Autism

Ben & Joe Sell

Jeff and Paula Sell's twin sons (Ben and Joe) are autistic. Autism is a pervasive neurological disorder that impairs language development, communication and social interaction. It is more prevalent than multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy or Downs syndrome. Autism affects roughly 1 in 250* people. (* new estimates are closer to 1 in 175 people on the autistic spectrum). Autism will affect 22 new babies born today throughout the US.
Without early effective treatment, autistic individuals often require lifelong care. This disorder is fast becoming an epidemic and is clearly a public health crisis. Early diagnosis and intensive early intervention have been shown to improve the lives of autistic children and their families.




DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA FOR 299.00 AUTISTIC DISORDER

Source: The American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Washington D.C., American Psychiatric Association, 1994.


A. A total of at least six items from (1), (2), and (3), with at least two from (1), and one each from (2) and (3):

1. Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following: marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction. failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest) lack of social or emotional reciprocity

2. Qualitative impairments in communication as manifested by at least one of the following: delay in, or total lack of, the development of spoken language (not accompanied by an attempt to compensate through alternative modes of communication such as gesture or mime) in individuals with adequate speech, marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language lack of varied, spontaneous make-believe play or social imitative play appropriate to developmental level

3. Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following: encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole body movements) persistent preoccupation with parts of objects

B. Delays or abnormal functioning in at least one of the following areas, with onset prior to age 3 years:

(1) social interaction,
(2) language as used in social communication, or
(3) symbolic or imaginative play.

C. The disturbance is not better accounted for by Rett's Disorder or Childhood Disintegrative Disorder.

CHAT-Checklist for Autism in Toddlers
The original CHAT paper was first published by Simon Baron-Cohen in 1992. He has since published a follow-up paper (Br J Psychiatry 168:158-163).

Section A - Ask Parent:

1) Does your child enjoy being swung, bounced on your knee, etc?
2) Does your child take an interest in other children?
3) Does your child like climbing on things, such as up stairs?
4) Does your child enjoy playing peek-a-boo/hide-and-seek?
5) Does your child ever pretend, for example, to make a cup of tea using a toy cup and teapot, or pretend other things?
6) Does your child ever use his/her index finger to point, to ask for something?
7) Does your child ever use his/her index finger to point, to indicate interest in something?
8) Can your child play properly with small toys (e.g. cars or bricks) without just mouthing, fiddling, or dropping them?
9) Does your child ever bring objects over to you, to show you something?

Section B - GP's observation

i) During the appointment, has the child made eye contact with you?
ii) Get child's attention, then point across the room at an interesting object and say "Oh look! There's a (name a toy)!" Watch
child's face. Does the child look across to see what you are pointing at?
NOTE - to record yes on this item, ensure the child has not simply looked at your hand, but has actually looked at the object
you are pointing at.
iii) Get the child's attention, then give child a miniature toy cup and teapot and say "Can you make a cup of tea?" Does the child
pretend to pour out the tea, drink it etc?
NOTE - if you can elicit an example of pretending in some other game, score a yes on this item
iv) Say to the child "Where's the light?" or "Show me the light". Does the child point with his/her index finger at the light?
NOTE - Repeat this with "Where's the teddy?" or some other unreachable object, if child does not understand the word "light".
To record yes on this item, the child must have looked up at your face around the time of pointing.
v) Can the child build a tower of bricks? (If so, how many?) (Number of bricks...)

