*For most of the Wakefield "conflict of interest" articles posted on the site, click here (check periodically for updates)

►March 5, 2004 - Pennsylvania Doctors Not Facing a Medical Malpractice Insurance Crisis, Public Citizen Report Shows - Lawsuits Not Responsible for Insurance Rate Spike, Malpractice Awards Are Flat or Declining and No Evidence of a Doctor Exodus - www.citizen.org

►March 9, 2004 - Vaccinia Virus — Developing Drugs to Mitigate Complications from Smallpox Vaccination (update) - FDA/CBER

►March 2, 2004 - Publishers steamed by US ban - Scientists from embargoed nations can't be edited by US citizens, but changes may be afoot - The Scientist via BioMed Central - "A Treasury Department ruling that a well known scientific society can't publish articles in its journals from authors in trade-embargoed countries if their manuscripts require any copy or style editing has other scientific associations and American publishers up in arms. The prohibition applies to authors in Iran, Cuba, Sudan, and Libya, but not to submissions from Iraq, North Korea, Zimbabwe, the Balkans, or Liberia, where embargoes are more limited."

February 26, 2004 - Iron eating bacteria - Novel bacteria could clean up heavy metal- and chlorine-contaminated environments - The Scientist via BioMed Central

►March 10, 2004 - Concerns raised over storage of vaccines in the Pacific - www.abc.net.au

►March 9, 2004 - Bye bye Delhi belly - A new oral vaccine could make traveller's diarrhoea a thing of the past. But do we need such protection and will it really work, asks David Adam  - The Guardian, UK - "But the new vaccine may not be as useful as some hope, says Ron Behrens, a travel medicine expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 'I don't think there's much use for them in so much as they have a very small impact on quite a common problem. The actual benefit in reduced illness is not that huge,' he says. "There are hundreds of different organisms that can cause traveller's diarrhoea that would not be affected by a specific vaccine."

►March 8, 2004 - Conference Tackles Hepatitis B And Measles - Ministry of Health via www.scoop.co.nz

►March 8, 2004 - Home-schooled children deserve high standards - The Virginian-Pilot - "At a time of mounting global competition, when a consensus across the nation and the state calls for higher standards from public school teachers, the General Assembly is moving in the opposite direction for home schools...The House and Senate have endorsed legislation lowering the requirement from a college degree to a high-school diploma for parents who teach their children at home."

►March 9, 2004 - Drinking Lots of Coffee May Prevent Diabetes - Drinking More Than 3 Cups a Day May Reduce the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes - WebMD Medical News

►March 9, 2004 - Poor diet and physical inactivity may soon overtake tobacco as leading cause of death in U.S. - JAMA via www.eurekalert.org

►March 9, 2004 -Meeting The Minds - Chemist finds new ways to make vaccines - The Boston Globe - "Beyond providing a safe and effective vaccine, Wang stated in an e-mail Monday that she believes her lab has 'introduced a new concept in vaccine design, i.e., the combination of both prophylactic and therapeutic components, in a single vaccine. We hope that the concept will find broad use in the development of many other vaccines.'"

►March 8, 2004 - Tai Chi May Ease Burden of Chronic Diseases - Health Benefits of Chinese Martial Not Clearly Understood - WebMD Medical News

►March 9, 2004 - Device Detects, Traps And Deactivates Airborne Viruses And Bacteria - Washington University St. Louis via ScienceDaily

►March 9, 2004 - International vaccine centre in Sask. nearer to reality - Canadian Press - "A $61.8-million centre that could deal with emerging diseases such as SARS, West Nile virus and avian influenza got a major funding boost Monday...The Canada Foundation for Innovation will contribute $19.2 million toward the construction of the International Vaccine Centre to be owned and operated by the University of Saskatchewan."

►March 8, 2004 - Drug is being studied - USA Today - "Malaria is a potentially fatal infectious disease for which 40% of the world's population is at risk. It causes more than 1 million deaths annually. Because the Department of Defense deploys people around the world, including in malaria-endemic areas and often on short notice, we protect those at risk with safe and effective countermeasures. The highest priority is protecting our troops."

►March 8, 2004 - Stress Of Losing A Child Increases Risk Of MS - Neurology via www.intelihealth.com

►March 9, 2004 - College no longer out of the question for disabled students - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via Knight Ridder Newspapers via www.kentucky.com

►March 9, 2004 - Desiree Cooper: Bipolar teen and family win the struggle for peace - Detroit Free Press

►March 8, 2004 - FDA Issues Recommendations on Development of Drugs to Treat Side Effects of Vaccination Against Smallpox - FDA 

►March 8, 2004 - AIDS Drug Combo Shows Promise Against SARS - Reuters 

►March 9, 2004 - New vaccine can help protect infants from contagious illness - www.mercurynews.com - "`Pertussis is the only vaccine-preventable disease that is still increasing in this country,'' said Brian Pascual, a public health specialist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The increase is occurring even though vaccination rates are considerably higher today than a decade or two ago, Pascual said."

