FW: The Age of Autism: Pox -- Part 1

[Guest guest]

This is so interesting. I had Chicken Pox at age 21, 9 years before

Abbey was born. Abbey had Chicken pox 2X by age 5. Obviously not

getting immune the first time and obviously not requiring the

immunization.

What do you all think of this report?

Lynn

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Tuesday, April 18, 2006 Vol. 10 No. 66

" Healing Autism:

No Finer a Cause on the Planet "

PUBLIC HEALTH

.. The Age of Autism: Pox -- Part 1

.. Analysis: Vaccines Need Shot in Arm

CARE

.. A Lapse in Vigilance and a Lesson in Instinct

ACTION ALERT!

.. Support the (Revised) Combating Autism Act!

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PUBLIC HEALTH

The Age of Autism: Pox -- Part 1

By Dan Olmsted for UPI

http://tinyurl.com/qhcet

Children in families with problematic reactions to chickenpox

virus may be at risk for developing autism if they get that live-virus

immunization too close to other live-virus vaccines, a three-month

United Press International investigation of cases in one northwest U.S.

city suggests.

Several such families in the Washington state capital of Olympia

watched their children regress into full-syndrome autism -- losing

language and social skills and adopting repetitive behaviors -- in the

months following the shots. Two children had participated in small

clinical trials in Olympia of investigational Merck & Co. chickenpox

vaccines in combination with the live-virus mumps-measles-rubella

vaccine -- the MMR.

Federal health authorities consistently have rejected concerns

about a link between immunizations and autism. But a family background

of problems coping with viruses used in live-virus vaccines has not been

considered a possible risk factor, experts said.

One of the children in the clinical trials, Jimmy Flinton, now 4,

got about 10 times the standard dose of chickenpox vaccine in a shot

that also contained the standard MMR.

Called ProQuad, that combined immunization was approved by the

U.S. Food and Drug Administration last September -- the first time four

" attenuated " or weakened live viruses have been mixed together in a

single shot.

The second child, Baltzley, now 6, got an investigational

" process upgrade " chickenpox shot and a separate MMR shot at the same

office visit.

Both children have a parent who had unusual reactions to

chickenpox virus.

Four days after the MMR and chickenpox injections he became ill

with a fever and lay limp in his mother's arms for the first time in his

life.

's Baltzley's mother, , had chickenpox three times,

the last at age 16, just three years before he was born. Jimmy Flinton's

father, , had shingles as a teenager. Shingles is reactivated

chickenpox virus that painfully inflames nerves and mostly affects older

people or those with weakened immune systems.

Both children got the vaccines at 12 months, the age at which

chickenpox and MMR immunizations are first recommended by the Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention. They were among a total of 101

subjects in the two trials in Olympia, according to the Western

Institutional Review Board, which approved the trial protocols.

Half-a-dozen other parents of preschool-age autistic children from

the same neighborhood in Olympia recognized a common thread: unusual

chickenpox histories in their families and simultaneous or closely timed

chickenpox and MMR shots in their children.

" It's the proximity of the chickenpox and MMR vaccinations " and

the family histories that stand out, said Rohrbeck, mother of

3-year-old Grant.

Rohrbeck has not been able to develop immunity to chickenpox

despite being twice vaccinated as an adult, the last time just two years

before her son was born. A couple of months before he got the standard

chickenpox and MMR shots at the same office visit at age 1, Grant had a

stubborn and severe case of roseola, which like chickenpox is a

herpesvirus.

Four days after the MMR and chickenpox injections he became ill

with a fever and lay limp in his mother's arms for the first time in his

life.

" He began having chronic diarrhea, and by his 15-month checkup he

had regressed so drastically that his pediatrician suggested he could be

autistic, " Rohrback recalled. The doctor agreed to the parents' request

for an immediate neurodevelopmental evaluation, which resulted in a

diagnosis of full-syndrome autism.

Rohbeck said she began looking for a possible connection between

vaccines and autism among neighborhood children after the Thurston

County Health Department did not follow up on parents' concerns raised

at a meeting last October. With the parents' continued involvement, she

has now compiled vaccination records of 14 Olympia children diagnosed

with autism, as well as 16 who are not.