Characteristics of a child with autism may include:

-Little or no speech
-Little or no understanding of language
-Stereotyped and repetitive idiosyncratic language
-Little or no eye contact
-Little or no ability to relate to or communicate with others
-A lack of affection toward or attachment to others
-Lack of make believe or play or imitative play
-Inappropriate toy play or odd attachment to objects
-Adherence to nonfunctional routines or rituals
-Stereotyped and repetitive mannerisms
-Self-injurious behavior, aggression, or tantrums
-Hand/arm flapping
-Walking on tips of toes

Autism is a spectrum disorder often referred to as "ASD". The symptoms and characteristics of autism can present themselves in a wide variety of combinations, from mild to severe. Although autism is defined by a certain set of behaviors, children and adults can exhibit any combination of the behaviors in any degree of severity. Two children, like Ben and Joe, both with the same diagnosis, can act very differently from one another and have varying skills. Therefore, there is no standard "type" or "typical" person with autism. Parents may hear different terms used to describe children within this spectrum, such as: autistic-like, autistic tendencies, autism spectrum, high-functioning or low-functioning autism, more-abled or less-abled, mild, moderate, or severe. More important to understand is, whatever the diagnosis, children can learn and function productively and show gains from appropriate education and treatment. The Autism Society of America provides information to serve the needs of all individuals within the spectrum.

AUTISM RATES

STATE 1992-1993// 1999-2000
Alabama 68// 670
Alaska 8// 165
Arizona 199// 897
Arkansas 30// 560
California 1,605// 8,376
Colorado 14// 350
Connecticut 164// 1,032
Delaware 15// 248
District of Columbia 0// 65
Florida 582// 3,114
Georgia 262// 1,602
Hawaii 52// 198
Idaho 39// 239
Illinois 5// 2,435
Indiana 273// 2,080
Iowa 67// 543
Kansas 74// 471
Kentucky 38// 739
Louisiana 409// 1,032
Maine 37// 358
Maryland 28// 1,551
Massachusetts 493// 543
Michigan 288// 3,449
Minnesota 296// 1,958
Mississippi 0// 333
Missouri 336// 1,361
Montana 20// 127
Nebraska 4// 289
Nevada 5// 273
New Hampshire 0// 268
New Jersey 446// 2,378
New Mexico 16// 193
New York 1,648// 4,951
North Carolina 786// 2,391
North Dakota 9// 98
Ohio 22// 1,574
Oklahoma 31// 547
Oregon 37// 2,218
Pennsylvania 346// 2,707
Puerto Rico 266// 408
Rhode Island 19// 238
South Carolina 141// 717
South Dakota 36// 168
Tennessee 304// 819
Texas 1,444// 5,134
Utah 105// 472
Vermont 6// 160
Virginia 539// 1,714
Washington 476// 1,376
West Virginia 101// 262
Wisconsin 18// 1,445
Wyoming 15// 15
50 States, DC & PR 12,222// 65,396


*Number and Change in Number of Children Ages 6-21


******* ******* *******

Autism

by Dr Viera Scheibner and Bronwyn Hancock BSc.

