studies to
clarify the situation are needed."
Van Gent, et al.,
"Autism and the Immune System," Journal of Child Psychology and
Psychiatry, vol. 38 no. 3, 1997, pp. 337-349. The authors note that
research in this area to date has been limited primarily to adults or mature
subjects, rather than children. They, along with the authors of "Autism:
Towards an Integration of Clinical, Genetic, Neuropsychological, and
Neurobiological Perspectives,"43 suggest specific
directions for further research in the immunology of autism, and for linkage of
these studies to studies on imaging, behavior, etc. Van Gent, cited above). Van
Gent, et al. observe that "the immune response is regulated by genetic
material located mainly on the sixth chromosome. The authors conclude their
study and review of the literature by suggesting that the brain
abnormalities that have been found in autism may be "but one
consequence of abnormal brain development, which in turn may be linked with
disordered immune function in a yet unknown way" (page 346). They
stress the importance of further research on the immunological abnormalities in
autism, and suggest some specific avenues for study.
"Vaccine-induced
autoimmunity" (Journal of Autoimmunity, vol. 9, no. 6, December
1996, pp. 699-703): the authors summarize of case reports attributing
autoimmune diseases and autoimmune phenomena to vaccines, and comment,
"The subject of the vaccine-autoimmunity relationship is still obscure;
reports have been rare, [and] no laboratory experimentation on this topic has
been undertaken....." They conclude that "laborious clinical and
laboratory studies should be initiated in order to evaluate the
...subject.")
Immunologic
mechanisms in neurologic and psychiatric disease (Raven Press, 1990),44 p. 1: "Our
knowledge of disease pathogenesis in the case of schizophrenia and the
affective disorders is too fragmentary to permit definitive assignment to
an immuopathologic category. However, the psychiatric disorder associated
with systemic lupus erythematosus may serve as a paradigm of immunologically
mediated psychiatric disease….."
Piven, J. et. al.
(1990). Magnetic resonance imaging: evidence for a defect of cerebral cortical
development in autism. American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 147, number 6,
pages 734-739, "…the relationship between cortical malformations and
prenatal immunologic, neurochemical, and genetic abnormalities in
autistic subjects warrants further exploration. Our findings raise several
questions regarding the validity of MRI in detecting cerebral cortical
malformations….. (p. 738)."
In Margaret L.
Bauman and Thomas Kemper’s The Neurobiology of Autism (Johns Hopkins
Press), 1994, Introduction by Isabelle Rapin: "At least 40 percent of
parents report that their infant or toddler, whose development may or may not
have been entirely normal up to then, experienced a regression, usually
insidious but occasionally abrupt, in language, sociability, and play…
Development resumes after a plateau…but, in most cases, never returns to its
previous level… Many speculations have been offered…to explain autistic
regression: slow viral infection, autoimmune phenomenon, lack or
insufficiency of a growth factor at a particular time in development... Data
need to be collected to investigate these speculations (pages 13-14)."
"Role of
Immunogenetics in the Diagnosis of Postvaccinal CNS Pathology,"
Department of Pediatric Surgery, University of Bari, Italy, presented May 9,
1996 (text available http://www.healthy.net/library/articles/coulter/biochem.htm--a
fuller description of this study will be found in "The attenuated
virus--infectious or not?" above): the fact that post-vaccinal
pathologies of the central nervous system are often not thoroughly investigated
occasioned this study. Additional cases are under study to better define the
possible association of HLA A3 and/or HLA DR7 with this CNS pathology following
vaccination. Initially, thirty children were found to have signs of central
nervous system and genetic damage following vaccination. The authors remark,
"A study of the disease associated with genes of the HLA system has
shown that this genetic complex can be responsible for a particular genetic
susceptibility, predisposing to various diseases characterized predominantly by
immune-system pathogenesis… Conclusion[:] The results indicate that
autoimmune pathology is more frequent in countries where vaccination is more
widespread… With this study, and with the individualization of
alleles such as A3 and DR7, in the presence of viral DNA, it would be
possible to define the subjects at risk of an autoimmune pathology from
vaccination."