►March 9, 2004 - Striking Benefits Found In Ultra-Low Cholesterol (requires registration) - The Washington Post 

►March 10, 2004 - Two-day conference on Autism - Limerick Post - conference alert - March 26-27, 2004 in Belfast, Ireland

►March 10, 2004 - 'Rubella Babies' Suffering As Adults? - Disease May Cause Adults To Get Sicker Than Most - www.thebakersfieldchannel.com

►March 10, 2004 - 'Dirty' GP Cleared to Smear - Daily Record, UK

►March 10, 2004 - Muslim leaders join polio eradication effort - http://in.rediff.com

►March 9, 2004 - The Vaccine Controversy - Polio Vaccine: a Huge Virological Deception - analysis - Vanguard via www.allafrica.com - "Prof F.D. Adu stirred the hornest nest when he painted Prof. Abdulkareem's presenation of the subject in a bad light...ON page 16 of 'ThisDay' newspaper of Thursday, January 15, 2004, Professor F.D. Adu, under the title: 'Polio vaccine: The great deception', went to town to paint an unfortunate, ugly picture of my presentation to the public lecture organised by the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria, Lagos State branch. In his article, Professor Adu promised, at the beginning 'to throw some light' on the nature and type of vaccines, how they are made, tested and certified for use". Professor Adu failed woefully to 'throw some light' on any of these areas."

►March 10, 2004 - The Vaccine Controversy - Polio Vaccine: a Huge Virological Deception (2) - commentary - Vanguard via www.allafrica.com - "FOR once, Professor Adu agreed that polio vaccine could cause muscular paralysis in the patient when he stated: "It is true that OPV may cause what is referred to as Vaccine-Associated Polio Paralysis (VAPP) after vaccination, but it is very rare and only one out of 700,000 recipients of the polio vaccine is likely to develop VAPP". However, like most of his statements, Professor Adu is also not accurate here. Indeed, VAPP has been estimated by more competent researchers to occur in one out of 1,000 and not one out of 700,000 as stated by our learned Professor. Therefore, it is not unlikely that most of the paralyzed polio vaccine-treated Nigerian children became paralysed from the polio vaccines they received from those that are supposed to save them."

►March 10, 2004 - Polio Vaccine Controversy: Between Politics And Science - analysis - Vanguard via www.allafrica.com - "Although the storm generated by the rejection of the oral polio vaccine by some Northern states seems to have subsided after tests have certified the vaccine as being safe, it may yet take sometime before the controversy is finally laid to rest, Mike Ebonugwo and Okey Ndiribe report."

►March 9, 2004 - CDC’s Prevention Activities that Target Actual Causes of Death - fact sheet - CDC

►March 10, 2004 - Study links common bacteria to Alzheimer's Disease - ANI via www.webindia123.com - "A new study has shown a link between the bacteria Chlyamydia pneumoniae and the amyloid plaques found in the brains of people who have sporadic, non-hereditary Alzheimer's Disease."

►March 9, 2004 - American Heart Association Statement on JAMA Article 'Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000' - American Heart Association via U.S. Newswire

►March 10, 2004 - New mercury warnings on south Alabama streams - Data shows many Mobile Bay fish are relatively

►March 10, 2004 - Mercury: The Latest Green Scare Campaign - The Caruba Organization via www.energypulse.net

►March 11, 2004 - Meningococcal vaccine trial reports success - Researchers testing a vaccine to combat the deadly meningococcal disease say it seems to work on toddlers. - The Dominion Post via www.stuff.co.nz

►March 10, 2004 - DNA vaccine protects against anthrax - American Society for Microbiology via www.eurekalert.org via www.innovations-report.com

►March 10, 2004 - Sinovac Biotech And CDC Commence New Flu Vaccine Development - Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (Sinovac) recently announced that the Center for Disease Control of China and Sinovac are jointly working on the latest Key Science-Technology Project of the National 'Tenth Five-Year-Plan' of China, called "Research and Development of a New Human Influenza Vaccine". - www.chinatechnews.com

►March 9, 2004 - Researchers are looking for volunteers to test new vaccines - St. Louis Post Dispatch

►March 10, 2004 - Public Policy Follies - Tech Central Station - "Federal officials have been shooting themselves in the foot on public health issues -- but it is ordinary Americans who hemorrhage. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson and officials at the department's Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control have made one bad decision after another. Not ideologically motivated decisions (such as the administration's opposition to stem cell research), necessarily, just unwise ones...These actions -- by the people who determine much of the Nation's public health agenda -- have discouraged research and development; squandered scarce resources; and deprived citizens of important consumer products, while placing them at risk."