There has been a fair degree of publicity recently, more in some parts of the world than others, in relation to the research that has linked the MMR vaccine to autism.
What is the most publicized is that UK researcher Dr. Andrew Wakefield and his group of researchers studied children who developed Crohn's disease and autism and linked them to the MMR vaccine that they had been administered (Lancet 1998).
It is good that this is being brought to light, but since parents have been repeatedly reassured by many doctors that the vaccine is safe, which they now can see is not true, it is important for them to logically reason that they cannot trust ANYTHING they are told by doctors, particularly about vaccination, and see that they need to research the whole vaccination issue. Sadly, when this is done, it is realized that this MMR/autism link is only the tip of iceberg.
There are various relevant very important issues which are not addressed by this publicity, and which I will cover here. It will then be recognized that this is a much wider problem, and only after understanding this can parents make an informed decision about what to do. The issues are as follows:
1. Is the MMR triple vaccine the only cause of autism?
2. Is the administration of measles, mumps and rubella vaccines individually a solution to the problem of autism?
3. Are gastrointestinal problems the only mechanism causing brain dysfunction characterized by the diagnosis of autism?
4. What constitutes the evidence of causality?
5. What IS the solution to the problem?
The answer to the first three questions, which we will address first, is a resounding NO!
The fourth and fifth questions are addressed subsequently.
1. Is the MMR triple vaccine the only cause of autism?
There is not only a documented link of autism to the MMR vaccine, but also to the other vaccines, such as the DPT and polio. We also know of a case of a child developing autism after the Hepatitis A vaccine and others after the Hepatitis B vaccine.
2. Are gastrointestinal problems the only mechanism causing brain dysfunction characterized by the diagnosis of autism?
Even though it is evident and proven that the MMR causes bowel problems which result in malabsorption and malelimination of waste product of digestion, which results in brain dysfunction called autism, autism as a diagnosis was defined for the first time by Kanner (1943 and 1944).
This was the time when the measles, mumps and rubella (and the MMR) vaccines did not exist. However, it WAS the time of intensified diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) and tetanus vaccination. The recipients of these vaccines developed encephalitis (or encephalomyelitis) and the mechanism of behavioral problems described by Kanner as autism was soon described by others as postencephalitic syndrome.
This is another, in fact the original, explanation for the observed behavioral problems often alternatively described as post--vaccinal encephalitic syndrome and caused by ANY vaccine. This is amply described in a book written by Harris I. Coulter: "Vaccination: Social Violence and Criminality, the Assault on the American Brain."
3. Is the administration of measles, mumps and rubella vaccines individually a solution to the problem of autism?
The researchers above and parents, particularly in the United Kingdom, are calling for the three vaccines (measles, mumps and rubella) to be administered individually as if this were the solution to the problem.
However it is not just the combined vaccines, such as MMR or DPT that cause autism, and therefore the separate administration of the vaccines will NOT resolve the problem.
In fact we know of cases of autism occurring after the individual vaccines. Indeed, the risk may, to the contrary, be even increased.
DR Wakefield has not referred to ANY research that has looked into the relative risk of developing autism after the separate vaccines as opposed to the combined MMR (and we are not aware of any), so there is no basis for such a recommendation.
It appears to be purely based on speculation, and even that speculation can be said to be founded on a poor amount of study of the available published refereed research, which shows in more detail what the cause of the problem actually is. Much of this research is covered in "Behavioral Problems in Childhood - The Link to Vaccination", by DR Viera Scheibner.
It is important to understand that ANY of the vaccines - any type and given either singly or combined, can disturb the balance in the body and cause autism.
In fact it has even very rarely developed after an immunological assault that was NOT vaccination (we know of 2 such cases), but it does NOT develop otherwise in unvaccinated children. Notably, we know of NO cases of autism in which there was no clearly identifiable immunological assault preceding its development.
4. What constitutes the evidence of causality?
Let us start by not relying on the words of medical "authorities" in western countries.
A clear illustration of how truly authoritative their assertions are can be seen from looking at what has happened in other countries.
For example, Sugiura & Yamada (Pediatr Infect Dis J, 1991;Vol 10(3):209-13) describe what happened in Japan. Very briefly, when the MMR triple vaccine was shown to cause meningitis in 1 in 2026 recipients, not only did the Japanese health authorities recognize the causal link to this vaccine, they also discontinued its use (and also significantly, no unusually large epidemic of any of these infections followed).
