MMR Vaccine Debate, Campaign Continues Full Speed over Weekend

[Guest guest]

More of the same on MMR - just love how suddenly there are so many studies

so all can feel A-OK!

Right.

Sheri

FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org

" Healing Autism: No Finer a Cause on the Planet "

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January 15, 2001 Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp

MMR Vaccine Debate, Campaign Continues Full Speed over Weekend

[These are the opening paragraphs to the numerous articles appearing

mostly in the UK press.]

* * *

Doctors Could Be Sued Over Single Jabs

[by on in the Telegraph, UK.]

Doctors who give single vaccines against mumps, measles or rubella

were warned last night that they could face legal action from parents if the

vaccinated children became ill.Dr Salisbury, the Government's head of

immunisation, said that single vaccines imported by some private clinics

were unlicensed and doctors administered them " at their own risk " . He said:

" An individual doctor can give an unlicensed vaccine but he takes full

responsibility for his action. " A Health Department spokesman said Dr

Salisbury's warning raised the prospect of parents taking doctors to court

if a child became ill after being given single, unlicensed vaccines.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000579381554028 & rtmo=VkujxPxx & atmo=99999999

& pg=/et/01/1/14/nmmr14.html < -- Address ends here.

* * *

Opinion: MMR, A Jab Too Far?

[by Jane Shilling in the Times, UK.]

I am extremely glad that just at the moment I am not in the position

of having to decide whether or not to take my boy for his MMR vaccination.

He had the jab eight years ago, five years before the publication of

research suggesting a possible link between MMR, autism and bowel disease.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,7-67770,00.html

* * *

Private GP Finds Way Around Triple Jab

Ministry is Blocking Single-Dose Vaccines

[by Celia Hall, Medical Editor, Telegraph, UK.]

DR Copp, a private GP in Edinburgh, imports hundreds of single

doses of vaccine a year for parents who refuse MMR but still want to protect

their children.

He has vaccinated 350 children and has as many more to do.He has found

a way of using the vaccines, which are not licensed in Britain, that the

regulatory authorities cannot do much about. He said: " Rubella is licensed

so it can be given to pregnant women who have been exposed to infection. "

He said: " I have 60 family doctors across Scotland who are prepared to

give babies and children the single rubella dose using this licensed

vaccine. This means it would not be wise for the children to have the triple

doses as well. The Medicines Control Agency says I may import measles and

mumps vaccines and give them to such children. "

http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000140326706927 & rtmo=VDqgDrwK & atmo=rrrrr

rrq & pg=/et/01/1/13/njab213.html <-- Address ends here

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* * *

MMR Vaccine Given All Clear

[The MMR vaccine has been given the all clear by the Committee on

Safety of Medicines and the Joint Committee on Vacination and Immunisation.

By Fanning.]

The report published today by the two British committee's advised that

the MMR vaccine remains the safest way to protect children.

Chief medical officer, Dr Henrietta has welcomed the advice.

" This is very reassuring news for those parents who may have concerns

about the safety of the MMR vaccine. We are very pleased to have this

further confirmation that the safety record of the vaccine is excellent, " Dr

said.

" The safety of combined MMR is supported by a substantial body of

evidence rather than the individual vaccines. "

Dr said that the suggested practice of giving six staggered

doses of seperate components over a six year period would leave children

unprotected and at risk of infection and would lead to the return of

outbreaks of these diseases.

The chairman of the Regional Advisory Committee on Communicable

Disease Control, Dr Clive said: " Scare stories clearly worry parents

but giving children six seperate vaccines unnecessarily exposes them to the

risk of life-threatening infection.

" MMR remains the safest way to protect our children. "

http://www.utvinternet.com/news/indepth.asp?id=4127 & r=all

* * *

MMR: 'No One Can Say It's Safe’

If There Wasn't A Problem, There Would Be No Controversy

[by Severin Carrell in the Independent, UK.]

As Claude and Tami Everett rolled up the sleeves of their

infant sons for their measles jab yesterday, they were coming to the end of

a search that began more than a year ago. The friends from Bournemouth had

made a pact at their mother-and-baby club: to find someone, somewhere, who

was prepared to ignore orders from the Government and the medical profession

and give their boys, Jacques and Freddie, an alternative to the MMR triple

vaccine.

Yesterday, after driving three and a half hours from Bournemouth, they

arrived at the Direct Health 2000 clinic in Eltham, south-east London, to

join a rapidly growing queue of parents who now refuse to accept ministerial

advice and trust the MMR vaccine. " It's important isn't it? It's your

children's health at the end of the day, " said Ms Everett, 28, a former

croupier. " No one can prove to

us that the MMR is safe. "

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Health/2001-01/mmrparents130101.shtml

* * *

Offer Choice Says Tory Mother Backing Bill

[by Celia Hall, Medical Editor, Telegraph, UK.]

This autumn Angus, the son of Kirkbride, MP, will be old enough

for his measles, mumps and rubella vaccination.

His mother does not know whether she will take her three-month-old

baby to her local clinic for the injection. Miss Kirkbride, the Conservative

MP for Bromsgrove, is not against vaccination. But, like thousands of other

parents, she is worried about the MMR vaccine.Three years ago research

suggested a possible link between the vaccine and the development of a

bowel disorder and autism. This has been strongly denied by the Department

of Health. Last month Miss Kirkbride, who is married to Mackay, the

Conservative MP for Bracknell, won the right to introduce a Private Member's

Bill.

