Contact: 703-938-0342
For immediate release
January 27,1999
HEPATITIS
B VACCINE REACTION REPORTS OUTNUMBER REPORTED DISEASE CASES IN CHILDREN
ACCORDING TO VACCINE SAFETY GROUP
National
Poll Reveals Majority of Americans Want Informed Consent Rights
Washington, D.C. – The National Vaccine
Information Center (NVIC) released figures this week which show that the number
of hepatitis B vaccine-associated serious adverse event and death reports in
American children under the age of 14 outnumber the reported cases of hepatitis
B disease in that age group. NVIC is calling the government-mandated hepatitis
B vaccination of all children a "dangerous and scientifically unsubstantiated
policy." At the same time, a national poll reveals that two thirds of all
Americans want the right to make informed, voluntary decisions about
vaccination.
Independent analysis of raw computer data
generated by the government-operated Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System
(VAERS) confirms that in 1996, there were 872 serious adverse events reported
to VAERS in children under 14 years of age who had been injected with hepatitis
B vaccine. The children were either taken to a hospital emergency room, had
life threatening health problems, were hospitalized or were left disabled
following vaccination. 214 of the children had received hepatitis B vaccine
alone and the rest had received hepatitis B vaccine in combination with other
vaccines. 48 children were reported to have died after they were injected with
hepatitis B vaccine in 1996 and 13 of them had received hepatitis B vaccine
only before their deaths. By contrast, in 1996 only 279 cases of hepatitis B
disease were reported in children under age 14. (Click here to see graph)
1997 hepatitis B disease statistics from
eight states reinforce the lack of hepatitis B disease in young children,
particularly in children under 5 years old. For children under 5 years old, New
Hampshire reported 1 case of hepatitis B; Washington state reported 2 cases;
Michigan reported 9 cases; and Texas reported 13 cases. Pennsylvania,
Massachusetts, New Jersey and Illinois reported no hepatitis B cases in
children under 5 years old.(Click
here to see graph) By contrast, in 1997 there were a total of 106 VAERS
reports of hepatitis B vaccine-related serious adverse events and 10 deaths in
children under age 5 living in the eight states with 13 of the reported serious
adverse events and 2 deaths occurring in children receiving only hepatitis B
vaccine. (Click here to see
graph)
There were 24,775 hepatitis B vaccine-related
adverse events reported to VAERS in all age groups, including 9,673 serious
adverse events and 439 deaths between July 1, 1990 and October 31, 1998. Out of
this total, 17,497 reports were in individuals who received only hepatitis B
vaccine without any other vaccines. 5,983 of the reports were for serious
events and there were 146 deaths, which means that 35 percent of reports in all
age groups after receipt of hepatitis B vaccine only are for serious events. (Click here to see graph)
During the same time period, there was a
total of 2,424 adverse event reports, with 1,209 serious events and 73 deaths
in children under age 14 who got hepatitis B vaccine alone without any other
vaccines. This means that 52 percent or 1 out of 2 reports for children under
age 14, who only receive hepatitis B vaccine, are for serious events.
VAERS depends primarily upon physicians
reporting and causation cannot be conclusively determined without in-depth
follow-up of each serious event and death report. NVIC maintains that reports
made by doctors to VAERS represent only a small fraction of the vaccine-related
injuries and deaths which occur in the U.S. every year. A former FDA Commissioner wrote in JAMA in 1993 that one study
showed "only about 1 percent of serious events" attributable to drug
reactions are reported to the FDA.
A 1994 NVIC survey of 159 doctors’ offices
in 7 states revealed that only 28 out of 159 doctors (18%) said they make a
report to the government when a child suffers a serious health problem
following vaccination. In New York, only one doctor out of 40 surveyed reported
vaccine adverse events to the government.
In a related development, NVIC also released
the results of a national poll of 1,000 registered voters, taken by The Polling
Company on December 8-11, 1998, which showed that 2 out of 3 (68%) Americans
support a parent’s right to be informed of the risks of diseases and risks of
vaccines and be able to choose whether or not their children receive certain
vaccines which could potentially hurt them. A plurality (45%) of
Americans oppose state laws requiring all
five-year olds to get the hepatitis B vaccine before being allowed to attend
kindergarten and, when given information about risks of hepatitis B
vaccination, 59 percent of respondents were less likely to support such
mandatory vaccination laws.