Not surprisingly, the incidence of vaccine-caused (and overall) meningitis plummeted (the minority who were hell-bent on getting the vaccine could still get it). So, there is a precedent of a whole major country abandoning the offending vaccine and of recognition of the causal link between the offending vaccines and the observed reactions.
Yet despite this, medical "authorities" in other countries, such as Australia, the UK and the US, continue to ignore (or not read?) the research in published, refereed medical journals, and claim that there is only a temporal and coincidental association.
It is important to note that the only studies that have claimed to discount the link of the MMR vaccine to autism have been funded by vaccine manufacturers (the most recent being Merck, which makes MMR, and reported in January 2001 in The Pediatric Infectious Diseases Journal).
This is a case of history repeating itself - how many times have tobacco companies published research "demonstrating" that cigarettes do not cause cancer or heart disease, etc?
Looking at the arguments in relation to the causal link.
It is unfortunate that rather than simply caring to take the scientific approach of searching for and studying the published literature revealing the mechanisms for how vaccines cause the development of autism, vaccine promoters will simply follow the politician's approach of making weak claims and reasoning to discount the link. They even deny such literature exists, presumably because they have never searched for it.
An example of this is that Dr. Eric Fombonne, from the Institute of Psychiatry in London, UK claims in a letter in Pediatrics (Pediatrics 2001;107:411-413) that the rise in the number of reported cases of autism over the past 30 years was caused by doctors adopting a broader definition of the disease and using better diagnostic tools.
While doctors may be more aware of autism now and as a result look for it more, the reason they are more aware of it is because it is more evident - it is now occurring at a much higher rate.
Autism is not just a label.
Autistic children are placed into special schools, or special extensions of existing schools, because it is so obvious, and always would have been, that their needs cannot be met in a normal classroom.
Special schools for autistic children are now overflowing and greatly increasing in number. Further, it is well documented that there has been a rise in the numbers of children who are diagnosed with a host of developmental, speech and learning disorders, regardless of what you choose to call their problem. These facts should put an end to any debate over diagnostic criteria changes.
Dr. Luke Tsai, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, said that if the disease was caused by a vaccine, "we would see hundreds of thousands of kids with autism.
And we don't." Well, if DR Tsai has studied so much medicine and yet has still no concept of variations in susceptibility from one individual to another (let alone all the other factors that vary from one administration to the next), one really has to wonder what they DO learn in medical school, apart from pharmacology (i.e. which toxic concoctions interfere with which efforts of the body to defend or heal itself).
Apart from that though, with autism occurring at the rate it does, there ARE at least two or three hundred thousand children in our developed countries around the world with autism!
What planet does he live on?
Vaccine promoters also commit another politically motivated lapse in logic:
they admit that the REACTIONS to all vaccines do occur, but say that they are only TEMPORAL and COINCIDENTAL.
To our dismay, many of them seem to actually believe this nonsense which represents an insult to basic intelligence. This is because firstly, the word "reaction" itself is a word that directly implies causality.
Secondly, establishing a TEMPORAL relationship is the first precondition of causality.
Thirdly, why do they not even consider the significant fact that these REACTIONS never occur BEFORE and always AFTER vaccination? The magnitude of this "coincidence" is impossibility in the realm of probability calculus.
It is actually considered prudent medical practice that if a medical procedure is administered and symptoms occur afterwards, that procedure must be considered as the cause. However further to this there is plenty of information available that enables one to piece together not just that there IS a link, but how the damage occurs.
Suppose you are a parent who has never even picked up any medical literature at all on vaccination or autism.
To start with you might know only that vaccines do SOMETHING to the immune system. Then you observe that after a vaccination your child develops a condition that clearly involves an immune disorder - you can see this because when the child eats certain foods his behavior goes particularly abnormal.
Then you communicate with other parents of autistic children and lo and behold, they have observed the same temporal link. A statistical probability then forms. If you read that more than one in 175 of all children in the UK ("Telegraph", 18 Feb, 2000), and similar in other "developed" countries with high vaccination compliance, suffer autism, but not in developing countries, which have low vaccination compliance, you see a statistical link on a larger scale.
(Notably, a similar pattern of confinement to developed countries occurs with cancer, leukemia, asthma and other modern scourges of children.)
Then you learn what is in vaccines