"Cerebral
palsy, autism, suboptimality…Teresa C. Binstock, Researcher in
Developmental and Behavioral Neuroanatomy, mused that further research of a
purely genetic design might endanger children with autism: "If some
autism-spectrum kids still have a subclinical infection within the CNS (as may
be indicated by their gradual deterioration), then waiting years for
additional genetic research to be completed may enable further deterioration to
occur. In contrast, if this subgroup of kids can acquire
aggressive diagnostics regarding possible subclinical CNS infections, and can
then receive the best treatments available for those infections…then further
deterioration may be prevent[ed] or minimized (post from Autism discussion
list originating at St. Johns University, New York, April 30, 1999, 18:39:12
-0700).
NAAR
representation and support
The word "National"
corresponds to the "N" in the NAAR acronym. It is clear, in the case
of the article this paper concerns, that only one viewpoint is
represented—in essence the one held by the United States government and the
pharmaceutical industry. The U.S. government linked itself with the drug
industry in 1986, when it took responsibility for vaccine injury via the
Childhood Vaccine Injury Act--thus placing itself in an obvious conflict of
interest between public health and pharmaceutical industry concerns. One might
speculate also that perhaps the word "national" might correspond to
the organization’s government-derived funding and associations. In any case, the
term "Autism" appears to be used broadly by NAAR in its literature,
without distinction as to subtypes: presumably, then, NAAR purports to
represent the atypically autistic population, as well as sufferers of
‘classic,’ or "Kanner’s" autism—but does not seem to be doing so in
addressing immunological issues. Its commitment to quality research is
certainly not reflected in "ABCs"--though "ABCs"
might perhaps be seen as a expression of opinion. In the latter case, however,
an opposing viewpoint was not permitted by NAAR: world-recognized autism expert
Bernard Rimland of the Autism Research Institute requested, but was denied, the
privilege of placing an article in the NAARRATIVE which would explore the same
themes as London's "ABCs," and present alternative
conclusions. 'Representation' in a high-quality research-devoted institution
should necessarily extend not only to a variety of populations but a variety of
ideas; unfortunately this is not yet the case with NAAR.
NAAR’s web-prospectus (www.naar.org) indicates that its founders
intended NAAR to become a nationwide alliance of "families, researchers
and others concerned with autism," united in its efforts to fund and
accelerate autism research. A number of families have withdrawn their
memberships and support from the Autism Society of America because it has
declined to take a firm stand on the need for further research into
immunological and metabolic issues in autism.45 Will NAAR suffer a
similar fate because it fails to give such issues fair treatment and equal
research support? The statements, in the Editor’s Note and at the conclusion of
the "ABCs" article—that NAAR will still [in spite of London’s
stance on the autism/immune dysfunction issue] support the "sound
epidemiological research that it would take to answer this question"—imply
otherwise, but are, of course, yet to be substantiated.
L. J. Ruede received her Master’s degree
in Library and Information Science in 1992. As a member of Texas Christian
University’s professional staff, she serves as Archivist of the Van Cliburn
International Piano Competition collection housed in the University’s library,
as well as Assistant Librarian, and is bibliographer-liaison to the
University’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and the School
of Education. At TCU, "ComSci/Dis" houses the Miller Speech and
Hearing Clinic, a training ground for speech/language pathologists. The School
of Education’s degree offerings include concentrations in Special Education, Educational
Research, Adapted Physical Activity, and Kinesiology/Motor Control.
At eight years of age, Ruede’s daughter
Deanna has autism in tandem with inflammatory bowel disease and multiple
chronic infections, including measles, rubella, diphtheria and tetanus, as
indicated by excessively high antibody counts and corresponding metabolic
patterns. She was fully vaccinated, experiencing none of the preventable
childhood diseases except varicella zoster (chicken pox).
e-mail: l.ruede@tcu.edu
References
1 Wakefield, et al., "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia,
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25, 1998.
2 Published full-length as "Dialysable Lymphocyte Extract (DLyE)
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parts 1-3, 1996, pages 143-7.
3 "Complications of Immunizations," Pediatrics in
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4 Reversion, persistent infection and hypersensitivity to viral antigens
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5th edition, 1998 (p. 268).
