MMR Vaccine and Autism

http://www.wellbeingjournal.com/MMR.htm

From Well Being Journal Vol. 10, No. 3 ~ Summer 2001

MMR Vaccine and Autism

by Barbara Brewitt, Ph.D., and H. Lynn Amsbury, M.D.

Autism has become an epidemic, and its incidence continues to rise exponentially. From Bricktown, NJ, to East Surrey, England, the incidence of autism for the year 2000 was one autistic child for every 139-149 normal children as reported by the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Health Authorities of England. All of these newly reported autistic children received the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. In Scotland, there was an 18% increase in autism in the first year the MMR vaccine was required for primary school children. Autism costs the American public $8 billion per year.

MMR vaccination in the U.S. began in 1975, and the vaccine is given at approximately 1.5 years of age. Newly diagnosed autism in U.S. children has increased over the years:

• 1970: 0.05 autistic children per 10,000 children/year.

• 1988: 0.30 autistic children per 10,000 children/year.

• 1996: 20 autistic children per 10,000 children/year.

• 2000: 67 autistic children per 10,000 children/year.

If you do the math, you can see there was a six-fold increase in the 18 years between 1970 and 1988. However there was a 223-fold increase in the 12 years between 1988 and 2000. This exponential increase in autism was not due to better diagnostic techniques. An autistic child that characteristically has little eye contact and no speech, and is self-injurious and rageful at times does not usually escape a diagnosis or a report. California maintains what is probably the world's best and most systematic database on autism and it shows a 1000% increase in autism prevalence over a twenty-year period. Experts in California point out that it took 25 years, from 1969-1994, to have 5,100 persons diagnosed with autism in that state. Then only five years passed between 1994 and 1999 to have another 5,100 diagnosed, and now only 2.5 years have passed between 1999 and April 2001 to have another 5,100 cases reported. Thus, there is an increase in incidence and that increase exponentially rises. There are 500,000 autistic children in the U.S., and there are millions more around the world. Autism cases are rising in the U.S. such that six new children are being diagnosed every day of the week!

It is important to put the rise in autism in context with the change in policy about the measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations, which used to be separate vaccines. In 1963 the measles vaccine was first licensed for use. The MMR combination vaccine was introduced to the U.S. in 1975. In 1978, the U.S. undertook an ambitious effort to eliminate all indigenous measles by the fall of 1982. This resulted in 90% of school-age children receiving the MMR combination vaccination during this time. While the effort was a great success in reducing the number of new measles cases (10.6% before MMR combination to 3.1% by 1981 with the MMR), there was a dramatic increase in autism. The live measles is known to suppress the immune system with the measles having many similarities to HIV. It must be asked if it is worth the risk of injecting children with immature immune systems with MMR vaccines that contain living viruses and toxic mercury-containing additives (thimerosal).

Scientific evidence does support the effectiveness of immunizations. Scientific evidence does not support the safety of immunizations. Safety studies on vaccinations are limited to short time periods of days to several weeks. There is limited but rapidly growing scientific evidence of long-term adverse side effects of vaccines that requires much more study. For example, adverse effects from numerous types of vaccines including the MMR, DTP, HiB, anthrax, hepatitis B and tuberculosis increased the incidence of insulin-dependent diabetes by 23-60% in New Zealand, Finland and Denmark when follow-up was done 3.5 to 4.0 years after the initial vaccine. Timing of the vaccine and health status of the child were found to be critical variables for healthy outcomes after vaccine. Informed consent needs to be the basis for every medical procedure that carries an inherent risk of injury or death, including vaccinations. Voluntary decisions to choose a vaccine need to be the right of every American after truthful, unbiased information about diseases and vaccine safety is provided.

All vaccines are not the same. The Urabe strain of the mumps virus was used widely in MMR vaccines given in industrialized countries during the late '70s, the '80s, and the early '90s, and is still used in developing countries today. This vaccine type of mumps virus as well as several strains of the measles virus are used in the MMR and have been associated with onset of meningitis—inflammation of the coverings surrounding the brain. The Urabe strain of the mumps virus was actually banned in several countries following aseptic meningitis outbreaks in the early '90s. In meningitis, the “blood-brain barrier” (a protective mechanism that keeps harmful substances out of the brain) is broken down. The wild-type measles virus is known to affect areas of the brain that are also affected in autism as well as being associated with the onset of Crohn's Disease, an inflammation of the digestive tract. Many autistic children have digestive tract problems, and several studies have identified strains of the measles virus used in MMR vaccines in the intestines of autistic children. This means that the MMR vaccine introduced live virus into the intestines and provides a potential pathway for the measles vaccine virus to enter the brain after detectable or non-detectable inflammation potentially caused by the mumps vaccine virus.