The admittedly unscientific chickenpox-MMR association continues

to be striking, and the two cases following the clinical trials seemed

to underscore it, she said.

A Merck spokeswoman said the company reported those two cases to

the FDA this March -- the same month UPI asked Merck about them.

" We just received these reports in March 2006, six months after

ProQuad was approved in the U.S., and they were sent to the FDA after we

received them, " Merck's Fanelle said in a statement. She said

Merck received " the two reports of autism AEs from Olympia -- one from

the parent of a child in the ProQuad trial and one from the parent of a

child in (the 'process upgrade' chickenpox) study. "

Parents Flinton and Baltzley say they never

called Merck and wouldn't know who to contact there; last summer,

Flinton reported Jimmy's autism to the federal government's

Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, attributing it to the

cumulative effects of vaccination. The federal health employee she spoke

to on the phone said she would follow up by gathering lot numbers and

other information on the vaccines.

The parents said their pediatrician, who conducted both of the

Merck-funded trials in Olympia, knew about their children's autism

diagnoses within months of their participation in January 2001 and

October 2002.

The Olympia trials were part of wider Merck studies conducted at

several sites in the United States and abroad. Fanelle said Merck would

not disclose information about any other reports of autism.

" We have confirmed your original inquiry on whether we received

the two reports out of Olympia, " she said. " We are not going to comment

on reports beyond this.

" There were more than 7,000 children in our ProQuad trials, 5,800

of whom received ProQuad vaccine, " she added.

Sparby of the Western Institutional Review Board in Olympia

said it had not received reports of autism from the local ProQuad study,

but she noted the protocol " was not designed to assess long-term safety,

as it called for follow-up for only 42 days following vaccine

administration. "

The FDA, which approves drugs after determining they are safe and

effective and monitors reports of side effects after they come on the

market, did not respond to repeated inquiries from UPI about the Olympia

cases or parents' concerns about family chickenpox histories.

Other unusual histories in neighborhood families with autistic

children 6 and under:

-- Another child had roseola 12 weeks before getting his

chickenpox and MMR shots;

-- Another father had shingles as a teenager;

-- Another mother had chickenpox as an adult two years before her

pregnancy; -- A mother had chronic cold sores, also a herpesvirus,

as a child that were so severe they had to be treated medically;

In addition, another mother had a case of measles as an adult.

Merck, which manufactures the standard MMR shot and the standalone

Varivax chickenpox shot as well as the experimental vaccines used in the

clinical trials, said repeated studies show no relation between vaccines

and autism.

" We don't see an association, " spokeswoman Fanelle said, citing as

confirmation a 2004 report by the widely respected Institute of

Medicine, part of the National Academies. That report rejected a link

between autism and either the MMR vaccine or the mercury-based

preservative thimerosal. The report also urged that research dollars be

spent on " more promising " autism research.

" There will always be some people who say vaccines cause autism

despite the lack of scientific evidence, " Fanelle said.

In the United States, controversy over a possible link has

centered on thimerosal. Beginning in the late 1980s children were

exposed to increasing amounts of thimerosal, which is half ethyl

mercury, as more vaccines were mandated.

Thimerosal was phased out of routine childhood immunizations --

but not all flu shots given to children and pregnant women -- beginning

in 1999. Although the Olympia children with autism were born after the

phase-out was recommended, their vaccine records show more than half of

them got at least one shot containing thimerosal during the first year

of life. It is possible all of them did, but incomplete information from

manufacturers makes that uncertain.

Chickenpox and MMR immunizations don't contain thimerosal because

the mercury would inactivate the viruses, but some proponents of a

vaccine-autism link suspect thimerosal exposure from other immunizations

could have a potentiating effect, damaging a child's defenses and paving

the way for live viruses to wreck havoc.

" I'll defend doctors to the end on this point. They are a

convenient front line for those agencies to hide behind -- it's just

shameful. "

All live-virus vaccines are attenuated -- significantly weakened

based on the theory that this creates immunity without causing the

actual disease or other adverse health consequences. Other vaccines on

the U.S. childhood immunization schedule, including hepatitis B and the

polio shot, contain killed or so-called inactivated viruses. Live polio

virus was dropped in 2000 after health authorities determined it was

actually causing polio in a small number of cases.

Despite the Olympia parents' concern, none points an accusing

finger at doctors.