- .01-.025% each of formaldehyde, mercury (or substitute #6-pheno-oxyethanol, a protoplasmic poison), aluminum, paint thinner, coolant, antifreeze, dye, detergent phenols, solvent, borax, disinfectant, MSG, glycerol, sulfite & phosphate compounds, polysorbate 80/20, sorbitol, polyribosylribitol, betapropiolactone, Amphotericin B and other chemicals, plus hydrolyzed gelatin, casein, dead animal tissue and blood (e.g. cow, chick embryo, monkey, sheep, pig, dog, etc), aborted human fetus cells, mutated (more virulent) human viruses, contaminant animal viruses (e.g. SV40, which causes cancer in humans), bacteria, bacterial endotoxins, antibiotics, yeast & animal, bacterial and viral DNA (which when injected can be incorporated into the recipient DNA).
You reasonably conclude that perhaps it is not enormously healthy for your child to be injected with this big mixture of poisons, and it just MIGHT cause some damage to the immune system?
Then you might go further and look at what these poisons are documented to do. You might start with the first one on the list - formaldehyde. You ask Poisons Information or the National Research Council what its potential effects are and they give you this list:
Eye; nasal; throat and pulmonary irritation; acidosis; acute sense of smell; alters tissue proteins; anemia; antibodies formation; apathy; blindness; blood in urine; blurred vision; body aches; bronchial spasms; bronchitis; burns nasal and throat; cardiac impairment; palpitations and arrhythmias; central nervous system depression; changes in higher cognitive functions; chemical sensitivity; chest pains and tightness; chronic vaginitis; colds; coma; conjunctivitis; constipation; convulsions; corneal erosion; cough; death; destruction of red blood cells; depression; dermatitis; diarrhea; difficulty concentrating; disorientation; dizziness; ear aches; eczema; emotional upsets; ethmoid polyps; fatigue; fecula bleeding; fetal asphyxiation (and they say they don't know what could cause SIDS?)
flu-like or cold like illness; frequent urination with pain; gastritis; gastrointestinal inflammation; headaches; hemolytic anemia; hemolytic haematuria; hoarseness; hyperactive airway disease; hyperactivity; hypomenstrual syndrome; immune system sensitiser; impaired (short) attention span; impaired capacity to attain attention; inability or difficulty swallowing; inability to recall words and names; inconsistent IQ profiles; inflammatory diseases of the reproductive organs; intestinal pain; intrinsic asthma; irritability; jaundice; joint pain; aches and swelling; kidney pain; laryngeal spasm; loss of memory; loss of sense of smell; loss of taste; malaise; menstrual and testicular pain; menstrual irregularities; metallic taste; muscle spasms and cramps; nasal congestions; crusting and mucosae inflammation; nausea; nosebleeds; numbness and tingling of the forearms and finger tips; pale, clammy skin; partial laryngeal paralysis; pneumonia; post nasal drip; pulmonary edema; reduced body temperature; retarded speech pattern; ringing or tingling in the ear; schizophrenic-type symptoms; sensitivity to sound; shock; short term memory loss; shortness of breath; skin lesions; sneezing; sore throat; spacey feeling; speaking difficulty; sterility; swollen glands; tearing; thirst; tracheitis; tracheobronchitis; vertigo; vomiting blood; vomiting; wheezing.
Then you investigate mercury?
Aphthous, stomatitis, catarrhal gingivitis, nausea, liquid stools, pain, liver disorder, injury to the cardiovascular system and hematopoietic system, deafness, ataxia, headache, paresthesia of the tongue, lips, fingers and toes, other nonspecific dysfunctions, metallic taste, slight gastrointestinal disturbances, excessive flatus, diarrhea, chorea, athetosis, tremors, convulsions, pain and numbness in the extremities, nephritis, salivation, loosening of the teeth, blue line on the gums, anxiety, mental depression, insomnia, hallucinations or central nervous system effects.
Exposure may also cause irritation of the eyes, mucous membranes and upper respiratory tract. Acute poisoning may cause gastrointestinal irritation, renal failure, fine tremors of extended hands, loss of side vision, slight loss of coordination in the eyes, speech, writing and gait, inability to stand or carry out voluntary movements, occasional muscle atrophy and flexure contractures, generalized myoclonic movements, difficulty understanding ordinary speech, irritability and bad temper progressing to mania, stupor, coma, mental retardation in children, skin irritation, blisters or dermatitis. Exposure may be fatal.
Well how about that?
These ingredients cause exactly the type of damage that your child is suffering.
Even these two ingredients, let alone the rest, cause sensitization to the immune system for example, and your child, since the vaccination, is sensitive to certain foods, which intensify his autistic behavior.
You learn about DR Wakefield's, Professor O'Leary's and others' research where they are developing an understanding of the damage the vaccines can do to the gastrointestinal system, and how this is intricately linked to the condition. You quite likely note that your own son has been suffering tummy problems at the same time (if the autism developed by that mechanism, and not from encephalitis), and again only since that vaccination.
You remember how after his vaccines in his first year he started getting several bacterial, particularly ear infections, and was frequently on antibiotics, which you know could have increased the susceptibility of his gastrointestinal system before the 12-15 mth MMR and Hib or 18 mth DPT. You recognize the typical pattern.