Furthermore, heavy metal toxicity has been theorized to be a potential cause of autism. Most vaccines, including the MMR, contain ethyl mercury or thimerosal, an organic neurotoxic mercury compound that is used as a preservative. By age two, young infants are 10 times higher in mercury levels than are safely allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In the U.S., children are now receiving more vaccines than they have at any time in history, many of them given at the same time. Not only does this drastically increase the amount of organic mercury our children are exposed to, but giving so many vaccines simultaneously may lead to interactions such as may be happening with the measles and mumps components of the MMR. The rise in the number of vaccines given, particularly combined vaccines, does parallel the increase in autism rates.

No one can deny that vaccines have had an incredible impact on decreasing disease transmission. However, in light of the potential toxicity and interactions that come from giving so many vaccinations in a short period of time to people with immature immune systems, the time may have come to re-evaluate their number, combination and timing. Please, monitor your children for adverse effects of vaccines and report them immediately. Do not give live viral vaccines to children with immune systems that are immature, immunodeficient or not yet fully integrated with the nervous and hormonal (intestinal) systems. For the MMR vaccine, give your child a good dose of vitamin C and vitamin A (as found in cod liver oil) to stimulate a protective effect against measles infection before and after the vaccination. Learn how to build up your child's healthy immune, nervous and digestive systems using natural approaches.

The Autism Research Institute suggests that one vaccine does not work for all children. Use thimerosal-free vaccines, and space vaccines apart wherever possible. Do not give vaccines if the child is ill or is allergic to one of the components of the vaccine, i.e., yeast in hepatitis B vaccine, or eggs or neomycin in the MMR vaccine. Consider giving the hepatitis B vaccine to a child older than two years of age if not in daycare, perhaps in the teen years instead. Do not give the chicken pox vaccine until the child is 10-12 years old. Check the vaccine titers (antibody levels) in your child before giving a vaccine. Contact local and national legislators and raise your concerns. You are not alone. Senator Dan Burton has been holding meetings about government officials' conflicts of interest on this subject, outwardly stating that the “public trust has been violated.” In 1999 Congressional hearings on vaccines were initiated and by 2000 Congressional hearings on the MMR vaccine and mercury content in vaccines were occurring.

The immune, nervous and endocrine (hormonal) systems all communicate with one another to coordinate their activities using a common language. This common language is that of growth factor signals. Growth factors, also called cytokines, are small proteins that regulate cell growth, repair, renewal and cell death throughout the body. Without proper growth factor signals to cells, nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids and other supplemental building blocks, are not taken into cells. Researchers agree that early stimulation of the immune system awakens the secretion of growth factors, thus educating the immune, nervous and endocrine systems. Early childhood infections are assumed to have an awakening “protective effect” on these growth factors by educating the body on how to protect itself against “non-self” pathogens. Growth factor therapeutics that strengthen the neuro-immune-hormonal systems of young children, rather than vaccinations that challenge an immature immune system, may be a non-toxic, non-life-threatening direction of the future.

The future holds promise for greater education and awareness about the needs and safety of vaccines only as we citizens ask questions and keep our sights on the horizon of promising research. We can not eliminate all infections from our children or ourselves. The use of vaccines may be pushing young, underdeveloped immune systems beyond their capabilities in our naiveté and compliance with a government policy that wants children to be protected from ever being ill. There are better ways to strengthen immune, nervous and hormonal systems during childhood development in order to optimize health naturally.

Autism Research Institute, 4182 Adams Avenue, San Diego, CA 92116, Fax: (619) 563-6840.

Senator Dan Burton, Committee on Government Reform, http://www.house. gov/reform. Contact Sean M. Spicer via sean.spicer@mail.house.gov.

Barbara Brewitt, M.Div., Ph.D., is founder and chief scientific officer of Biomed Comm Inc after completing post-doctoral research on growth factors at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington, School of Medicine, where she is now a Visiting Scientist. She is recognized worldwide for her research that brings consumers clinically proven new homeopathic growth factor products that are affordable, non-toxic and restore normal homeostasis to immune, nervous and hormonal systems.

For more information please call 888-637-3516 or visit www.biomedcomm.com.