FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER
Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org
December 18, 2001
News Morgue Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp
·
Autism 2001: The Silent Epidemic
By F. Edward Yazbak, MD, FAAP.
·
Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act
By Rep. Dan Burton
[Dr. Yazbak is a well-known, long-time autism research
advocate and scientist in the autism community.]
By F. Edward Yazbak, MD, FAAP.
Although 2001 was filled with news of the MMR vaccine
controversy, discussion of the enormity of the autism explosion and its impact
has been minimal. In the UK, the Government spent more money and enormously
more time defending the MMR vaccine and destroying its critics than actually researching
the causes and the increasing incidence of autism. The cruel reality is that
the last published incidence of autism in the UK of 1 in 324 (Journal of the
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, volume 39, p 694), was
just amended this week to 1 in 166, according to a Medical Research Council
(MRC) report commissioned by the Department of Health. A National Autistic
Society survey had found that 1 in 110 children under 11 has autism.
The vaccine authorities still assert that the reported
increase is unrelated to the use of the MMR vaccine but offer no other
reasonable cause. The toll in human
suffering is immense, and the actual financial cost per child for a lifetime of
care and support services is a staggering 2 million plus British pounds.
Similar increases in the incidence of autism have been
reported on the European Continent. A Swedish study in 1993 by Ehlers and
Gillberg found a rate of 71 per 10,000 (1 in 141) in children with IQs of 70 or
above. A Finnish study looking at the incidence of autism in the northern
provinces, revealed a fourfold increase between 1979 and 1994 with a present
incidence rate of 1 in 483 among 5 to 7-year-olds (European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, volume 9, p 162).
Also, in this study, a clear increase in the number of children with IQ of 70+
was reported. (This finding has often been reported with regressive or
late-onset autism.) Interestingly, this particular Finnish study went almost
unnoticed, while other Finnish studies (of dubious epidemiological relevance)
were highly publicized because they supported the MMR vaccine’s “safety”.
In the United States, the atrocities of September 11, the
Anthrax letters and the present war in Afghanistan have certainly touched every
one. But life goes on. For the parents
of children with autism, each day’s battle is overwhelming and their lives have
changed forever. There is no final victory they can look forward to and no end
to their war in sight. Each morning brings new problems, new challenges and
more concerns about funding cuts and decreased services. Every night, the same
awful dream recurs “What will happen to my child when I am gone?”
According to the Department of Education annual
reports to the US
Congress, autism cases in children aged 6-21 in US schools
increase yearly
by approximately 25%
Since September 12, it is more than likely that between 600
and 700 new cases of autism were diagnosed and accepted into the system in California
alone. This projection is based on the last published 3-month rate of between 7
and 8 new cases a day. If the average incidence of new cases of autism in the
remaining 49 states averages only 1/8th of the California rate—a
very conservative estimate, indeed—we should expect that approximately 4000 new
cases of autism have been diagnosed nationwide in the last 3 months. In the
United States, the cost per child over a lifetime is soon to surpass 2 million
dollars.
One can only imagine the outcry if there was an outbreak
of 4000 cases of any other pediatric illness in the same 3-month period. The
CDC specialists would be clamoring for a cure and seriously looking for clues
to the epidemic. Why aren’t they?
We witnessed the reaction that followed 15 cases of
anthrax on the East Coast. Before anyone without personal experience with
autism rushes to criticize this statement, I respectfully submit that 10 out of
the 15 cases of anthrax went on to complete recovery, a result we will never
have with autism. As for the five deaths from anthrax, they are certainly sad
and most unfortunate but children with severe autism have brain damage, and
“die” every day even if they are still breathing and moving. Every day, their parents
and grand parents die a little too.
Research into the causes of autism is being carried out
nationwide. Many studies dealing with
biochemical and genetic causes are published and only receive transient
interest. It is likely that many studies concerning genetics now in progress
will go similarly unnoticed, as it is impossible to have an epidemic of genetic
diseases.
The impressive mercury study undertaken by a group of
dedicated parents in New Jersey is different. It deserves our attention and
gratitude, and supports the original Redwood theory of mercury damage. It now
appears that the CDC also carried out a study, which suggested some
relationship between mercury in vaccines and neuro-developmental disorders in
infants.