You might even ask on email lists if there are any unvaccinated children that have developed autism, and you may get back a negative response. We ourselves have only been able to find 2 such cases, and in each case there was another clearly identifiable immune assault.
We have found NO case of it developing in a previously healthy unvaccinated child.
Then you discover, and read, whole books that are compilations of a huge amount of medical research on vaccination and behavioral disorders (including autism), each research study they reference establishing a link that makes up one or more pieces of the jigsaw. These books include:
· Dr Viera Scheibner's "Behavioral Problems in Childhood - The Link to Vaccination",
· Greg Wilson's "Vaccination and Behavioral Disorders - A Review of the Controversy",
· Harris Coulter's "Vaccination: Social Violence and Criminality, The Assault on the American Brain",
· Karen Seroussi's "Unraveling the Mystery of Autism".
The first two of these books document over 500 relevant medical papers between them. By now we have the situation that if this were put to trial in a fair court, the verdict would be "Guilty beyond all reasonable doubt."
If courts required further proof than this before they came to a verdict with traditional "garden-variety" criminals, our jails would be empty and murderers would be running around loose on the streets. Of course unfortunately for "common" murderers their activities are not protected by a multi-trillion dollar industry.
5. So what then IS the solution to this problem?
Seeing the solution requires an understanding of the whole vaccination issue. This requires a decent amount of research, if all that we have believed or assumed about vaccination up to this point is what the medical establishment has told us.
Before doing any such research, parents could be concerned that if they do not vaccinate, their children could catch these infectious diseases, and die or suffer permanent injuries as a result.
However once parents do more research they come to realize that this concern is invalid in two respects:
1) It assumes that vaccines prevent diseases.
Research reveals that the actual effect of vaccines is actually sensitization, the word "sensitization" even specifically used in medical journals in describing the effect.
"Sensitization" means that the recipient is made MORE, not less sensitive, i.e. more, not less susceptible to contracting the infection and more vulnerable to it, increasing the chance of developing a 3 to 4 year cyclic disease.
When this decline in vaccine compliance occurred whooping cough incidence remained at an all time low for the longest recorded interepidemic period. The overall infant mortality rate also plummeted, being also the lowest on record for an epidemic when the next epidemic came around.
The same happened in Japan after 1975 when the vaccination age was lifted to 2 years; Japan zoomed from a much higher rate (17th place) to the lowest infant mortality rate (1st place) in the world (Los Angeles Times, March 1,1990).
In contrast to this, after the US mandated the DPT vaccine in 1978 there was a documented 300% sustained increase in the reported cases of whooping cough, and it is still rising, to the point that, with mandatory vaccination in most states and 5 doses of the vaccine, it now occurs at a far higher rate than before the introduction of the vaccine (see Sutter, R.W., and Cochi, S.L., 1992. Pertussis hospitalizations and mortality in the United States, 1985-1988. J Amer Med Ass;267(3):386-390).
Indeed, despite the overall far superior living standards in other respects - better housing, clean water, nutrition, etc, the US infant mortality rates rival those of the third world. Significantly it went from 6th place in the world in the early fifties before mass vaccination started to 20th place by 1990, and it has since dropped several ranks further (down to 26th place a few years ago).
Similarly, measles had virtually disappeared in Europe, UNTIL vaccination began, after which it rose again. Sadly, it seems that almost whatever the vaccine promoters say, you can simply change their claim to say the exact opposite, and then you will know the truth. With the few times that what they say is true, they are giving only part of the story, which is misleading because people then make false assumptions about the rest.
2) The other respect in which the above claim is invalid is that even if vaccines DID prevent infectious diseases, these are not life-threatening diseases that are untreatable.
They may be untreatable by the medical establishment, but that is because, with its very heavy ties with an industry that markets poisonous substances as bringers of health, it is unable to get away from this obsession of interfering with the immune system (usually by such administrations), instead of supporting it.
It is important to understand that the immune system is designed to do a job, and is quite capable of doing so - the complexities of this inbuilt intelligence developed, as it did in other animals, long before Homo Sapiens even began to evolve.
Thanks to the damaging effect of the vaccines their mothers had, weakening the transplacentally transmitted immunity, young infants are now susceptible to whooping cough, which is dangerous (only) under 6 months, but even then it is still treatable. Any deaths represent the damage done and bad management by medical establishment (illustrated clearly in MJA March 1998); they are not curses of nature.
It is natural to survive.
In fact properly supported (and ideally at the age of childhood, as nature intended, not infanthood), the exercise of dealing with childhood infections such as measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough and chicken pox, has been documented in medical literature to be beneficial- it primes and matures the immune system, lowering the risk of serious diseases such as cancer in later life (Lancet, 1985, Cancer 1966), and asthma (Lancet 1996, 1999).