" I worry about pediatricians being vilified, " said Rohrbeck. " We

vaccinated our son because we shared their faith that vaccines were

safe.

" If it turns out that some vaccines are not safe for all children

and that these hazards could have been found with more rigorous testing

-- or worse, that the dangers were already known -- that's the fault of

the CDC, the FDA and the manufacturers, " she said.

" I'll defend doctors to the end on this point. They are a

convenient front line for those agencies to hide behind -- it's just

shameful. "

The theory that live virus immunizations could trigger autism

first arose in 1998 in Britain, when gastroenterologist Dr.

Wakefield published a paper suggesting a possible association between

childhood MMR immunization, bowel disease and regressive autism.

" It's actually heartbreaking, listening to these parents, because

you're staring into an abyss, " Wakefield said.

The premise: Interaction between viruses -- a well-known

phenomenon scientifically known as immune interference -- could depress

a susceptible child's immune system, lead to persistent infection by the

measles virus in the GI tract and possibly the nervous system itself,

and trigger autism-inducing brain damage. While the case has not been

proven, it gains plausibility from the fact that naturally occurring

measles infection is known to cause delayed brain damage in a small

percentage of children, proponents of the theory say.

Wakefield's study, and his plea in Britain to separate the

component measles, mumps and rubella (German measles) vaccines and

administer them a year apart to reduce possible risk, caused an uproar.

Co-authors subsequently repudiated part of the paper,

conflict-of-interest allegations emerged, and the prestigious Lancet,

which originally published the study, issued a statement calling it

" fatally flawed. "

Wakefield was asked to leave his medical job in Britain and is now

doing research in Austin, Texas.

After the Olympia cases were described to him by UPI in March,

Wakefield met with several of those parents at an autism conference in

Portland, Ore. He also read studies Merck cites as central to the FDA

approval of ProQuad.

" It's actually heartbreaking, listening to these parents, because

you're staring into an abyss, " Wakefield said afterwards. " You're

listening to stories which reflect the fundamental misconception of

vaccine manufacturers of what viruses are and what they do. The whole

perception of these people is dangerously na?ve. "

In contrast to the United States, British health authorities have

not recommended chickenpox immunization. But an MMR-chickenpox shot was

under discussion there at one point, and Wakefield said he warned its

developers that putting four live viruses in one shot was a bad idea.

He says the Olympia cases show why.

" As far as I'm concerned, you are further increasing the

likelihood of persistent infection and delayed disease, which they are

never looking for and therefore they will never find if it does occur,

as it did clearly in a relatively short space of time with some of these

children, and it's never ascribed to an adverse reaction to the

vaccine. "

On its Web site, the CDC says such concerns -- and Wakefield's

studies in particular -- are not based on good science.

" Current scientific evidence does not support the hypothesis that

MMR vaccine, or any combination of vaccines, causes the development of

autism, including regressive forms of autism, " the CDC says.

" The existing studies that suggest a causal relationship between

MMR vaccine and autism have generated media attention. However, these

studies have significant weaknesses and are far outweighed by

epidemiological studies ... that have consistently failed to show a

causal relationship between MMR vaccine and autism. "

http://www.cdc.gov/nip/vacsafe/concerns/autism/autism-mmr.htm

Dr. Jeff Bradstreet, a family practitioner in Florida who treats

3,000 autistic children and has worked with Wakefield, said he believes

the risk of autism rises the earlier and closertogether that live-virus

vaccines are administered. He warned the Institute of Medicine in 2004

that it was ignoring the possibility that younger children are more

vulnerable because their immune and neurological systems are immature.

" There's definitely been an association of kids getting MMR at 12

months and crashing (becoming autistic), " Bradstreet said.

He said adding 10 times the standard dose of chickenpox virus,

called varicella-zoster, to the MMR shot and administering it to

1-year-olds is playing with fire.

" We think putting varicella with MMR is just nuts. "

British researcher Shattock sees another reason to be

concerned with combining the four viruses: He suspects that children who

get wild -- or naturally occurring -- chickenpox too close in time to

the MMR shot face a higher risk for autism. That's scenario parallels

the one Olympia parents noticed with the chickenpox vaccination.

