BRILLIANT article on Ear Infections

December 26, 2008

Even just crying will make the ear drum red and they will think 'infection'.

The ear drum can be red for many reasons.

Sheri

ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT article on Ear Infections by MD/Homeopath

Moskowitz

Again, you cannot use the remedies he mentions routinely for your child -

each remedy has to be individualized to your child's individaul, unique

symptoms - it could be one of thousands of remedies that he/she needs.

Sheri

I know this is LONG but VERY VERY IMPORTANT

http://www.whale.to/vaccine/moskowitz1.html

Childhood Ear Infections

by Moskowitz, M.D. (homeopath)

" With significant ear involvement, it is helpful to assure the parents that

antibiotic treatment is no more effective than placebo, [notes 8, 9, 10]

and that it produces more frequent relapses than giving symptomatic

treatment or simply allowing the children to recover on their own. [note

11] At that point it makes sense to offer homeopathic remedies, both as

needed for the acute episodes, and preventively, to minimize their number

and severity. "

" Based on Koch's postulates and their immense predictive power, the war on

bacteria is nevertheless unwinnable even in thought "

" The epidemic of chronic ear disease must be attributed to two colossal

public health blunders: the war on the nasopharyngeal bacteria, fought with

antibiotics, tubes, and the cultivation of fear; and the vaccination of

entire populations against a growing list of diseases with no end in sight,

and no strategy or inclination to consider the long-term consequences. " "

" It is just this congruence between the vaccine-related responses and the

original illness that suggests how vaccines act nonspecifically on the

immune system as a whole, and so implicates vaccination in the basic riddle

of chronicity itself. As new biotechnology companies produce new

genetically-engineered vaccines as fast as possible, the unrestricted war

against identifiable acute diseases has already added to the pre-existing

chronic disease burden a considerable array of DNA and RNA fragments

looking for chromosomes to recombine with and certain to engender new

diseases of which as yet we know nothing. In short, I am afraid that

doctors, like politicians, are here to stay. "

Adapted from a lecture presented at the 150th Anniversary of the foundation

of the American Institute of Homeopathy, St. Moritz Hotel, New York, April

9, 1994, and published in the Journal of the American Institute of

Homeopathy 87:137, Autumn 1994.

Otitis media has become the commonest pediatric diagnosis made by

physicians who care for children in the United States, [note 1] with an

annual budget topping $2 billion in 1982, [note 2] and no relief in sight.

After decades of punishing warfare against the nasopharyngeal bacteria,

several medical journal articles have recently begun to question the safety

and effective-ness of antibiotics and tympanostomy and the wisdom of

continuing the purely military strategy based on them. [notes 3, 4, 5]

The present impasse creates the opportunity and the obligation for anyone

with a better idea to share it with the medical community and the general

public. Nobody need take my word for it that homeopathic remedies are

inexpensive, nontoxic, and effective even in advanced cases, or that

parents, children, and their caregivers deeply appreciate the non-invasive

philosophy governing their use. I will feel generously rewarded if more

laypeople and professionals will only try them and see for them-selves.

The following cases of childhood ear infections are intended to show how

the homeopathic viewpoint can assist both clinically, in the diagnosis and

treatment of these all-too-common ailments, and in the design of

ex-perimental research into the causal factors that promote and influence

them.

The cases that I have chosen are noteworthy not for any particular skill in

choosing the correct medicine, but in precisely the opposite sense, that

excellent results are regularly attainable with common remedies and

case-taking methods already well known to the serious student. Indeed, the

exemplary success of homeopathic remedies in treating such children is

itself an important clue to the mystery of pediatric otitis media in our time.

Case 1. C. Z., a girl of 3, had had recurrent ear infections since the age

of 5 or 6 months, typically associated with colds and the production of

thick, green mucus, and requiring antibiotics more or less continuously for

several months at a time. With no fever and at most a slight earache, she

often became irritable and cranky as the cold ended, when the pediatrician

often made the diagnosis by otoscope. Apart from mild eczema, the child was

seldom ill other-wise, and rarely had the fevers or acute illnesses to be

expected at her age. A strapping 8 lb. at birth, she fell short of 16 lb.

at 1 year and had remained small for her age. Teething was late, painful,

and difficult. She had had all the usual vaccines with no acute reaction.

