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January 14, 2002        News Morgue Search  www.feat.org/search/news.asp

PUBLIC HEALTH

·        Were All Of These Children Killed By The Triple MMR Jab?

·        If 26 Kids Died in the UK from MMR Vax, Did 148 Die in US?

 

Six MMR Articles in the British Press

·        Open Season on MMR

·        Blair Hints at Leo’s MMR Jab

·        UK Minister Promises Action On Autism

·        Deaf Talk about A Shot In The Dark Or A Guard Against Deafness?

·        Measles Epidemic Ruled Out Despite Fall in MMR Jabs

·        MMR Vaccine Letter From Dr. Richard Nicholson

 

Were All Of These Children Killed By The Triple MMR Jab?

[Focus By Lucy Johnston, Sunday Express, UK.]

www.express.co.uk

At least 26 families claim their children died as a result of the controversial measles, mumps and rubella jab, the Sunday Express can reveal.

In some cases the Government has awarded parents up to £100,000 under its 1979 Vaccine Damage Payment Act. In others, post mortem reports concluded the jab was the most likely cause of death. Despite this, the Department of Health insists no child has ever died from MMR.

This assertion is a key aspect of its £3 million publicity drive to persuade parents the vaccine is entirely safe.

It contradicts the view of the US Government, which accepts children die from MMR and awards compensation as a result. Most children do not react to the jab, but medical literature supports the view that MMR can occasionally kill.

The parents are now demanding an official inquiry into the deaths.  Julie Roberts, 40, whose daughter Stacey died, said: “The Government should take responsibility. It has never given proper warnings of the risk and still doesn’t despite the evidence. Tony Blair can see his children at home.  I have to visit my daughter at her grave.”

Experts writing in the Journal of Pediatrics concluded that of 48 children who reacted to the measles component of the jab, eight died and the rest had seizures or brain damage. And a recent study on 1.8 million children by the Finnish Health Board linked neurological reactions, allergic attacks, epilepsy and meningitis to the vaccine. Our research follows speculation over whether Tony Blair’s 19-month-old son Leo has had the MMR jab. The Prime Minister has said he fully supports the vaccine but will not say if Leo has had it.

Many of the families of children who have died have taken legal action. Richard Barr, of solicitors Alexander Harris, has details of 24 cases. He said: “It is widely acknowledged in medical literature and by the American government that the triple vaccine can, on rare occasions, kill, yet this Government won’t accept it.”

Jackie Fletcher, of the pressure group Jabs, which is trying to highlight the potential dangers, said: “The Government should be giving people full and accurate information about health risks.”

But a Department of Health spokesman insisted: “Parents who received payments after their children died following MMR would not get the money now as science has moved on. MMR protects against death and we stand by the fact that no child has died as a result of MMR.”

Wendy Francis’s son, Robert, began behaving abnormally two years after he had MMR in January 1990. He lost control of his movements and slept for 18 hours at a time. Within months he fell into a coma and died in December.  Robert, then seven, had developed a degenerative brain condition called SSPE (sub-acute sclerosis pan encephalitis), linked to the measles component.

The disease can have a long incubation period  and Mrs Francis, 40, an auxiliary nurse and Robert’s consultant think the vaccine was the only way Robert could have developed it. The family, from Easington, north Yorkshire, are taking legal action against the vaccine’s manufacturer.

Ashley Shipman was born in 1985 and was a healthy three-year-old when he received the MMR vaccine. When he was nine his parents Elaine and Andrew of Eastwood, Nottingham, noticed he was having problems with his balance and co-ordination. He too was diagnosed with SSPE and died in June 1999, aged 14. They received £30,000 compensation.

His father, a lorry driver, said: “We took Ashley into hospital in October 1994 and by Christmas he was in a wheelchair. We were told by the consultant who treated him that his condition was caused by his vaccination.”

In 1995 the Government’s vaccine damage tribunal paid £30,000 compensation to James Smith, of Gateshead, for brain damage after he was given MMR at the age of four. James died nine years later aged 13. Biopsy material taken from his brain and intestines will form a central plank of the scientific evidence in support of a legal case due to be heard in October next year. Up to 300 cases relate to this brand of vaccine - Pluserix - which was banned by the Department of Health in 1992 after being linked with meningitis. This was two years after an identical vaccine was banned in Canada.

John and Faye Smith say the jab transformed their healthy, intelligent son into a child needing round-the-clock care. It took them six years and four hearings, however, to persuade the vaccine damage tribunal of this.

