1:04pm CNN- Unofficial Transcript- Gupta

[Guest guest]

CNN Thursday March 6th, 2008

Graphic on bottom of screen says “Autism and Vaccines, the case of Hannah Poling”

Reporter: “One day your child is happy and healthy, the next he or she is in world of their own and you can’t get in. The heartbreaking dx: autism.”

Cut to press conference

Graphic says “Terry Poling, Hannah’s Mother”.

Terry: “I wanted to know WHY my daughter who had been completely normal until getting 9 vaccines in 1 day was suddenly no longer there. No longer verbal, no longer responding....”

Reporter: “When this happened to Hannah Poling her parents filed suit alleging a preservative in childhood vaccines caused her to develop autism like symptoms. Let’s go ahead now and bring in CNN Chief correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, a special court has decided that Hannah’s family deserves compensation, that they deserve monetary compensation. But what about this connection between vaccines and autism.”

Gupta: “Right that‘s sort of at the heart of this. To be fair, the language they use is that (stuttering his words) this is a concession. They conceded this case, as opposed to making a ruling for example saying that vaccines DO cause autism. They are not saying that necessarily. They are sorta conceding this case. I think an important point, from more of a legal standpoint, uh, what, I think it’s an interesting case. You have a, you have a girl, who 18 months old at the time, receives all these shots two days later, within 48 hrs, she starts to develop high fevers, incontrollable crying, within months she starts to regress, in terms of walking, in terms of speaking, and subsequently is dx with symptoms of autism spectrum disorder.

Now there are about 5000 cases right now in front of this vaccine’s court. This is one of them. And the court has said, you know what, there is enough here to sorta say we will, will pay some of the money, pay a claim, conceding the case.

Now one thing that is important to point out na, is that this girl subsequently has a, as they cared for her, they found that she has the gene for a mitochondrial disorder. Mitochondriala are these things within in the cells that sort of provide all the energy. And the question, the reason they brought this up was, was, the question, could the vaccine somehow worsen that condition, and, and led to these symptoms of autism spectrum.”

Reporter: “You said there are thousands of other suits, families who, at least to those families, appear to be in similar situations. So what does this mean for them?”

Gupta: “Well, you know I think, right now it doesn’t mean anything to them. I don’t think that people will say, look this will be a definitive case, it’s going to set the, the uh, landmark for, for all the rest of the cases. Uh, some people will say look, this little girl was different because she had the gene for this mitochondrial problem. And again, and we talked to the dept. of health and they are saying again, this is no way says that autism (stutters) that vaccines definitively cause autism.”

Reporter: “So, are there any different things you can look into to see if a child should receive a vaccine? For instance, you said that this girl had a gene for a mitochondrial disorder. Could you check for that?”

Gupta: “Right. Yah, you know, you can. You could do, you could do genetic testing on all children before you give them vaccines. There are a couple of problems with that. First of all, it would be a lot of testing. Number one. Number two, is we still don’t know exactly what it is that we’re testing for. We’re not sure, that, that there is an actual link here. And we’re not sure there’s a link with other genetic disorders. You know, so if a child is completely healthy, but carries a gene for something, does that automatically exclude them from receiving vaccinations? I think most doctors will say no. And they will point to the idea that vaccines still, you know, prevent a lot of diseases. So, you know, let’s not jump the gun here.

But, you know, her father came out, who is a neurologist and said, I think that this is an, an important case, a landmark case, because he thinks it may pave the road for, for a lot of other cases.”

Reporter: “And you have so many families who suspect that vaccinations have played a roll. So, certainly, at the very least, this is going to add a lot of fuel to the fire there.”

Gupta: “Ya, you know, and, I think it’s worth pointing out that, she is 9 years old now. So when she received these vaccines, it was 7 1/2 years ago, with thimerosal, the substance you that mentioned, a mercury preservative was still in vaccines. It is not in most childhood vaccinations today. So, that, that, is something to, to think about, (stuttering). Although, no one is saying for sure that thimerosal causes autism either.”

Reporter: “Still questions, of course, Chief Medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta. Thank you very much.” Then she mentioned Larry King’s Show.

- Heeren