The Vaccine Trigger Gets To Court (USNews&WorldReport)

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http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/brain-and-behavior/2008/04/10/fighting-the-autism-vaccine-war.html

The Vaccine Trigger Gets To Court

U.S. News & World Report

Fighting the Autism-Vaccine War

April 10, 2008

By Bernadine Healy M.D.

One of the most vitriolic debates in medical history is just

beginning to have its day in court­vaccine court, that is. Without laying

blame, the independent Office of Special Masters of the Court of Federal

Claims­with a 20-year record of handling vaccine matters­recently

conceded that the brain damage and autistic behavior of Hannah Poling

stemmed from her exposure as a toddler to five vaccinations on one day in

July 2000. Two days later, she was overtaken by a high fever and an

encephalopathy that deteriorated into autistic behavior. Even though

autism has a strong genetic basis, and she has a coexisting rare

mitochondrial disorder, I would not be too quick to dismiss Hannah as an

anomaly. As a trigger, vaccines carry a ring of historical and biological

plausibility.

At some level, the decision was a vindication for families who have been

battling with the vaccine community, arguing that some poorly understood

reaction to components of vaccines or their mercury-based preservative,

thimerosal, could cause brain injury. Yes, vaccines are extraordinarily

safe and bring huge public health benefit. (Remember the 1950s polio

epidemics?) But vaccine experts tend to look at the population as a

whole, not at individual patients. And population studies are not

granular enough to detect individual metabolic, genetic, or immunological

variation that might make some children under certain circumstances

susceptible to neurological complications after vaccination.

A trigger? Families are not alone in searching for a trigger that

might explain why autism and autism spectrum disorders have skyrocketed;

now they reportedly affect about 1 in 150 kids. No doubt some of the

increase is soft, due to broader diagnostic criteria, greater awareness,

and­now that the notion of a detached " refrigerator " mom as a

cause has blessedly fallen by the wayside­greater openness. But the rise

of this disorder, which shows up before age 3, happens to coincide with

the increased number and type of vaccine shots in the first few years of

life. So as a trigger, vaccines carry a ring of both historical and

biological plausibility.

Go back 40 or 50 years. The medical literature is replete with reports of

neurological reactions to vaccines, such as mood changes, seizures, brain

inflammation, and swelling. Several hundred cases of the paralytic

illness Guillain-Barré after the swine flu vaccine were blamed on the

government and gave Gerald Ford heartburn­but eventually led to the

vaccine court.

Pediatricians were concerned enough about mercury, which is known to

cause neurological damage in developing infant and fetal brains, that

they mobilized to have thimerosal removed from childhood vaccines by

2002. Their concern was not autism but the lunacy of injecting mercury

into little kids through mandated vaccines that together exceeded mercury

safety guidelines designed for adults. But as in all things vaccine, this

move too was contentious. Both the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention and the World Health Organization remain unconvinced that

thimerosal puts young children at risk.

There is no evidence that removal of thimerosal from vaccines has lowered

autism rates. But autism numbers are not precise, so I would say that

considerably more research is still needed on some provocative findings.

After all, thimerosal crosses the placenta, and pregnant women are

advised to get flu shots, which often contain it. Studies in mice suggest

that genetic variation influences brain sensitivity to the toxic effects

of mercury. And a primate study designed to mimic vaccination in infants

reported in 2005 that thimerosal may clear from the blood in a matter of

days but leaves inorganic mercury behind in the brain.

The debate roils on­even about research. The Institute of Medicine in its

last report on vaccines and autism in 2004 said that more research on the

vaccine question is counterproductive: Finding a susceptibility to this

risk in some infants would call into question the universal vaccination

strategy that is a bedrock of immunization programs and could lead to

widespread rejection of vaccines. The IOM concluded that efforts to find

a link between vaccines and autism " must be balanced against the

broader benefit of the current vaccine program for all

children. "

Wow. Medicine has moved ahead only because doctors, researchers, and yes,

families, have openly challenged even the most sacred medical dogma. At

the risk of incurring the wrath of some of my dearest colleagues, I say

thank goodness for the vaccine court.

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian

Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales

UK

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