Faye, 59, said: “It’s not about money, but truth. It’s diabolical that the Government refuses to acknowledge the risks of MMR.”

Judith Dwyer, 45, of Tongwynlaif, near Cardiff, received a payment after her four-year-old daughter Chloe died following a “booster” jab in 1989. She too was given a version later banned because of its dangerous side effects. Chloe developed pins and needles in her legs, then paralysis and problems breathing. She was rushed to hospital but it was too late.

After an eight-year fight Judith, an intensive care technician, persuaded a tribunal the jab was the likely cause of Chloe’s death. In September 1996 it accepted this and paid out.

Mother of two Judith said: “Health visitors called me a scare mongerer and laughed. But we fought to  raise the profile of vaccine damage.”

Stacey Berry, of Atherton, Manchester was 13 when she had a booster jab in November 1994. Days later she started having fits, “stopped smiling, and stared into space.”

She was diagnosed with the brain disease SSPE and given two years to live. She died in November 2000, aged 19. A post mortem examination concluded the disease was a “rare complication” of the vaccine”.

Christopher Coulter was 15 when he suffered a fit and died in his sleep 10 days after being vaccinated. He had an unblemished health record and no history of epilepsy but no explanation has been offered other than the statement on his death certificate - “asphyxiation due to severe epileptic seizure”. His mother Anne of Hillsborough, northern Ireland said:

“Nothing would replace Christopher, but I want answers. I want peace of mind for my daughters should they ever have children.”

Hannah Buxton was 18 months old when she reacted to her first MMR jab.

She started having fits and died 18 months later in February 1992.

Parents Carol and Tony of Towcester, Northants, did not know Hannah had been given the strain of vaccine later withdrawn after it was deemed unsafe.  In March that year a tribunal blamed the vaccine for her death.

Nicola Gentle, 29, of Plymouth, Devon, is convinced her 15-month-old baby Emma Jane died because of the triple vaccine she was given in September 1998.

Within six hours she was on a life-support machine. Three days later she was brain dead but a coroner said he could not say for certain whether or not MMR had killed her.

Shirley Fitzgerald’s son Kieren was given the MMR jab in June 1991 when he was 14 months. He reacted within days. “He stopped smiling, laughing and crying and became frightened of his toys,” said Shirley.

Kieren also developed bowel problems - linked to MMR by some scientists. In July 1992, he died, aged two.

Toddler Harriet Moore died following an MMR vaccination in 1998. Six weeks later she suffered fits and died in her parents arms. Sarah and Pat Moore, of Peasedown St John, near Bath, took the case to tribunal.

Jade Scrimger was vaccinated with MMR at 17 months and died from meningitis three days later in October 1998. Her mother Sheena has since discovered the drug used on her daughter was later banned by the Department of Health because it caused meningitis.

She has abandoned the idea of taking legal action against the vaccine manufacturers, however, because lawyers say it is not worth it. In Britain the maximum award for a child’s death is £7,500.

Five days after Elaine Adam’s 16-month-old son Stevie was given the MMR vaccine 1991 he too developed meningitis and died.

Elaine and her husband Robert, of East Kilbride, were convinced MMR was to blame but their fears were dismissed by doctors. Mrs Adam has refused to allow her second child, Terry, six, to have the jab.

 

 

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* * *

 

If 26 Kids Died in the UK from MMR Vax, Did 148 Die in the US?

This was the question posed to Barbara Lo Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center.  If 26 died from MMR in the UK, then given the relative population size of the US, and all else being equal, about 148 fatalities would have occurred here. Is this true?  Here is Fisher’s response.

“I am sure we have many deaths due to MMR vaccine. The problem here is that perhaps less than 1 percent of all doctors report vaccine adverse events - even though it has been the law since 1986 to report serious health problems, including deaths, within 30 days of vaccination. MMR deaths within 30 days would be due to seizures and encephalopathy, which occurs at peak incidence between 8 and 15 days following MMR. If doctors do not report, there will be no statistics.

“What we would like to see is an amendment to the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act which would attach a punishment for doctors not reporting (the law made it clear the doctor is NOT supposed to decide at the provider level whether there was causation involved - the duty was merely to report) such as removal of the privilege of administering vaccines. That would really hit them in the pocketbook.”

* * *

 

Open Season on MMR

How the Blairs’ silence sparked a media storm

 

In recent weeks opponents of the triple measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine have had rich pickings. In late November the General Medical Council cleared former general practitioner Peter Mansfield of professional misconduct for offering separate vaccines.