A special committee of the Institute of Medicine (IOM)
held hearings on the subject of mercury and autism, and recommended removing
thiomerosal from all pediatric vaccine formulations. The American Academy of
Pediatrics (AAP) and the CDC had also recommended an all mercury-free vaccine
schedule. All three organizations
believe that mercury-containing vaccines have not actually caused damage to
children.
Concern over mercury has attracted the attention of the
manufacturers of adult vaccines. On November 21, the FDA announced that a
single-dose influenza vaccine for adult use, with only a “trace” of
thiomerosal, is now available.
Our own research seems to indicate that, certain children
have reacted unfavorably and were “set-up” by mercury-containing vaccines in
year one and then have regressed into autism following another antigenic insult
in their second year of life.
The auto-immune theory of autism and the possible
relationship between autism and MMR vaccination have captivated many minds
since they were formulated in 1998. Although no one has proved conclusively
that MMR vaccination has contributed to the increase in autism in the western
world, no one has convincingly proved that it has not.
While the vaccine lobby and authorities have adamantly and
viciously condemned Andrew Wakefield and his findings, hundreds of parents are
totally convinced he is right. These parents have no doubt that their
previously normal children became symptomatic after their first MMR vaccination
and then regressed into autism, and many have videos, pictures and doctors’ notes
to prove it. A further regression after the second MMR, at age 5, seems to have
convinced some of those parents even more.
The identification of measles by intricate PCR testing in
the British pathological specimens and the later revelation that these measles
strains were of vaccine origin, by independent Japanese researchers, do offer
more support to the hypothesis. The
likelihood that any investigator would try duplicating these findings after
witnessing Dr. Wakefield’s public lynching is remote.
In London, many children with autism have been
investigated carefully and found to have abnormal pathology in the colon, the
terminal ileum and the esophagus. A group of children in the US have also been
found to have identical pathological findings.
In March 2001, an IOM committee looking at autism and MMR,
reported that, “…evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship at the
population level between MMR vaccine and autistic spectrum disorders…”. A
little later in the report, the committee conceded that it could not “…exclude
the possibility that MMR vaccine could contribute to ASD in a small number of children….”
and went on to recommend further research on the subject.
The media propaganda asserted that the committee took the
MMR “off the hook” but failed to highlight the similarity between the
committee’s conclusions and Wakefield’s own: that the MMR vaccine could
contribute to autism in a small group of genetically predisposed children, and
that good research is urgently needed.
The IOM report on MMR and autism was published on April
24, 2001 (www.iom.edu,
recent reports) The Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committees’ conclusions, which
are strictly based on epidemiological data, require a large number of cases to
justify one of the following classifications.
No evidence bearing on a causal relation.
The evidence is inadequate to accept or reject a
causal relation.
The evidence favors rejection of a causal relation.
The evidence favors acceptance of a causal relation.
The evidence establishes a causal relation.
It is well known that it takes years and mountains of
epidemiological
evidence, for the IOM committees to even consider a
complication, and/or move it from a certain category to a higher one.
[The perfect example is in the report published on
4/23/2001 ONE day before the MMR report in question. It concerns “Agent Orange”.
In 1991, the Veterans Administration commissioned a study on the defoliant and appropriated
a million dollars towards that research. There have been many reports from the
IOM committees on the subject and many revisions. It is only in April 2001-- a
full TEN years into the study—that Diabetes Mellitus and Children’s Myelogenous
Leukemia were moved from Category 3, where they had previously been listed, to
Category 4. Clearly these two complications had been caused by “Agent Orange”
exposure since the Vietnam War; hundreds of veterans and many VA physicians
never doubted that Agent Orange caused them. The fact that it took the IOM
committee so long to concur did not alter that reality.]
At its first meeting on the subject, the IOM committee
actually placed the MMR-Autism problem in category 3+ by adding that a few
cases of autism did follow MMR vaccination. Many issues never make it past
class 1 or 2 this early on.
It is likely that the matter will be reviewed again in the
not so distant future, because of the continued attention generated by the
debate, and the justified criticisms which surrounded the release of the first report.