I chose Calcarea Sulph.. 200, and two months later her mother reported the

best winter ever, with no ear infections and two light colds that were

quickly aborted with Calc. Sulph. 12C. I next saw her a year later, several

weeks after an acute episode of wheezing in the middle of a cold, for which

Pulsatilla 30X prescribed over the phone had worked splendidly. But though

she had been free of ear infections in all that time, she had had a fever

or two and was still plagued by quantities of thick greenish-yellow phlegm

in her nose and throat. After one dose of Sulphur 200, she never came back.

When I called recently, over five years later, in preparation for this

talk, her mother told me that she had had no more ear infections, and there

was no need to bring her back, since her general health had remained good,

and the usual first-aid remedies had been very effective for the usual

colds, fevers, and URI's that had developed along the way.

I want to add a few comments about this rather typical case. First, as I

reread it now, I doubt that either Calc. Sulph. or Sulphur was the best

remedy for this patient, since she was on the chilly side, and even after

treatment she continued to produce thick green phlegm and be subject to

rather frequent colds. I can't really defend or explain either prescription

at this point. Yet her mother was more than satisfied. The ear infections

disappeared and never came back, the long-term or constitutional issues

stayed in the background, and the remedies she herself came up with

continued to help without further assistance.

Notwithstanding the small remedies and " cured " cases that we like to parade

at our conferences, I must admit that the bulk of my reputation is built on

stories as generic and unspectacular as this one. I feel deeply grateful to

a method that adds feathers to my cap even when I bumble or fall short.

Second, my experience confirms numerous reports in the European literature

that most kids eventually outgrow their ear infections anyway, if simply

allowed to do so without further allopathic interference. [note 6]

Case 2. K. G.-S., a boy of 16 months, had already had five ear infections

and five rounds of antibiotics when I first saw him. Only the first episode

at six months was associated with fever (102.8° F.) and acute earache,

which subsided promptly once the eardrum had perforated and discharged the

pus that had accumulated behind it. Although weighing 7 lb. and appearing

normal and healthy at birth, he was slow to nurse, fell behind in his gross

motor development, had considerable discomfort with teething, and weighed

only 20 lb. by the time I first saw him. His only other complaint was a

chronic diarrhea that began on antibiotic treatment and had never gone

away. Despite intense, prolonged crying after the first and second DPT's,

the third was uneventful, as was the MMR.

One month after Sulphur 10M, his mother reported that the diarrhea had

worsened, becoming acute the first week after the remedy, but that, ever

since a fever of 103° F. on the third day, his highest so far, he had had

no symptoms of a cold or ear infection at all. Because of the diarrhea, I

gave him Calc. Carb. 10M, and by the next visit, two months later, he was

well, and had made good pro-gress developmentally, with no ear infections,

one brief cold for which Calc. Sulph. 12C worked well, and no more diarrhea.

I did not see him again for more than a year, four months after an episode

of acute otitis with no earache but a fever of 103°F. that had lasted a

full week on antibiotics. Apart from a few colds and a reappearance of

diarrhea at these times, he had had no more ear infections and was

continuing to grow and develop normally. Repeating Sulphur 10M, I had no

further news of him until I asked my receptionist to call recently, more

than five years later, and learned that he had been healthy, had had no ear

infections, and needed no antibiotics throughout that time. After buying a

remedy kit and studying on her own, the mother had found Belladonna to be

highly effective for his various colds and acute illnesses, and no longer

needed my help.

Once again, not for any elegant prescribing on my part, much less from any

notion that the child was " cured, " I treasure cases like this one,because

our work together helped the mother to take charge of her son's health, and

to perform competently in that role. When my own learned prescriptions

fail, as they not seldom do, I have good reason to feel proud when the

parents themselves find the remedies that work best for their child.

Perhaps the most precious gift that homeopaths can offer is our

relationships with our patients, which can continue to grow and flourish

even when the search for the ideal remedy proves elusive.

Case 3. J. L., a girl of 6, had had frequent ear infections since the age

of five months, especially when exposed to other kids in crowded day care

or classroom settings. With little fever and no earache, the acute episodes

were typically mild, with red cheeks, loss of appetite, and grumpy or

irritable behavior. Also vulnerable to staying up late and to sudden

changes of weather, she seldom ran fevers of any degree, the highest being

around 102°F. with a " Strep throat, " but she had already taken antibiotics

over two dozen times. Although vaccinated at the usual times without any

obvious reaction, she developed an ear infection soon after her last DPT

shot that had lasted for four months despite continuous antibiotics, and

had subsided only after chiropractic treatment.