It has also been seen to help the development of the brain - often evident in such things as children's drawings before and after they go through the infections. The name "measles" itself is an old Sanskrit word meaning "visitation by a goddess".
The recognition of these benefits has even manifested in a tradition of measles (etc) parties, to which parents bring their children deliberately to be exposed to the child with the infection, in order to enable them to gain these benefits as well as immunity for later life, when it is far more unpleasant to go through.
So even if the vaccine WERE effective, it is inappropriate to be even trying to prevent these infections anyway. Children will only get them if and when they need them, and once they have them they only need to be properly managed.
When the immune system fails to do its job, it is not because it is inherently incapable of overcoming the infection, but because we have denied it the resources that it needs, or interfered with its activity.
All the resources it needs are?
· A sufficient nutritional status (not really a problem in developed countries today, though many people would do better if their levels of these, particularly Vitamin C, were higher)
· plenty of clean water
· energy through sufficient rest
We interfere with its activity when?
· We divert the body's labor resources to other activities such as digestion (making the person eat)
· by giving Tylenol and other antipyretics, we prevent it raising or keeping its temperature at the level it knows it needs (N.B. It raises it because for every degree rise in temperature, the rate of production and travel of leukocytes to the site of infection, actually DOUBLES)
· we harm organisms in the body that have an important role in the immune system (i.e. when we give antibiotics)
Further, when a person is vaccinated, ironically it only damages and weakens the immune system, and further severely saps its resources, such as Vitamin C, and therefore only increases the challenge it has in its effort to deal with infections, but even these diseases are still treatable. They just need to be properly supported.
The immune system can manage if it has the basic resources it needs and is then left alone to get on with the job, even though it causes a fair degree of discomfort in the process.
Contrary to popular belief, the body is not suicidal! It raises its temperature to a level that is still safe and helps it fight the infection, not to put itself under threat of brain damage! Apart from this, convulsions occur due to it rising very RAPIDLY from normal (which is not uncommon after vaccination), not due to it being too high.
So, if you ever hear of a child suffering a complication or dying "from", say measles, ask two questions:
1) Was the child vaccinated?
This is most probable, though he/she will most likely be assumed not to have been until the medical records are checked. (By vaccinated we mean at least ONE dose of ANY vaccine - not necessarily the measles vaccine - they ALL weaken the immune system), and
2) What treatment was the child given?
Sure enough you will find that the illness was mismanaged, as described above.
Non-vaccinating parents in our developed countries are commonly asked what they "do" to their children that makes them so vibrantly healthy and alert. It is actually normal for a properly nourished and nurtured child to grow up in good health, WHEN there is no administration of toxic substances.
In a healthy child, infections, even colds, are rarely seen, and if and when contracted they are dealt with easily and quickly. Indeed, most of the time an infection is contracted it is dealt with so easily by the immune system that the person does not fall ill, so is unaware of it.
So, in summary, the incomplete analysis and handling of the autism problem is muddying the issue and only results in what can best be described as a logical mess in relation to the whole issue of causality of autism.
Some parents discount the link completely because they know that their or other's children developed autism before the MMR, or much later (after another vaccine). Others expend vast amounts of energy searching for, and traveling long distances to, medical centers that will give separate measles, mumps and rubella vaccines.
As a result, many thousands of children continue to be damaged, developing autism and many other serious effects, as a result of being given the MMR vaccine itself, the SEPARATE measles, mumps, rubella vaccines and/or the OTHER vaccines. And most ironically, they are only more, not less, susceptible to these otherwise harmless, indeed (if properly managed) beneficial, infections.
An example of the logical mess and resultant tragedy was reported to us recently. A couple of mothers who are friends had read an article in the daily newspaper about the MMR vaccine causing autism. One of the mothers had an autistic son. Initially she wondered then if the MMR had caused the autism in her son, but then she discounted the link because she remembered that her son started showing the signs of autism BEFORE being given the MMR.
When, as a result of remembering this, she told her friend that her initial concern about the MMR link was wrong, this reassurance encouraged her friend to submit her own son to the MMR. Now, shortly after that, this friend's son is starting to show the signs of autism.
One cannot successfully fight mistruth with other mistruths. Without the full, in fact basically simple truth, we just get confusion and more poisoning, with the resultant needless suffering.
Please help us teach the community what does and does NOT bring good health, so that children in the future can be spared autism and other tragedies.