The Daily Mail heralded this as a victory. Shortly afterwards, the Express picked up an editorial in the British Journal of General Practice, which argued that the Department of Health needed to respond to parental concerns and rethink its policy on single vaccines.

In early December Andrew Wakefield, whose research in the Lancet in February 1998 stoked widespread alarm over possible links between MMR and bowel disease and autism, left the Royal Free Hospital in London. He claimed that he had been forced out for his rebel views.

His departure was extensively covered in the Guardian and provoked several angry letters in both the Daily and Sunday Telegraph. But it was the Blairs’ refusal to answer Conservative MPs’ questions about whether their youngest son, Leo, had had the triple vaccine that kept MMR firmly on the media agenda.

·        Article continues at:

http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7329/120

* * *

 

Blair Hints at Leo’s MMR Jab

Tony Blair has given his strongest indication yet that his baby son Leo has had or will have the controversial MMR vaccine.

Mr Blair has refused to explicitly say whether 20-month-old Leo has been given the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

He told the BBC this was because he thought it would open the floodgates for other issues relating to his children.

He added: “I would not be asking people or saying to people we advise you to do this if I thought it was dangerous for my own child.”

·        Article continues at:

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_494110.html?menu=news.politics

* * *

 

UK Minister Promises Action On Autism

[By Helen Rumbelow in the Times, UK.]

The Public Health Minister promised a more concerted approach to autism yesterday after a Commons debate in which MPs paid tribute to the Times campaign to raise awareness of the condition. Yvette Cooper said that the NHS, schools and social services would have to work together under the National Service Framework for Children to stop families slipping through the net.

The National Autistic Society, the subject of The Times Christmas Appeal, helps to improve the lives of those affected by autism, but lack of resources means that many families are still not getting the help they need.  Linda Perham, Labour MP for Ilford North, organised the Commons debate to inaugurate the first Autism Awareness Year, founded by Ivan Corea, a constituent with an autistic boy, Charin, 5. Tony Blair pledged his support at Question Time.

·        Article continues at:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,11-2002015880,00.html

* * *

 

Deaf Talkabout A Shot In The Dark Or A Guard Against Deafness?

[By Bob Mccullough:Featureseditor@Belfasttelegraph.Co.Uk]

Tony Blair still refuses to say if his baby son has had the MMR jab and, with the public not yet convinced of the triple vaccines safety, take-up for the jab has fallen to 77% - well below the Government target of 95%, and health chiefs are warning of a killer outbreak of measles - or possibly also of mumps and rubella.

I got measles as a boy and can still remember being put to bed in a darkened room and not being allowed to read.

Nearly everybody got measles in those days and acquired natural immunity.  But, because of its mild reputation, measles was not always taken seriously and yet, as well as being potentially fatal, measles can cause deafness and even blindness.

My wife was a schoolgirl of five when she went down with mumps and lost her hearing. But the real culprit over the years has been German measles or rubella, as it is commonly known.

Rubella is a seemingly mild illness which can have devastating results if a woman catches it during the first months of pregnancy, and the baby may be born deaf, blind or with a combination of serious mental problems.

·        Article continues at:

http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=020111005345&query =mmr#docAnchor020111005345 <-- address ends here.

* * *

 

Measles Epidemic Ruled Out Despite Fall in MMR Jabs

[By Helen Rumbelow in the Times, UK.]

There is no danger of a measles epidemic in Britain, the Government’s Chief Medical Officer said yesterday in a significant reversal of previous advice.

Sir Liam Donaldson’s confident new approach contradicts the advice of disease experts from the Public Health Laboratory Service. For several years they have been issuing warnings that the low uptake of the MMR vaccine could lead to a measles outbreak in Britain. Currently, 84 per cent of children are getting the vaccine, the lowest level since it was introduced, and more than 10 per cent below the World Health Organisation minimum to protect against outbreaks..

·        Article continues at:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2002017963,00.html

* * *

 

MMR Vaccine Letter From Dr. Richard Nicholson

Sir, There is a particular hypocrisy in ministers using the shield of medical confidentiality to avoid saying whether their children have had the MMR vaccine (letters, December 28; January 2 and 5). Just before the general election last May, they rushed through the Health and Social Care Act, which effectively destroys medical confidentiality in the NHS. Section 60 gives the Secretary of State power to have identifiable patient information disclosed to whomever he wishes, if it is in the public interest.

·        Letter continues at:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,59-2002017995,00.html

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