Shattock, director of the Autism Research Unit in the School of

Sciences at the University of Sunderland, said he noticed that autistic

British children whose parents blame the MMR for triggering the disorder

had a pattern of " undisclosed viral illness " around the time of the

shot.

He studied the records of 100 of those children, compared to 100

children whose parents did not cite the MMR as the trigger, to see if

there was a higher incidence of chickenpox cases three months before or

after the MMR immunization.

" Now, there was, " Shattock said in an interview while attending an

autism conference this month in Washington, D.C. " It wasn't

statistically significant at the 95 percent level -- but enough to make

you think that if it was a huge study, it might be. "

" There's no doubt the immune response to viruses is determined by

our genetic constitution, " Wakefield said. " It may well be there is a

genetically determined predisposition to abnormal handling of chickenpox

virus, at least in children.

His concern about adding chickenpox to the MMR shot: " I'm worried

about it because of the interference of the vaccines, mainly because it

depresses the immune system by yet another mechanism. "

A Merck scientist discussed that issue at a CDC meeting in 2004,

the year before ProQuad was approved, according to agency minutes. Dr.

Florian Schodel " confirmed the possibility " that the chickenpox virus

component of ProQuad was " causing a local immune suppression and an

increase in measles virus replication. ...

" The current hypothesis is that the varicella and measles virus

are co-infecting the same or proximate areas of the body and engaging in

a specific interaction, but how that works is as yet unknown. "

He said the interference appeared to involve only the chickenpox

and measles viruses -- " there is no such effect for the mumps or rubella

vaccines administered locally at the same time. "

At the same meeting, Merck's Dr. Barbara Keller said the amount of

chickenpox virus in ProQuad is " about a log " -- or 10 times -- higher

than Merck's standalone chickenpox vaccine, Varivax, in order to

overcome immune interference.

Both Wakefield and Shattock said the Olympia families' unusual

histories with chickenpox are worrisome because their children might

have inherited problems coping with the vaccine.

" There's no doubt the immune response to viruses is determined by

our genetic constitution, " Wakefield said. " It may well be there is a

genetically determined predisposition to abnormal handling of chickenpox

virus, at least in children.

" This kind of phenomenon has been shown to (play a role in)

measles. The immune response to measles is determined by your genetic

profile. It's certainly consistent with what is known about the immune

response to viruses. "

ProQuad is likely to be widely adopted by healthcare professionals

who previously administered separate MMR and Varivax shots.

" Use of licensed combination vaccines, such as (ProQuad), is

preferred to separate injection of their equivalent component vaccines, "

says the new edition of the CDC's authoritative " Pink Book " on

vaccine-preventable diseases.

" When used, (the immunization) should be administered on or after

the first birthday, preferably as soon as the child becomes eligible for

vaccination. "

This series of articles, based on reporting in Olympia in February

and March, tells the families' stories, looks at the scientific

controversy and examines implications for the autism-vaccine debate.

-- Next: " He has gone backward mentally ... "

-- E-mail: dolmsted@...

.. . .

CARE

A Lapse in Vigilance and a Lesson in Instinct

By Annie Lubliner Lehmann http://tinyurl.com/juhp7

It would have been easy to ignore in other children, but when it

comes to Jonah, our autistic son, nothing is beyond scrutiny.

He was home on summer break from his residential school, and

though his appetite was good and his behavior typical, watery droplets

ran from his nose.

There were no other cold symptoms, just a slow dribble that

collected in the crease above his lips.

The school nurse had called the week before to report that Jonah,

who was almost 13 at the time, had taken a tumble, something he did more

often than most. He was a slip-and-fall kind of guy, seeing only what he

wanted, never the things that were in his way.

We'd had many rides to the emergency room and knew from experience

that any scans or X-rays would require general anesthesia

<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthto

pics/anesthesiaandanesthetics/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> , heavy

artillery for a routine test. Hoping to avoid a hospital ordeal, the

nurse agreed to follow Jonah closely for the next hours and days. She

phoned often, assuring me that Jonah was fine, " up to his old tricks. "

I believed her and besides, he'd be home in a few days. I would be

able to judge for myself.

Professionals stay away from treating their own, so I, not Jonah's

physician father, played sleuth to his assorted ailments.