5 "Measles Virus Infections of the Central Nervous System,"
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2, number 11, November 1996, pp. 1250-54; "Suppression of
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6 "Measles Virus Infections of the Central Nervous System,"
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Intervirology, vol. 40, 1997, pages 167-175.
7 Preliminary results were published under the title, "Diagnostic
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8 Wakefield, et al., "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia,
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9 Susan Owens, Brain Research and Treatment Center, University of Texas
at Dallas, via Autism discussion list originating from St. Johns University,
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10 Andrew Wakefield in presentation at "Vaccinations &
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11 Wakefield, et al., "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia…,"
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12 Andrew Wakefield in presentation at "Vaccinations &
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New Orleans, LA, July 25, 1998.
13 Wakefield, et al., "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia…,"
The Lancet, vol. 351, February 28, 1988.
14 Andrew Wakefield in presentation at "Vaccinations &
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15 Wakefield, et. al., and Andrew Wakefield in presentation, 1998.
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21 A. Sabra, J. A. Bellanti, and A. R. Colon, "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular-hyperplasia,
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[letter; comment], The Lancet, vol. 352, July 18, 1998, pp. 234-5.
22 Text of release available to Reuters subscribers at http://www.reutershealth.com/frame_about.html;
the original source of this report
appears in Gastroenterology, vol. 116, no. 4, April 1999, pp. 796-803
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inflammatory bowel disease."
23 A Report to the Legislature: Changes in the Population of Persons
With Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders in California's Developmental
Services System: 1987 Through 1998 (Department of Developmental Services,
California Health and Human Services Agency, Sacramento, CA: March 1, 1999),
section IV, Rates of Occurrence, p. 5.
24 Post to the Autism electronic mail discussion list originating from St.
John's University, New York [listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu], April 12, 1999,
19:09:49 -0700, subject lined "Is Autism a Public Health Problem?"
25 Barbara McDonald, Assessment, Evaluation and Support Unit, Special
Education Division, California Department of Education (Bmcdonal@cde.ca.gov), to Raymond Gallup (truegrit@gti.net) via electronic mail, April
9, 1999, 10:10 a.m.
26 Statistics excerpted from correspondence between Ray Gallup and the
Illinois State Board of Education, posted to Vaccine Information and Awareness
(VIA) discussion list [via@access1.net] April 28, 1999, 4:12 p.m.
27 Harris Coulter, Ph.D., President, Center for Empirical Medicine,
Childhood Vaccinations and Juvenile-Onset (Type-1) Diabetes: Testimony before
the Congress of the United States, House of Representatives, Committee on
Appropriations, subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education,
and Related Agencies, April 16, 1997, section entitled 'No Investigation of the Vaccine Connection;' text available at http://www.909shot.com/hcdiabetes.htm.
28 "Bacterial persistence and expression of disease," (Clinical
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29 Post to Vaccine Information and Awareness listserv
[via@access1.net],Tuesday, March 23, 1999, 10:11 AM (origin: andysch@my-dejanews.com).
30 John C. Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, Toxic Sludge is Good for You:
Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry (Monroe, ME: Common
Courage Press, 1995).
31 Richard Barr and Kirsten Limb, "Vaccines. Fact Sheet,"
section three, "Background: Setting the illnesses in context."
Text available from the Society for the Autistically Handicapped, http://www.rmplc.co.uk/eduweb/sites/autism/index.html.
32 "Gluten, autism and schizophrenia;" "Diet and
mental disease;" "Intestinal permeability in schizophrenia;"
"Schizophrenia and diet;" and other articles in the Collected
Net Articles of Dr. Kalle Reichelt, http://wwwebguides.com/nutrition/diets/glutenfree/menta.html
or http://www.panix.com/~donwiss/reichelt.html.
33 Knight, et al., "Can autoimmune mechanisms account for the
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34 Spivak, et al., "Reduced total complement haemolytic activity
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35 Sirota, et al., "Autoantibodies to DNA in multicase families
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March 15, 1993, pp. 450-5.
36 These ideas are echoed in Ader, et al., Psychoneuroimmunology,
Academic Press, 1991, page 569.