She is seeking to persuade the Government to make single-dose measles,

mumps and rubella vaccines available to try to halt the falling number of

babies getting the triple jab.She said that she would prefer her son to have

the injections singly, allowing enough time in between for problems to

become evident, and for his young body to deal with viruses one at a time.

She said: " I am very unhappy about overwhelming his immune system with this

live vaccine. " Angus has been given his other childhood vaccinations, which

his mother feels are well tried and tested. She said: " I am a strong

believer in the child vaccination programme, which has transformed childhood

mortality over 50 years.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000579381554028 & rtmo=Qw3mS9mR & atmo=99999999

& pg=/et/01/1/13/njab113.html < -- Address ends here.

* * *

Parents Clamour for Vaccines in Single Doses

[by Ian Cobain.]

Words such as safe, certain and responsible were used by the

Government’s health advisers yesterday as they moved to quell mounting

doubts about the MMR vaccine. Increasingly, however, such reassurances are

falling on deaf ears, with a significant number of parents refusing to

accept that the three-in-one inoculation carries no risk to their children.

Moreover, at the handful of clinics and private GPs’ practices that are

still offering the old single-component vaccines, many patients were angry

that the Department of Health is moving to close down the loophole that

allows them to be sold. Bowden, 32, from Swansea, has refused to

allow her children, Oliver, 6, and Lowrie, 2, to have the MMR jab.

Like countless other parents she is convinced that she is being kept

in the dark about side-effects and is not being informed about alternatives

to the vaccine. “I have been concerned about the problems connected with the

MMR vaccine since my son Oliver was born,” she said. “When I asked my doctor

and health visitor about the single measles vaccine, all they would tell me

is that MMR is safe. “But for me the risk of immunising is greater than the

risk of not immunising. That fact is that I would prefer to risk my children

having measles than autism and I know I’m not the only parent to think like

that.”

http://adcontroller.unicast.com/upload/bmwx/5ser/bmw_5sries2001_a_v02_timesu

kco_doc.html

* * *

Call for More Research on Side-Effects

[by Charter, in the Times, UK.]

The British researcher behind MMR safety fears is planning to publish

a further paper later this month arguing for more tests on its sideeffects.

Wakefield, of the Royal Free Hospital, London, is expected to say

that British trials of MMR, which lasted three to four weeks, were too short

before its introduction in 1988. Dr Wakefield and another specialist,

Montgomery, of the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, have combed through

records of trials before the vaccine was approved for use in Britain.

They found that the tests in Costa Rica, El Salvador, the Dominican

Republic, Philadelphia and Ohio, lasted three to four weeks. It is believed

that in a paper to be published in the Journal of Adverse Drug Reactions,

they will raise “serious concern” that the tests did not last long enough

and that sideeffects of the jab were not given sufficient consideration.

Dr Wakefield has said: “There is a question about a causal association

between the vaccine and a number of conditions which needs more research.”

Health officials said that, in at least one of the trials, children were

followed up after six to eight weeks to check on side-effects. They add that

the extensive use of MMR in Scandinavia and the US, where it was used for up

to 16 years before being introduced here, showed its safety. These arguments

were strengthened further by the disclosure yesterday of a 14-year Finnish

study of three million MMR doses in children which showed it had caused no

cases of autism or the bowel disorder Crohn’s disease.

Dr Wakefield, a senior lecturer in paediatric gastroenterology, first

published research on a possible link between MMR and autism in The Lancet

in February 1998. He believes that MMR could be linked to a syndrome called

autistic enterocolitis.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-67643,00.html

* * *

Alternative to MMR jab 'Not Safe'

[by Boseley, News Unlimited, UK.]

Separate doses of measles, mumps and rubella vaccines are not a safe

alternative to the combined MMR jab, which some parents have shunned because

of scares over alleged links to autism and bowel disease, government and

independent scientists said yesterday. The heads of the independent Joint

Committee on Immunisation and Vaccination (JCVI) and the Committee on the

Safety of Medicines, as well as the government's head of immunisation, came

together to warn that obtaining individual vaccinations for the three

diseases involves delay, which exposes children to the real and increasing

risk of infection.

Last week the government said that low rates of immunisation could

shortly lead to a fatal measles outbreak, as it did last year in Ireland,

where there were two deaths, and the Netherlands, where there were three.

Langman, head of the JCVI, said there were also worries about some

of the individual vaccines available in other European countries. Some

parents in Britain have gone abroad for supplies of separate vaccines

because of the MMR scare.

http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,421613,00.html

* * *

Canada: Study Disproving Measle-Vaccine's Autism Link Called 'Reassuring'

A study of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine that concludes it

cannot cause autism in children is “reassuring,” says a Canadian pediatric

specialist. The study by Finnish researchers has followed nearly two

million children for 14 years. It has consistently concluded the vaccine

does not cause autism or inflammatory bowel disease. The most recent

findings have been reported in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. Dr.

Joanne Embree of Winnipeg's Children's Hospital says the size of the study

inspires confidence in the findings.

”The fact that there are so many children followed for such a long

period of time is very reassuring that these phenomena, if they do occur,

are very rare.”

http://www.thestar.com/apps/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout

/Article_Type1 & c=Article & cid=979328548004 & call_page=TS_Health & call_pageid=96

8867505381 & call_pagepath=Entertainment,Life/Health < -- Address ends here.

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