Soon after Sulphur10M, she developed a generalized rash that lasted several

days, followed by a buoyant mood and more lively energy than she had shown

in a long time. At her first follow-up, she had a cold, with the usual red

cheeks, runny eye, temporary hearing loss, and the dreaded positive Strep

culture. It required a considerable leap of faith for her mother to let

this tiny cold run its course without antibiotics, using only Pulsatilla

30X as needed, and later buying a kit of remedies and a book to show her

how to use them. Two months later, her pediatrician was happy to report and

even take credit for the fact that her ears were uninfected for the first

time that anyone could remember.

The following winter she returned with mild symptoms, a low fever, and a

weakly positive Strep culture. As the illness subsided, I repeated Sulphur

10M, and by her next visit two months later the picture had changed to

recurrent sore throats, foul breath, enlarged tonsils, dark circles under

the eyes, and a loose, productive cough. This time I gave her Mercurius 1M,

followed by the 10M a month later, with excellent results until her next

cold many months later, when she developed the same swollen tonsils and

loose cough as before. After the third dose of Sulphur 10M, I lost track of

her for a few years, but the mother eventually called to report that she

had been well the whole time, with no major colds and no ear infections,

and a perfect attendance record at school for the year just finished. A few

months ago, I called to check up and learned that she was doing splendidly

in high school, with no more ear infections in the nine years since she had

begun using remedies.

********

" Equating fluid behind the drum with infection requiring treatment ignores

what all pediatricians know, that URI's with swelling of the tonsils and

adenoids produce congestion of the middle ear and temporary hearing loss as

a result. Decades of warfare against the nasopharyngeal bacteria have

culminated in a Vietnam-like strategy of killing everything in the vicinity. "

********

Again leaving aside my rather crude prescribing in this case, I want to

point out a few of the methodological issues it poses, issues so obvious

and fundamental as to be easily overlooked. First, equating fluid behind

the eardrum with an ear infection requiring antibiotic treatment ignores

what every pediatrician knows, that most colds or URI's with swelling of

the tonsils or adenoids produce secondary congestion of the middle ear and

temporary hearing loss as a result. The girl in this case was prone mainly

to tonsillitis, and could be said to have ear infections only to the extent

that pneumatic otoscopes can detect even minute amounts of fluid, and that

years of deadly warfare against the nasopharyngeal bacteria have culminated

in a Vietnam-like strategy of killing every living thing in the vicinity.

Second, her longest period of ear involvement followed a DPT shot, a

connection that I have often verified in practice, but is rarely sus-pected

by pediatricians, because vaccines are regarded as sacrosanct and almost

risk-free, except for negligibly rare acute reactions developing within the

first hours or days. [note 7]

Third, like most of my chronic otitis patients, this child seldom ran

fevers during the time she received conventional treatment, and began to do

so only as her general condition improved. Useful both for reassuring the

family and for making a simple prognosis, this humble fact carries a

profound implication for the natural history of the disease and its recent

evolution.

Case 4. L. P., a girl of ten months, had already had four acute ear

infections and received antibiotics for each one. The first began at two

months, when her mother weaned her to go back to work, and the child

developed a rash and unusually cranky behavior on a milk-based formula.

These symptoms were also intensified for the week following her first DPT

shot. A few weeks after that, the ear infection developed suddenly, with

high fever and violent earache, like all the others. With the help of

Calcarea Carb. 1M initially and Chamomilla 30X as needed acutely, she did

quite well, with fewer colds and no acute episodes, but mild symptoms

persisted and were aggravated by teething, when the remedies had to be

repeated. She relapsed the following spring, six months later, with three

acute ear infections and three rounds of antibiotics in the three months

since her father had insisted on her long-overdue MMR shot.

At this point I gave Lycopodium 10M, Sulphur 10M a month later, and almost

a third remedy after that, but I heard that the parents had separated and

were vying angrily over the child. From then on, she did very well on

infrequent doses of Sulphur, despite a violent gastroenteritis following a

DT-polio booster, and a tendency to relapse when she stayed with her

father, who let her eat her fill of dairy products and took her to the

doctor for her regular quota of vaccines and antibiotics. I have continued

to see this child at long intervals for more than nine years, and although

she has long since outgrown her ear infections, her underlying health

issues have not changed very much. Since the acute, vigor-ous responses of

her infancy, her basically strong constitution and maturing immune system

have enabled her to bounce back more quickly when she does fall ill. While

very fond of milk and cheese and somewhat allergic to them as well, she

continues to grow and develop normally in the face of her conflicted

heritage that she can as yet neither understand nor change.