37 Piven, J., et. al. (1990). "Magnetic resonance imaging:
evidence for a defect of cerebral cortical development in autism," American
Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 147, number 6, pp. 734-739.
38 T. C. Binstock, "Changing the autism paradigm: a critique of
Kemper & Bauman's speculations regarding in-utero timing,"
Bit.listserv.autism, 5.11.97 (posts 13491, 13493, 13494, 13495, and 13496,
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listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu).
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Information & Awareness (VIA), via@access1.net,
July 15, 1998, 12:04:30.64; "Conflict of Interest May Taint Research
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40 Environment & Health Weekly #581, Environmental Research
Foundation, Annapolis, Maryland, 1-15-98, www.monitor.net/rachel/r581.html.
41 Robert N. Proctor, Cancer Wars: How Politics Shapes What We Know
and Don’t Know About Cancer (New York: BasicBooks, 1995).
42 Autism discussion list originating from St. Johns University, New York
[listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu], Friday, July 17, 1998, 12:35:16-0400.
43 Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, vol. 37, no. 1, pp.
89-126, 1996.
44 Immunologic Mechanisms in Neurologic and Psychiatric
Disease (Proceedings of the 68th
annual symposium of the Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease
(ARNMD), New York, N.Y., 1988), Raven Press, 1990.
45 Eight sample subscriber letters, subject lines "ASA"
and "ASA Out of Touch," from Autism discussion listserv at St.
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8:46 p.m. in November 6, 1998, 07:21:12-0500; also November 6, 07:29:36-0500,
07:49:09-0500, and 11:47:52-0800; November 8, 1998, 21:07:37 EST.
46 "T-lymphocyte subpopulations in schizophrenic patients,"
(European Archives of Psychiatry and Neurological Science, vol. 239, no.
5, 1990, pp. 283-4; "Antibodies to brain tissue in sera of
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schizophrenic patients," Schizophrenia Research, vol. 14, no.
1, December 1994, pp. 15-22.
47 John Hanchette and Sunny Kaplan, "Federal Claims Court Seems
to Connect Vaccine, SIDS," part 2, no. 1 of Gannett News Service's
series, Vaccination Nation, available at http://www.909shot.com/gnssids.htm; Viera Scheibner, Ph.D., "Shaken Baby
Syndrome…and the Vaccination," available at http://www.peg.apc.org/~nexus/shakenbaby.html (originally published in Nexus Magazine, vol. 5, no.
5, August-September 1998).
Vaccines and Immunization References and
Research Citations, Dr. Joseph
Mercola, http://www.mercola.com/article/vaccines/references.htm
Stanley Neurovirology Laboratory, Johns
Hopkins University School of Medicine, http://www.med.jhu.edu/stanleylab/
Center for Complex Infectious Diseases
(Rosemead, CA, USA), http://www.ccid.org/
Gastroenterology Research at the Royal
Free Hospital, London, http://www.ucl.ac.uk/medicine/gastroenterology
Vijendra K. Singh, Ph.D.: Selected Work on
Alzheimer’s Disease, http://lib.tcu.edu/www/staff/lruede/alzheimers
Autism Autoimmunity Project, http://www.gti.net/truegrit/
Autism Research Monographs, http://www.jorsm.com/~binstock
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The Leading Edge Research Group, Master
Analysis of the Vaccination Paradigm, http://www.trufax.org/vaccine/vacmaste.html
National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC),
http://www.909shot.com/
Vaccine Information and Awareness (VIA), http://www.access1.net/via/
Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education
(PROVE--Texas), http://vaccineinfo.net
Australian Vaccination Network, http://www.avn.org.au
Vaccine or DPT injuries http://neuro-www.mgh.harvard.edu/forum/VaccineorDTPinjuriesMenu.html
Autism Research Institute (San Diego, CA,
USA), http://www.autism.com/ari/
Autism Research Unit (University of
Sunderland, UK), http://osiris.sunderland.ac.uk/autism/index.html
Society for the Autistically Handicapped
(SFTAH), http://www.autismuk.com
MMR
vaccine should not have been licensed (Sunday Herald Online)
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.