FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER
Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org
January 15, 2001 Search
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·
Reports Deepen MMR Dilemma: More on Dubious Finnish
Study
[We are reprinting the following from the FEAT Newsletter
of May 22, 1999 as it reports the publication of the “Finnish Study” which has
been proclaimed to prove the MMR vaccine safe.
In rebuttal are the words of Dr. Andrew Wakefield given to an audience
in Sacramento May 20, 1999.]
[From the World Health Network Friday, 1 May 1998]
http://www.healix.net/news/01051998-1.htm
Concern about the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine
was raised by a recent paper published by Dr Andrew Wakefield and colleagues
from the Royal Free Hospital in London, that suggested a causal association
between the vaccine and a new syndrome of chronic inflammatory bowel disease
and autism.
The National Board of Health and National Public Health
Institute of Finland launched a long-term vaccination project in 1982 (led by
Professor Heikki Peltola) which aimed at the elimination of MMR diseases from
Finland. All children are vaccinated
twice, at age 14-18 months and six years. By the end of 1996, around three
million MMR vaccine doses had been given.
The researchers found:
·
31 children developed gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms,
all except one after the first vaccine dose
·
Diarrhoea, frequently with vomiting was the most common
symptom
(55% , n=17),
followed by gingivostomatitis (23%, n=7), vomiting only (16%, n=5) and abdominal pains (6%, n=2)
·
The time from MMR vaccine to onset of symptoms varied
from 20 hours to 15 days
·
Generally, symptoms subsided within a week, the
exception being a one year old boy whose diarrhoea persisted for six weeks. The
child recovered and was healthy when checked almost six years later.
Most symptoms and signs of the central nervous system were
those one would expect in conjunction with acute GI. No child developed
autistic spectrum disorder.
It is noteworthy that, besides GI complaints, many
children had similar symptoms (fever, rash, seizure) as those in London.
Professor Peltola and colleagues conclude that ‘...over a
decade’s effort to detect all severe
adverse events associated with MMR vaccine could find no data supporting the hypothesis that it would
cause pervasive developmental disorder
or inflammatory bowel disease.’
REF: Peltola H et al. No evidence for measles, mumps
and rubella
vaccine-associated inflammatory bowel disease or autism in a 14-year prospective study. Lancet 1998; 351: 1327-8
The Rebuttal:
Friday, May 21, 1999
Speaking to an auditorium of medical professionals
yesterday in Sacramento, California at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute, Dr.
Andrew Wakefield addressed the Finnish study, a summary “Autism, bowel disease
and (PRO) MMR vaccine”.
Dr. Wakefield pointed out that three million people were
not studied, but rather only the 31 who came down with GI symptoms
within the first 15 days. He indicated
that this criteria was meaningless as “no one ever said that such immediate GI
symptoms were any kind of indication of anything to do with autism.”
Since the premise for selecting the 31 cases was in error,
it is not surprising to find the results they came up with: no autism.
Wakefield further said that such dubious short-term
studies of vaccines are typical of the types of studies carried out to assess
their toxicity in combination.
Alarmed, Wakefield also warned that the CDC was planning
to compound their errors in lumping measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations
into same time administration by adding a chicken pox vaccine to the MMR mix in
the near future.
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[In the Sunday Herald. Thanks again to R. Miles.]
http://www.sundayherald.com/news/newsi.hts?section=News&story_id=13747
Conservative MP Julie Kirkbride is faced with a difficult
dilemma. Her three- month-old son Angus will eventually be sent a little card
asking him to attend his local clinic for a vaccine to protect him against
measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). As a politician, Kirkbride is more than aware
of claims of a link between the jab and autism and bowel disorders. She has called
for single vaccines to be made available and has said that she will “think long
and hard” before giving her son the MMR.
The same dilemma is facing thousands of parents across the
country. Hundreds have already been
driven to a private doctor in Edinburgh who has managed to administer single
vaccines by importing them from France. Others look to the experts for advice
and reassurance that the jab offered by their local GP is safe.
But the conflicting opinions put forward by the medical
profession are leaving parents confused and scared. Some experts are adamant
that the MMR vaccine triggers autism and bowel disease in some children while
others insist there is no evidence of a link.
This month three new studies are fuelling the debate. One
to be published in the Journal of Adverse Drug Reactions next week says that
MMR should never have been licensed in the UK because insufficient tests were carried
out. Another, published in the December edition of the Pediatric Infectious
Disease Journal, but brought to the public’s attention last week, says that a
survey of 1.8 million Finnish children showed no evidence of a link between the
MMR vaccine and autism or bowel disease. And to make the confusion complete,
the same day as the Finnish study was brought to light another study, published
in the British Medical Journal, showed that one in eight GPs and a quarter of
practice nurses believe that there is a link between the MMR vaccine and
autism.
Government scientists immediately quoted the findings of
the Finnish study in a desperate bid to reassure parents of its safety amid
fears of a measles epidemic because parents have been rejecting the jab in
droves.
Professor Brent Taylor is head of the department of
paediatrics and child health at the Royal Free and University College Medical
School. He said the Finnish study should reassure parents that the link suggested
by his colleague Dr Andrew Wakefield in a study in the Lancet journal in 1998 does
not exist.
