http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=499145&issue_id=5128
August 22, 2001
Date : Wed August 22nd 01
|
Vaccine
'link to autism epidemic is being ignored' |
IRELAND is undergoing an
"autism epidemic," yet no proper investigations are being carried out
to establish if it is linked to the MMR vaccine, a coalition of parents' groups
claimed yesterday.
The groups, led by Kathryn
Sinnott who sued the State for its failure to provide proper education for her
autistic son, Jamie described the recent Oireachtas committee report, defending
the safety of vaccination, as a "betrayal of parental trust."
And she said the slow
committee process wasted more than two years in which "several hundred
more children have been autistic and several thousand have developed other
autistic spectrum disorders.
"We turned to the
medical profession for guidance and in most cases got none. Instead, we were
ignored or told we were imagining physical illnesses in our children," she
told a press conference organised by the Green Party yesterday.
She said the parents'
groups are now demanding that the Government, "which so recently mobilised
the whole nation for the benefit of animals during the foot-and-mouth crisis,
respond no less vigorously on behalf of children in the crisis of the
escalating epidemic of autism."
The groups are asking that
all immunisations be carried out by GPs as they say the family doctor is best
placed to detect which children may be susceptible to reactions and to follow
up those he has vaccinated afterwards. The groups also want a vaccine damage
compensation scheme to be established.
Committee member and Green
TD, John Gormley, said he was unhappy with the conclusions of the report and he
called for it to be debated in the Dail.
The views of the parent groups,
however, run contrary to those of the World Health Organisation, which earlier
this year said there is evidence showing no association between the MMR vaccine
and autism.
Meanwhile, the Department
of Health has asked the Health Research Bord to investigate possible causes of
autism. The research will focus on autism and intestinal dysfunction.
Eilish O'Regan, Health
Correspondent