I was the one who figured out that Jonah's sour breath equaled

strep throat, that quietude and overcompliance meant it was time to

start the Tylenol and that head-scratching could mean a headache or an

allergic skin rash.

I raised the possible connection between the mysterious drip and

his recent fall. My husband agreed: Jonah should be checked out.

His pediatrician is a rare clinician who listens without looking

at the clock and treats childhood illness with a one-two punch. But she

was away on vacation. I could wait for her to return or see her

associate.

I wanted answers to questions I should have asked sooner.

In the exam room, Jonah did his anxiety thing, being loud, chest

banging, flailing and grabbing at everything from a nurse's stethoscope

to the neatly stacked ear pieces for otoscopes.

Jonah does not tolerate waiting well, and by the time the doctor

knocked, the room was trashed. She'd never met Jonah before and her fake

cheeriness and forced smile did little to conceal her uneasiness.

I explained the situation - the fall, the residential school,

Jonah's autism

<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthto

pics/autism/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> and my sense that

something sinister might be going on.

Jonah has never been an easy patient to examine, and after a

standoffish peek up his nose, she reviewed his allergy sheet and asked

if he could swallow pills. She handed me a prescription for antibiotics

<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthto

pics/antibiotics/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> , though I kept

saying I thought he should be seen by a specialist.

" Let's wait and see how he does, " she said, adding that she hoped

first to rule out a sinus infection.

My gut told me he needed a consultation more than a prescription,

that I shouldn't wait. But instead of speaking up, I gave Jonah the

medication and endured 10 days of antibiotic

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PUBLIC HEALTH

Analysis: Vaccines Need Shot in Arm

By Olga Pierce http://tinyurl.com/z2eck

Public health experts are raising alarm about a growing vaccine

crisis where market forces are insufficient to ensure that needed

vaccines are developed and manufactured in sufficient quantities.

Experts blame the problem mainly on the fact that manufacturers are

shying away from making vaccines due to concerns over personal injury

lawsuits. However, they disagree on the best way to get companies back

in the vaccine business.

It was an incident from the 1950s involving a vaccine that first

gave rise to the concept of strict liability, or liability without

fault. Two lots of a defective polio vaccine sickened 220,000 people,

paralyzed 164 children and killed ten. The incident -- which came to be

known as the Cutter Incident after the company that manufactured the

faulty batch -- resulted in a man-made polio epidemic that was probably

the worst biological accident in the history of the United States,

Offitt, professor of vaccinology and pediatrics at the University of

Pennsylvania, said at a recent American Enterprise Institute forum.

Following the Cutter vaccine injuries, the Gottsdanker family

sued Cutter Laboratories and the jury found that the company was guilty

not of negligence, but of breech of implied warranty meaning the company

was liable, and owed the family $3 million.

The legal precedent of liability without fault led to a flood of

lawsuits in which juries awarded large sums of money to plaintiffs who

claimed that they were harmed by vaccines - sometimes justifiably,

sometimes standing on sketchy scientific ground, said Offit, author of

the book The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to

the Growing Vaccine Crisis.

But that rush of lawsuits has contributed to a growing crisis,

where vaccines for common sicknesses are often in short supply and those

for conditions like Lyme disease and pertussis are not available at all,

he said.

At its heart, the (Cutter) ruling was well-intended, Offitt said,

but in practice it didn't work out.

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diarrhea. There was no change in symptoms.

We saw Jonah's regular doctor when she returned and after

examining him she agreed that he should be evaluated by an ear, nose and

throat specialist for a possible cerebral spinal fluid leak. It didn't

take long to confirm, and after tests and more tests we were told

surgery was necessary. He had a hairline fracture of the skull that

needed to be sealed.

Jonah spent the next month in the hospital, and even once he

returned home we couldn't be certain that the surgery was successful.

But in the end, he healed. The crevice above his lips had finally

become dry enough to kiss.

While an earlier diagnosis would not have changed the outcome, it

is hard not to forgive missteps that could have easily been avoided.

But in this case, I backed off, perhaps to avoid having to listen to

what I was so afraid to hear. Buoyed by that admission, I have remained

a tigress ever since.

While I was angry at the doctor who shelved my request for a

referral, I was actually the one who was remiss.

I'd always been aggressive about medical matters, insisting on

getting what I believed Jonah needed.

