Monday, December 30, 2002

By MARK PERKISS
 

Sharon Oberleitner is facing a parent's nightmare.

She's convinced her two children developed autism because of vaccines they received and believes that having them immunized against smallpox will make their conditions worse.

"I'm hoping there's not a war with Iraq and that there isn't any use of biological weapons," said the Princeton Township resident.

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"I don't want to have to make a decision on whether to vaccinate my children and put them at risk, but I don't want them to get smallpox either. It's very scary," she said.

President Bush's move toward resurrecting wholesale smallpox inoculations for the first time since the 1970s comes as the nation's vaccination program is under increasing questioning - mostly from parents of autistic children.

Questions abound whether the vaccines themselves or thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative used in many of them from the 1930s until 1999, may be a cause of autism, a neurological disorder that can leave children unable to communicate with or relate to other people.

The debate rages in scientific circles, courtrooms and the halls of Congress, where lawmakers last month mysteriously slipped into the homeland security bill signed by Bush a provision protecting Eli Lilly & Co., the maker of thimerosal, from lawsuits.

But the head of the Eden Family of Services in West Windsor, one of the nation's leading treatment centers for autistic children, said parents' concerns about vaccines are unfounded and that the benefits of inoculations far outweigh any risk they may present.

"There are a lot of myths out there about vaccines and autism," said Eden President David Holmes.

"You have parents who are desperately searching for answers as to why and how their children have autism," he said. "There is a small, but vocal faction that sees vaccines as a culprit.

"They were focused on the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine as a cause, but scientific studies have shown there is no link. Now they're focused on the thimerosal, and so far the studies are showing there's not an autism link there either," Holmes said.

"You can't help but feel for them. They're clutching for whatever they can, but there's a much larger consideration."

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Recent studies, including one of 500,000 children in Denmark published in the New England Journal of Medicine last month, have found no link between the MMR vaccine and a dramatic rise in autism cases in the United States.

And a small, but groundbreaking study of infants who received vaccines containing thimerosal published in a British medical journal earlier this month found the levels of mercury in their blood was within federal safety limits.

Parents and some scientists have theorized that a buildup of mercury from vaccines may have led to children developing autism.

Holmes said the question of the effect of mercury in vaccines needs to be explored further but said he is looking at the larger picture.

"You have to look at the millions and millions of children in the United States who have been saved from a slew of devastating or fatal diseases because of our vaccination program," Holmes said. "That's a far larger number than any children who have had bad reactions from the vaccines.

"There are always questions when you talk about vaccines, and those should be investigated and answered to make the program safer, but the overwhelming benefit of these medications far exceeds any risk there may be."

Holmes said he is not concerned about the prospect of the United States resuming a smallpox inoculation program. "There's a legitimate threat from biological weapons, and we should be prepared," he said.

"Children who already have autism aren't going to become worse if they are vaccinated for smallpox," Holmes said. "Autism doesn't get worse."

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Smallpox has not been seen for decades, but officials fear it could be used in defense by hostile countries or as part of a terrorist attack.

The last U.S. case was in 1949, and the last anywhere else in the world was in 1977. The disease was declared eradicated globally in 1980. Routine smallpox vaccinations for children in the United States ended in 1972.

So far, Bush has ordered about 500,000 military members in high-risk areas to receive the smallpox vaccine and has said vaccinations will be made available to about 500,000 health care workers around the country.

While he is not yet calling for all Americans to receive the vaccine, Bush has said those who want it will be able to get inoculated in 2003.

The move to restart the smallpox vaccination program coupled with questions by parents and researchers about the possible link of thimerosal and autism has been music to the ears of trial lawyers, who have filed lawsuits against Eli Lilly and other manufacturers and are looking to drum up additional clients for what they see as billions of dollars in damage claims.

"What we have at the moment is a temporal correlation, which is enough for us to look to find potential plaintiffs," said John Sakson, the co-managing partner at Stark & Stark in Lawrence, which is working with a Texas law firm and earlier this year ran television ads seeking parents of autistic children as clients for possible lawsuits.

Stark & Stark signed up hundreds of potential clients but has not yet filed any lawsuits. "We need to make sure the science is correct for us to make a claim, and then there's the matter of the lawsuit protection that Congress put in for Eli Lilly," Sakson said. "That will have to be tested first."

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Under the legislation, thimerosal claims would be limited to the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which limits damages and severely restricts who can sue vaccine manufacturers.

Members of Congress are working to lift the litigation protection that was included in the homeland security legislation.

"We've had a number of meetings with parents groups and with other members of Congress to see what we can do about it," said Nick Manetto, a spokesman for Rep. Chris Smith, R-Washington Township.

Smith voted in favor of the legislation but was unaware of the provision that was included in the bill at the last minute, Manetto said.

All of the legal and political maneuvering doesn't solve the pending dilemma for Oberleitner, the Princeton Township mother.

"Vaccines are scary. My children are suffering because of them," she said. "Smallpox is scary also.

"If it actually gets to our shores, I don't know what to do. I thought I was protecting my children with the vaccines they've already had, and look what happened."

NOTE: Contact Mark Perkiss at mperkiss@njtimes.com or at (609) 943-5727.