Dear Editor:
Dr. Dales and colleagues provide a timely investigation of an important social concern, the potential link between autism and MMR immunizations. However their data is of insufficient quality to support their conclusions.
Their survey sample is small, randomly selected and from unpublished data. They failed to separate children who received one MMR vaccine were not separated from those who received two MMR injections. Individuals who received a combined MMR vaccine were not separated from children who received separate measles, mumps and/or rubella injections. Additionally, they failed to include a control group analyzing the number of cases of autism that appeared in never vaccinated children. Finally, the immunization and autism records for the same children were not matched.
By the researcher's admission, the study is flawed. Therefore, their conclusion that "there is no correlation between the MMR immunization rates and the increased occurrence of autism" needs to be reexamined.
A recent prospective follow up of 1.8 million children over a 14 year period with an MMR vaccination program in Finland also found a negative association with MMR vaccination and autism. The research was partly funded by the vaccine supplier, Merck, and used a passive surveillance system, despite wide spread acceptance that this type of reporting not adequate to show safety of a pharmaceutical product, let alone a vaccine.
The study was very dependent on Adverse Drug Reactions reporting by medical professionals despite evidence a 1997 French study (Moride et al) suggesting that doctors may be under-reporting ADRs by 24,500 times. Any study which is totally dependent on adverse reaction reporting by medical professionals must be flawed from the start.
The two negative reports contrast an independent investigator, Wakefield, who has established a clear link between autism and the MMR vaccine.
Autism is epidemic in this country and certain communities like California have experienced a 1,000 percent increase in autism over the last twenty years. Flawed science can further distract us from the serious and very real issue of vaccine induced brain injury.




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