Action

Alert!

<http://www.a-champ.org/images/a-champ_glove2.jpg>

<http://www.a-champ.org/combatingautismactrevisednew.html> For

Information on the Combating Autism Act Click Here

Support the (Revised) Combating Autism Act!*

Tell Congress to Enact this Bill! Take Action!*

*Note: We anticipate that the revised version of the Combating Autism

Act will be introduced in Congress in the near future. As of 4/17/06

this has not yet occurred. We are watching closely to see whether

members of Congress will honor their pledge to a group of autism

organizations that signed a Consensus Statement to introduce the revised

text of the bill on which the autism organizations agreed. A-CHAMP

supports the revised bill but does not support the original Combating

Autism Act. Please check this page and THIS PAGE

<http://www.a-champ.org/combatingautismactrevisednew.html> ,

http://www.a-champ.org/combatingautismactrevisednew.html , for updates

on the status of the Combating Autism Act.

We are experiencing an explosing in neurodevelopmental disorders,

including autism, among our children. Twenty years ago the incidence of

autism was approximately 3 or 4 cases in 10,000 children. Today around

60 children in 10,000 are diagnosed with autism, a fifteen fold

increase. Once considered rare, autism is one of the most common serious

chronic diseases afflicting our kids. It is an epidemic. A crisis. What

is being done about it? Not Much.

But now there is a bill pending in Congress that would require our

government to allocate substantial resources for research into the

causes of and the possible treatments for autism and other

neurodevelopmental disorders. The bill would provide significant funding

for autism research, including funding for the research of environmental

causes, and investigation of the effect of toxic agents, including

vaccines, on the immune, gastrointestinal, metabolic and endocrine

systems of our children.

The bill provides for significant oversight of the research and

funding process by parents and other members of the community.

The autism community has never been so unified and dedicated in

purpose to any legislative initiative as it is in supporting the

Combating Autism Act. Numerous autism groups worked hard last fall to

revise original proposals to hammer out a bill that all of us can

support.

<http://www.a-champ.org/combatingautismactrevisednew.html> Click here

to read why A-CHAMP now enthusiastically supports this bill, read a pdf

copy of the original and revised language of the bill, and to see an

analysis of the revisions to the bill.

For those of us who have a healthy skepticism about government

initiatives relating to the autism epidemic: the bill is not perfect but

does represent a big step forward and we should support it. Go to our

web site at <http://www.a-champ.org/combatingautismactrevisednew.html>

http://www.a-champ.org/combatingautismactrevisednew.html to read why.

Ask us questions; get answers and explanations; communicate with

us. If you examine this legislation for yourself we think you will join

with us to support the Combating Autism Act.

Take Action now and tell you representatives to support the

Combating Autism Act. Use our message or write one of your own.

Advocates for Children Affected By Mercury Poisoning

BE <http://www.a-champ.org/images/a-champ_glove2.jpg> FOR

OUR KIDS

www.a-champ.org <http://www.a-champ.org/>

http://www.a-champ.org/combatingautismactrevisednew.html

_____

Public Service Announcement to the Reader:

AUTISM IS TREATABLE. Consult these sources:

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http://www.autismwebsite.com/ari/index.htm

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[Guest guest]

I've always been curious. I've been diagnosed 3 times

w/ chicken pox, but I don't really know that I've ever

had them - I certainly never experienced the full

blown. The first time, my siblings had it, and I

supposedly had it in my respiratory tract - sinuses

and bronchial tubes. I don't know if it's true or not

but I was pretty sick for a long time. The next two

times were teens and early twenties with only about 10

lesions, which were checked by a doctor and told

'chicken pox' - and they were after exposure to it.

Really don't know if any of them were, but I've always

been mildly curious.

--- The Pukylos <puky@...> wrote:

> This is so interesting. I had Chicken Pox at age

> 21, 9 years before

> Abbey was born. Abbey had Chicken pox 2X by age 5.

> Obviously not

> getting immune the first time and obviously not

> requiring the

> immunization.

> What do you all think of this report?