In short, this is a child of strong vitality, representing the opposite

side of the same issues already discussed: 1) an innate ability to respond

acutely and vigorously, and rebound quickly from illness; 2) a tendency to

relapse following vaccination (and milk allergy, often associated with it);

and 3) the classic signs and symptoms of acute otitis media that were the

rule in the pre-vaccine era.

With these representative cases in mind, I will try to summarize my

experience with otitis media in children, giving special emphasis to the

practical issues of diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and long-term case

management. As with my allopathic colleagues, middle-ear infection is one

of the commonest presenting complaints of children in my practice. In an

average week I will triage several acute episodes over the phone, and see

at least one new and probably two or three established patients with

chronic or recurrent otitis that has been diagnosed and treated on a

long-term basis or repeatedly with antibiotics or tympanostomy or both.

What most of these patients have in common is the absence or paucity of

strong symptoms like high fever or violent earache that would indicate an

acute, vigorous response to their illness. With a few notable exceptions,

like the last case I presented, their symptoms even during acute flareups

are typically vague or nondescript in character, e. g., fussy or cranky

behavior, whining or picking at the ear, congestive hearing loss, poor

appetite, and the like. In quite a few cases, there are no symptoms

whatsoever, and the child behaves and functions normally, but at the

well-baby visit the pediatrician detects fluid in the ear, signs it off as

an " ear infection, " and begins or continues the cycle of antibiotics that

often proves so difficult to break.

********

" The most striking and disturbing feature of these cases is precisely their

chronicity, their tendency to develop smoldering or persistent responses to

illness and to relapse more and more easily, resulting in a failure to heal

or resolve them in a clearcut or timely fashion. "

*********

Similarly, although the symptoms often recede during treatment, relapse is

common, and even when the child appears clinically well, the presence of

fluid is regularly interpreted as continuing infection and cited as a

mandate for further treatment. In this way, a child who may never have been

that sick never gets entirely well, and continues to relapse until the

doctor recommends antibiotics for months at a time and later surgical

drainage as well, if the condition persists despite these lesser measures,

as indeed it often does. In short, the most striking and dis-turbing

feature of these cases is precisely their chronicity, their tendency to

develop smoldering or persistent responses to illness and to relapse more

and more easily, resulting in a failure to heal or resolve them in a

clearcut or timely fashion.

Breaking this cycle of chronicity proves quite easy if parents and

caregivers can suspend the conventional wisodm that reduces the art of

diagnosis to the specialized detection of abnormalities and the goal of

treatment to the killing of our resident bacteria. As much as finding the

correct remedy, the critical requirement for success in treating these kids

is to re-educate the parents and develop an alternative model that works

and makes sense to everyone.

First, it is necessary to redefine the illness and how best to detect it,

beginning with basic anatomy and the clinical and pathological features of

a URI with ear involvement (congestion, earache, etc.), in contrast with

classic acute otitis media. In my own practice I emphasize the signs and

symptoms that parents themselves are aware of, i. e., how each child feels

and functions in his or her own special world, or what homeopaths like to

call the " totality of symptoms. " If they are willing to trust me thus far,

I'll take the next step and propose that we not look in the ear unless the

illness is acute and intense, or hasn't resolved after giving remedies, or

either of us is so panicked that we just have to know. Since any URI can

produce detectable fluid or congestion behind the eardrum, and the

homeopath does not need or even want to treat illness all the way to the

end, the totality of symptoms is what best defines the illness, and the

otoscope is useful primarily to confirm or qualify what the alert observer

already knows.

With significant ear involvement, it is helpful to assure the parents that

antibiotic treatment is no more effective than placebo, [notes 8, 9, 10]

and that it produces more frequent relapses than giving symptomatic

treatment or simply allowing the children to recover on their own. [note

11] At that point it makes sense to offer homeopathic remedies, both as

needed for the acute episodes, and preventively, to minimize their number

and severity.