It is tragic that while all this discussion about
administering three live viruses at the same time is going on, the authorities
in both the US and the UK have decided to add the chicken pox vaccine to the
present MMR formulation. Not too long ago, health care providers had to wait a
month between the administration of MMR and the chicken pox vaccine. Now they
are assured that giving them together in the same syringe does not affect their
safety and efficacy.
Other vaccines to treat less serious illnesses are being
developed at a frantic pace and will be certainly added to the present
“routine” schedule. Mega-combinations are promised and well known infectious
disease specialists and immunologists have no difficulty stating that a child’s
immune system can comfortably deal with all these simultaneous antigenic assaults,
even if he is very young, febrile, and on antibiotics.
Empathic and qualified pediatricians and pediatric nurse practitioners
are urgently needed to control the present autism epidemic. A high index of
suspicion, an early work up, and a firm diagnosis are imperative to assure
timely initiation of therapy and limitation of brain damage.
The children must never be referred to as “autistic”
because they do not have a psychiatric illness. They suffer from autism, a
multi-system medical illness, with neurological, gastro-intestinal, endocrine,
immune, developmental, communicative, and psychiatric issues. Each of them
needs a pediatric expert who can care for the “whole” patient and who has
liberal access to consultants.
Sensible and affordable therapy should be available to
each and every affected child. Parents need not uproot and move to find good
medical care and superior schools.
Serious independent research is urgently needed. It can
not be expected from people with agendas of their own, or questionable financial
ties. It also can not be performed on computers looking at epidemiological data.
It must include parents’ interviews and a careful examination of the affected
child.
It is only then that there will be any hope to control
this silent and most tragic pediatric epidemic of our time. Regressive autism
should have never “happened”!
The above is my personal opinion and may not reflect that
of organizations to which I belong.
December 13, 2001
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* * *
Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act
[Chairman Dan Burton Statement on the House Floor today,
submitted this statement to the Congressional Record. Thanks to Beth Clay of
Rep. Dan Burton’s office.]
Today we are voting on the passage of the Best
Pharmaceuticals for Children Act. Everyone in Congress wants to see better and
safer pharmaceuticals for children.
As Chairman of the Committee on Government Reform, I have
made oversight of health care issues a priority. In particular, I have been greatly concerned with the safety and
efficacy of children’s vaccines and drugs given to children with cancer. I am greatly concerned that we continue to
inject babies and young children with vaccines that contain mercury - a known
neurotoxin.
I hope that through the passage of this bill that the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) takes seriously the concerns of the public and
Congress that all products given to children need to be adequately and
appropriately tested in children to take the guess work out of safety and
efficacy issues as well as dosing.
I hope that the Department will make a priority of reviewing
products that contain hazardous ingredients such as mercury. All products, including vaccines need to be
safe and effective.
Ingredients that have been banned in other forms of
medication the way that thimerosal has, should certainly be high on the list
for review and consideration of removal from the marketplace.
Thimerosal, which has been used since the 1930’s, is not
routinely tested for safety and efficacy in new products. It was grandfathered
in and the FDA and manufacturers presume it to be safe. We know a lot more about the neurotoxic
affects of mercury today than we did in 1930.
This mercury derivative may be a contributing factor in
the dramatic rise in rates of autism, pervasive developmental disorders, and
speech and language delays. While the
FDA continues to state there is no proof of harm, they are making that
presumption in the absence of scientific evidence.
I continue to feel that these products pose an
unacceptable risk to our nation’s children and should be recalled. Every time the Institute of Medicine
conducts a review of vaccine research, they have recommended research to look
at the long-term effects of vaccines.
To date the research funding in this area has been woefully inadequate.
There is a paucity of data in
the safety of children’s vaccines. I hope
that the Director of the National Institutes of Health will review the numerous
research recommendations offered in several Institute of Medicine reports
published in the last ten years and quickly move to develop and implement a
comprehensive research and analysis agenda.
I remain vigilant on this issue.
Lenny Schafer, Editor@feat.org • CALENDAR EVENTS@feat.org
Michelle Guppy
Catherine Johnson PhD
• Ron Sleith •
Kay Stammers • Edward Decelie
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