Only 25 percent of Americans believe that
people, after getting information about risks and benefits of medical
procedures such as the administration of prescription drugs and vaccines,
should then be required to follow the orders of their doctors or
public health officials. The poll’s margin of error is +/-3.1% at the 95%
confidence level (i.e. the same survey could be administered to a similar
population and yield comparable results in roughly 19 of 20 cases).
Hepatitis B is primarily an adult disease
most often transmitted through infected blood. Highest risk populations are IV
drug users and people with multiple sex partners. In 1991 the CDC recommended
that all infants be injected with the first dose of hepatitis B vaccine at
birth before being discharged from the hospital newborn nursery, even though
the only newborns at risk for contracting hepatitis B are those born to
hepatitis B infected mothers. By 1998, only 15 states required mandatory
screening of pregnant women for hepatitis B infection so babies born to
infected mothers could be effectively targeted for hepatitis B vaccination, and
yet 35 states required all children to get 3 doses of hepatitis B vaccine or be
denied entry to daycare, kindergarten, high school or college.
The U.S. has historically had one of the
lowest rates of hepatitis B disease in the world even before a hepatitis B
vaccine was in use. In 1990, a year before the CDC issued the order for all
children to get the vaccine, there were 21,102 cases of hepatitis B reported in
the U.S. out of a total US population of 248 million. In 1996, there were
10,637 hepatitis B cases reported. According to the October 31, 1997 Morbidity
and Mortality Weekly Report published by the Centers for Disease Control,
"Hepatitis B continues to decline in most states, primarily because of a
decrease in the number of cases among injecting drug users and, to a lesser
extent, among both homosexuals and heterosexuals of both sexes."
In October 1998, France became the first
country to end hepatitis B vaccination requirements for schoolchildren after
reports of chronic arthritis, symptoms resembling multiple sclerosis and other
serious health problems following hepatitis B vaccination became so numerous
that the Health Minister of France suspended the school requirement.
"As more states mandate hepatitis B
vaccination, NVIC is getting more reports of children dying or suffering
rashes, fevers, seizures, arthritis, diabetes, chronic fatigue and other
autoimmune and brain dysfunction following their hepatitis B shots," said
NVIC co-founder and president Barbara Loe Fisher. "Newborn babies are
dying shortly after their shots and their deaths are being written off as
sudden infant death syndrome. Parents should have the right to give their
informed consent to vaccination and Congress should give emergency, priority
funding to independent scientists, who can take an unbiased look at this
vaccine, instead of leaving the search for the truth in the hands of government
officials who have already decided to force every child to get the
vaccine," she said.
Drug companies marketing the genetically
engineered recombinant DNA hepatitis B vaccine in the U.S. used studies to
demonstrate safety which only monitored children for 4 or 5 days after
vaccination. Professor Bonnie Dunbar, Ph.D., a Texas cell biologist and
pioneering vaccine researcher, said "It takes weeks and sometimes months
for autoimmune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis, to develop following
vaccination. No basic science research or controlled, long term studies into
the side effects of this vaccine have been conducted in American babies,
children or adults." Dr. Dunbar has joined consumers in calling for
informed consent to hepatitis B vaccination as well as NIH funding for
independent research to determine the biological mechanism for hepatitis B
vaccine reactions, to identify high risk factors and to develop therapies to
repair vaccine damage.
Founded in 1982, the National Vaccine
Information Center is the oldest and largest vaccine safety and informed
consent rights advocacy organization representing health care consumers and the
vaccine injured. NVIC was instrumental in the creation of the National
Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which has paid out nearly $1 billion
dollars for vaccine injuries and deaths. For more information or to report a
vaccine reaction, call 1-800-909-SHOT or access http://www.909shot.com.
[DailyNews/June2001/_private/footer.htm]
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INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED
HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED
AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO
BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE
DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE
AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR
HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.
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ALL
INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR
GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE
KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED
AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO
VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU
ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.