Finally, it is imperative to take a careful vaccine history, and to look

for familial influences or other factors that may aggravate a pre-existing

chronic state, such as traumatic birth, food allergy, emotional upset, and

the like. Quite often, the first episode can be traced to the time of a

DPT, MMR, or other vaccine, even though no acute or obvious reaction was

noted at the time, [note 12] or an old pattern of chronic or recurrent

otitis is activated by a booster after a long period of remission. [note

13] Such apparent-ly speculative connections have also been verified by the

successful use of homeopathic " nosodes " prepared from the vaccines

themselves in re-solving difficult cases. [note 14] Drawing on these

experiences, I routinely ask parents not to vaccinate their children until

they are cured, and refer them to my various publications on the subject

for further study. While I have also seen chronic otitis in unvaccinated

kids, the crucial importance of vaccines lies in the fact that they are

compulsory for all and regarded as so uniformly safe and beneficial that

the possibility of chronic, long-term problems from them is seldom

investigated or taken seriously. [note 15]

With this educational work in progress, it is appropriate to proceed with

homeopathic remedies. Both the procedure that I follow and the remedies I

use are much the same as would be found in any homeopathic practice

involving children, and I see no need to elaborate on them here. If the

child is not acutely ill at the time of the first visit, I may begin with

one dose of the indicated constitutional remedy, or perhaps three weekly

doses. In addition, it is reassuring to give parents a strategy and a list

of remedies to have on hand for acute flare-ups, and to see the child or at

least coach the parents through these episodes with words of

encourage-ment, changing the remedy as needed. Often these acute remedies

will include the constitutional plus a few others that are complementary to

it.

Once remedies help them through this critical phase of the illness without

antibiotics, the rest of the treatment is likely to proceed very smoothly.

But if the child has never responded so acutely or intensely before, it is

useful to prepare the family for such an eventuality as the underlying

condition improves. By no means cause for discouragement, relapses many

months or even years later are much easier to treat, since precipitating

factors are usually much more obvious after a long period of good health,

and remedies that worked well before will most likely do so again, as the

children often know and will ask for it themselves. Indeed, this uncanny

clarification and ordering of cases over time is a major and predictable

benefit of successful treatment, and the awe and wonder it inspires in

doctor and patient alike are among our highest rewards.

*********

" In the 1960's, otitis media was an acute disease, with high fever and

pain, which subsided dramatically once the eardrum burst and discharged its

contents. It didn't last long, had often taken care of itself before we

could do anything about it, and was unlikely to come back for a long time.

It was just what I have come to recognize as a favorable sign when I see it

today. "

**********

What is mysterious and problematic about ear infections in children thus

lies not so much in their treatment, which is not particularly difficult

and involves many of the same remedies as for other chronic ailments, as in

the disturbing fact of that chronicity itself. As a medical student in the

early 1960's, I encountered otitis media promarily as an acute disease,

usually presenting in the Emergency Room with high fever and piercing

screams of pain, both of which subsided dramatically once the eardrum burst

and discharged its infected contents. While certainly not a pleasant

experience for doctor or patient, it didn't last very long, indeed had

often taken care of itself before we had a chance to do anything about it,

and was unlikely to come back for a long time to come. In every way it

close-ly resembles the kind of flare-up which, when I see it in a patient

today, I have learned to recognize as a favorable sign.

***********

" The epidemic of chronic ear disease must be attributed to two colossal

public health blunders: the war on the nasopharyngeal bacteria, fought with

antibiotics, tubes, and the cultivation of fear; and the vaccination of

entire populations against a growing list of diseases with no end in sight,

and no strategy or inclination to consider the long-term consequences. "

***********

After 1982, when I moved to Boston, stopped attending births, and limited

my practice to homeopathy, I began to see large numbers of the sort of

chronic otitis patient that I have just described. Why the sporadic acute

infections I knew in medical school had mushroomed into a chronic disease

of colossal proportions was also precisely the question with which I began

this article. Both my clinical experience and the research I have conducted

to try to make sense of it have strongly corroborated my " gut " feeling that

the modern epidemic of chronic ear disease must largely be attributed to

two colossal public health blunders that carry on the same outmoded

militaristic philosophy:

1) the war on the nasopharyngeal bacteria, fought with antibiotics,

tympanostomy tubes, and the systematic cultivation of fear; and

2) the vaccination of entire populations against a growing list of

diseases, with no end in sight, and no inclination or strategy to consider

the possible long-term consequences.