He said: “This is a 17-year study with a 14-year follow-up
and I hope it does reassure parents. It overcomes all the criticism that this
vaccine was not tested for long enough. This was a very detailed study on a
very large number of children and supports the other work that has shown that there
are no serious side effects and that MMR does not cause autism and inflammatory
bowel disease. No one anywhere else in the world has been able to reproduce any
of Dr Wakefield’s studies.
“Separate vaccines do not provide good protection for
children. Immunisation rates are
picking up again and we do not want a new programme that could result in
serious diseases which kill and maim people. There is no evidence that giving
three vaccines separately is any safer than the combination vaccine. Some
families will not complete the course and children will be left vulnerable to
disease. If this is about choice what about the children’s choice? They will be
subjected to six vaccines instead of two.” But Wakefield would argue that his
findings have been reproduced in further studies since the theory was put
forward in the Lancet. One such study was published in the American Journal of
Gastroenterology.
And those who believe the vaccine for measles, mumps and
rubella triggers autism in some children argue that the latest paper does not address
this link. They say it is looking at acute adverse reactions and not the more
long-term development of complex conditions such as autism.
Dr Ken Aitken, a Scottish-based clinical
neuropsychologist, said:
“This study is only looking at serious adverse reactions
over a brief period of time and not the period over which children regress to
get autism.”
He points out that doctors were asked to look out for
specific adverse events such as death, allergic reactions, neurologic disorders
and miscellaneous syndromes such as diabetes or pneumonia but were not specifically
asked to look out for autism. He also points out that doctors were told that
the events were likely to be linked to the MMR if they occurred within the
first two to three weeks of inoculation. He says they were not asked to look
out for longer term conditions.
Dr Aitken added that, as other studies have shown that the
levels of autism are increasing in Finland, it is suspicious that not one case
was attributed to the MMR vaccine.
The summary of the conclusions of the Finnish paper did
not actually mention autism. It states: “Comprehensive analysis of the reported
adverse reactions established that serious events causally related to the MMR vaccine
are rare and greatly outweighed by the risks of natural MMR diseases.”
The results of the study are split into various types of
adverse reactions resulting from MMR. These are death, allergic events,
neurologic disorders and miscellaneous complaints such as pneumonia, flu and
diabetes. Comment about autism is
however made in a discussion in the paper about the results.
It states: “No case of inflammatory bowel disease or
autism was detected during this long follow-up study comprising three million
vaccine doses. This finding is important because were there an association with
MMR vaccination after such a short interval as suggested, this prospective
study design would undoubtedly have disclosed at least some cases.”
Richard Miles from London is the father of an autistic boy
and is convinced his son’s condition was triggered by the MMR vaccine. He is
not reassured by the latest study. He said: “It is extraordinary that in the first
four pages of the paper it doesn’t even mention autism or Crohn’s disease.”
Experts in the Wakefield camp argue that the study was not
looking at whether the MMR vaccine causes autism or not. They also point out
that it was dependent on doctors referring events to the authorities and not
looking to see what had happened to the children who had been inoculated. They
argue that this type of research - referred to as passive surveillance - is
only likely to pick up between 1% and 10% of cases.
David Thrower believes his son’s autism is a result of
receiving the triple vaccine. He is not reassured by the study. He said: “The
Finnish study wasn’t designed to study autism or bowel disease as an outcome.
By quoting this study the Department of Health is once again failing to recognise
that what we are looking at is a gradual degenerative syndrome, not an acute
adverse event. A study such as this will have completely missed gradual
degeneration.
“The publicity surrounding this paper was orchestrated to
deflect attention from the impending paper in the Journal of Adverse Drug
Reactions on how the long-term follow-up tests were never done.”
Bill Welsh, from Glasgow, who believes his grandson’s
autism was triggered by the MMR vaccine, added: “Confidence in MMR, and in the
veracity of officialdom’s utterances, is sinking to an all time low. Parents
are not being fooled. It appears no proper long-term safety studies were
carried out on MMR vaccines. Such studies, if they had been included, would
have identified the insidious nature and symptoms of late-onset autism.
The autism epidemic sweeping the UK and USA correlates to
the introduction of this combined vaccine containing three live viruses. Those who
seek to defend MMR, regardless of the growing body of evidence pointing to its
serious side effects, have only themselves to blame for the loss of faith in
immunisation. The choice of single vaccines should be available to parents as a
right.”
Last week a parliamentary debate on autism had to be
extended for 19 MSPs to tell of how autism had affected constituents in their
area. Many raised the controversy of the MMR vaccine and called for the
reintroduction of single vaccines in order to combat the worrying decline in
the number of parents immunising their children.
Conservative education spokesman Brian Montieth called for
the reintroduction of the MMR vaccine and his views were echoed by Scottish Socialist
Party leader Tommy Sheridan and many of the SNP members.
This week Conservative health spokesman Dr Liam Fox said
the Conservatives would reintroduce single-dose vaccines if they were
re-elected if the vaccination levels were still low.
“It must be better for children
to have a single vaccine than to have nothing at all,” he said. “This is not an
ideal situation but must be infinitely preferable to the prospect of dead or
damaged children.”
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