►March 8, 2004 - Let's Talk About (Safe) Sex, Baby - ABC News►March 9, 2004  - Aspex Gallery Showcases New Technology for Children With Autism - www.24hourmuseum.org.uk - "A multi-sensory environment for children with autism goes on display at Portsmouth’s Aspex Gallery later this month...MEDIATE, which stands for Multi-sensory Environment Design for an Interface between Autistic and Typical Expressiveness, is a play space that allows children with autism to have fun but also gives psychologists an opportunity to gain new insights into how they experience the world."

►March 9, 2004 - Nigeria seeks Asia polio vaccines - The northern Nigerian state of Kano is seeking polio vaccines from Asian countries to be used in a mass immunisation programme. - BBC

►March 9, 2004 - Infant dies from whooping cough - AP via http://kobtv.com

►March 9, 2004 - Chemist finds new ways to make vaccines - The Boston Globe

►March 9, 2004 - Exceptions to school shots rules debated - The Clarion-Ledger - "Some children would be allowed to enroll in school without having their vaccinations, if a state House bill debated Monday becomes law...Under House Bill 729, the child's parent or guardian must furnish a certificate from a doctor saying the vaccination would injure the child's health and well-being...Pam Dollar, a Simpson County businesswoman, said her 12-year-old son was diagnosed with autism at age 2, and she blames it a vaccine. But national studies have shown genetics, not the Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine, causes autism."

Comment:  Autism is at epidemic rates.  There is no such thing as a genetic epidemic.  Something has to have triggered the epidemic of autism, even if a genetic predisposition must exist for autism to be expressed.

►March 9, 2004 - No, You're The Jerk - Doc-Patient Summit Probes Sources of Mutual Disdain (requires registration) - Washington Post - "If you've ever dreamed of having a gripe session with your doctor -- to share, for instance, how steamed you get when left in the waiting room for too long with months-old magazines -- you may know how Brown feels. But you may not know your doctor's got some beefs with you, too."

►March 9, 2004 - From bubbly baby to disconnected child - The Miami Herald - "''David has progressed a lot. He's recovering some of his bubbly personality, but there's a sadness that's hard to overcome. And there's a sadness I feel as a parent for what could have been,' Bennett said. `It's like a living death of the infant I knew.'...Her struggle resonates with an increasing number of families."

►March 9, 2004 - Autism: Scientists attempt to understand cause of disorder - The Miami Herald - "Decades after doctors blamed autism on poor mothering, scientists are unraveling the brain's mysteries to understand the genetic disorder. Some theories focus on flawed chemicals within the brain; others, like Mundy's work, look at the brain's structure."

Comment:  Autism is at epidemic rates.  There is no such thing as a genetic epidemic.  Something has to have triggered the epidemic of autism, even if a genetic predisposition must exist for autism to be expressed.

►March 9, 2004 - Autism: Mild form defined by social ills - The Miami Herald

►March 9, 2004 - C-sections up mothers’ infection risk - Giving birth naturally is better for the health of both the mother and baby rather than opting for a caesarean section, research indicates. - Irish Examiner

►March 9, 2004 -Blood test could change the way you feel - The Miami Herald

►March 9, 2004 - Vaccine halts deadly disease - Daily Post via http://iccheshireonline.icnetwork.co.uk - "A DEADLY strain of meningitis has been virtually eradicated in Merseyside and Cheshire thanks to a major vaccination programme for vulnerable people, the Daily Post can reveal...Since the introduction of a vaccine for the meningococcal C strain of the disease, the number of cases recorded in the North West has dwindled from 151 in 1999 to 12 in 2003 and just five so far this year."

Comment:  But have other strains of meningitis, those not covered by the vaccine, risen at the same time?  For more on this, go to Scandals: Changing Disease Epidemiology Via Vaccines - Are We "Robbing Peter To Pay Paul"?

►March 9, 2004 - Companies Detail Promising Tests of Anthrax Treatments (requires registration) - The Washington Post

►March 8, 2004 - Vaccinations for smallpox hit 2nd phase - St. Louis Post-Dispatch - "Missouri soon will begin offering the smallpox vaccine to police, firefighters and paramedics...The vaccination program is the second phase of an effort to protect the state if a terrorist attack using the virus occurred here, said Brian Quinn, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. The first phase of preparation involved vaccinating health care workers most likely to come in contact with people infected with smallpox. About 1,200 health care workers in Missouri and 376 in Illinois got smallpox vaccinations."

►March 8, 2004 - Focus: Animal Doctor - Allergies a symptom of wider disorder - United Features Syndicate via Houston Chronicle - "The big question is why your dog's immune system has gone haywire to result in allergic hypersensitivity to 'almost everything on the test.'"

Comment:  And one possibility is vaccination.  For more on this, go to Out of Control: Childhood vaccinations and the risk of asthma