Based on Koch's postulates and their immense predictive power, the war on

bacteria is nevertheless unwinnable even in thought. As the most basic life

form on the planet, bacteria reproduce themselves in about six hours, and

through natural selection rapidly become resistant to even the most lethal

antibiotics. In clinical medicine, some major examples include

hospital-borne epidemics of resistant Staphylococci and E. coli, and the

emergence of infections with L-forms, Mycoplasma, and PPLO organisms, all

lacking cell walls, neat adaptations to penicillin-rich environments. In a

recent Newsweek cover story, the spread of resistant strains made U. S.

hospitals look like centers of germ warfare from which many types of

virulent organisms are disseminated into a general population more or less

helpless to stop them. [note 16]

In the case of childhood ear infections, resistant strains have been

similarly implicated in the weak primary immune responses and high relapse

rates associated with antibiotic treatment. [note 17] Other frequent com-

plications include superinfection with yeast and other common fungi, as

well as the food and environmental allergies that often accompany them.

Furthermore, numerous studies have shown that the supposedly causative

organisms isolated from children with chronic ear infetions are simply the

common pathogens of the tonsils and nasopharynx, such as the

" pneumococcus, " or Streptococcus pneumoniae, Group A ß-hemolytic

Streptococcus, Hemophilus influenzae type B, and Staphylococcus aureus, all

of which are regularly found in healthy throats as well. [note 18] In 25%

of children with acute otitis, and in 80% of those with the most prevalent

chronic serous variety, the middle-ear discharges and cultures are sterile

and contain no organisms whatsoever. [notes 19, 20] Once these resident

bacteria are destroyed, the result could have been foreseen by ordinary

common sense: chronic serous otitis, or " glue ear, " an important cause of

chronic and even permanent deafness. Thus even more destructive than these

antibacterial weapons themselves is the fanatical strategy of attacking and

killing that makes such imagery seem attractive.

A further application of the same approach has been the develop-ment of the

pneumatic otoscope, its tight seal permitting the detection of even minute

amounts of fluid and thus facilitating both early diagnosis and more minute

surveillance. Yet diagnosing more infection has only unleashed more of the

same firepower, and thus more of the same results already described.

Indeed, with tympanostomy the war against chronic otitis media has reached

its final dead end, since it looks like an obvious mechanical solution to

the problem, yet has itself recently been found to be a major cause of

otosclerosis and permanent hearing loss, the same spectre used to browbeat

reluctant parents into accepting it in the first place. [note 21] Still

more ironic is the fact that it simply makes permanent and structural the

natural perforation and drainage that the acutely infected ear heals so

well by itself and with so few complications.

In any case, it makes little sense to search out and destroy the friendly

bacteria that already live with us and police our bodies so effect-ively

most of the time, or to imagine that making war on them could ever produce

anything but more devastation, more war, and ultimately more resistant and

less friendly bacteria.

Although I have previously written about vaccinations in some detail,

relatively little of my experience with vaccine-related illness is of the

kind that Coulter and Barbara Fisher write about in A Shot in the

Dark, [note 22] or what might be termed the specific effects of a

particular vaccine. While these reactions are apt to be the most severe and

also the most useful in learning how to prescribe the nosodes that

correspond to them, most of the complications I have seen in my practice

have been limited to subtler reactions that I would describe as

non-specific in type. By that I mean that they resemble exacerbations of

the pre-existing chronic state, looking more or less the same in a given

individual, regard-less of which vaccine is given, and are benefited by the

same group of remedies are used to treat chronic illness in the general

population, vaccinated or not. Although such reactions are more difficult

to recognize and verify, they are also much more common, and I suspect much

more important as well.

***********

" Two of four cases suffered relapses of their chronic state after a

vaccine, one suffered identical relapses after two different vaccines, and

all four first developed their complaint during their initial series. In

none were their responses acute enough to be identified as symptoms of the

vaccine. What was repeatable was simply the chronicity of the responses. "

**********

Thus two of the four cases I presented suffered prolonged, severe relapses

of their chronic state after a vaccination, one patient suffered almost

identical relapses after two different vaccines, and all four first

developed their chief complaint during their initial three-dose vaccine

series. In no case were their responses acute or obvious enough to be

identified as a repeatable symptom of the vaccine. Indeed, all that was

repeatable in all cases and with all the vaccines was simply the chronicity

of the responses, the fact that they occurred more frequently, persisted

for longer periods of time, and were less likely to resolve spontaneously.

It is just this congruence between the vaccine-related responses and the