> Lynn

>

>

> <http://www.sarnet.org/img/SARlogo1.gif>

>

> Tuesday, April 18, 2006

> Vol. 10 No. 66

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> " Healing Autism:

> No Finer a Cause on the Planet "

>

>

>

>

>

>

> PUBLIC HEALTH

> . The Age of Autism: Pox -- Part 1

> . Analysis: Vaccines Need Shot in Arm

>

>

> CARE

> . A Lapse in Vigilance and a Lesson in Instinct

>

> ACTION ALERT!

> . Support the (Revised) Combating Autism Act!

>

>

>

>

>

>

> PROMOTE YOUR SUMMER EVENT NOW - FREE

> DEADLINE FOR MAY SAR AUTISM CALENDAR IS

> April 25!

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> Submit listing here: www.sarnet.org/frm/cal-frm.htm

>

> Latest SAR Calendar 100s of Events!

> www.sarnet.org/events/

> PUBLIC HEALTH

>

> The Age of Autism: Pox -- Part 1

>

> By Dan Olmsted for UPI

> http://tinyurl.com/qhcet

>

> Children in families with problematic

> reactions to chickenpox

> virus may be at risk for developing autism if they

> get that live-virus

> immunization too close to other live-virus vaccines,

> a three-month

> United Press International investigation of cases in

> one northwest U.S.

> city suggests.

> Several such families in the Washington state

> capital of Olympia

> watched their children regress into full-syndrome

> autism -- losing

> language and social skills and adopting repetitive

> behaviors -- in the

> months following the shots. Two children had

> participated in small

> clinical trials in Olympia of investigational Merck

> & Co. chickenpox

> vaccines in combination with the live-virus

> mumps-measles-rubella

> vaccine -- the MMR.

> Federal health authorities consistently have

> rejected concerns

> about a link between immunizations and autism. But a

> family background

> of problems coping with viruses used in live-virus

> vaccines has not been

> considered a possible risk factor, experts said.

> One of the children in the clinical trials,

> Jimmy Flinton, now 4,

> got about 10 times the standard dose of chickenpox

> vaccine in a shot

> that also contained the standard MMR.

> Called ProQuad, that combined immunization was

> approved by the

> U.S. Food and Drug Administration last September --

> the first time four

> " attenuated " or weakened live viruses have been

> mixed together in a

> single shot.

> The second child, Baltzley, now 6, got

> an investigational

> " process upgrade " chickenpox shot and a separate MMR

> shot at the same

> office visit.

> Both children have a parent who had unusual

> reactions to

> chickenpox virus.

>

>

> Four days after the MMR and chickenpox

> injections he became ill

> with a fever and lay limp in his mother's arms for

> the first time in his

> life.

>

>

> 's Baltzley's mother, , had

> chickenpox three times,

> the last at age 16, just three years before he was

> born. Jimmy Flinton's

> father, , had shingles as a teenager. Shingles

> is reactivated

> chickenpox virus that painfully inflames nerves and

> mostly affects older

> people or those with weakened immune systems.

> Both children got the vaccines at 12 months,

> the age at which

> chickenpox and MMR immunizations are first

> recommended by the Centers

> for Disease Control and Prevention. They were among

> a total of 101

> subjects in the two trials in Olympia, according to

> the Western

> Institutional Review Board, which approved the trial

> protocols.

> Half-a-dozen other parents of preschool-age

> autistic children from

> the same neighborhood in Olympia recognized a common

> thread: unusual

> chickenpox histories in their families and

> simultaneous or closely timed

> chickenpox and MMR shots in their children.

> " It's the proximity of the chickenpox and MMR

> vaccinations " and

> the family histories that stand out, said

> Rohrbeck, mother of

> 3-year-old Grant.

> Rohrbeck has not been able to develop immunity

> to chickenpox

> despite being twice vaccinated as an adult, the last

> time just two years

> before her son was born. A couple of months before

> he got the standard

> chickenpox and MMR shots at the same office visit at

> age 1, Grant had a

> stubborn and severe case of roseola, which like

> chickenpox is a

> herpesvirus.

> Four days after the MMR and chickenpox

> injections he became ill

> with a fever and lay limp in his mother's arms for

> the first time in his

> life.

> " He began having chronic diarrhea, and by his

> 15-month checkup he

> had regressed so drastically that his pediatrician

> suggested he could be

> autistic, " Rohrback recalled. The doctor agreed to

> the parents' request

> for an immediate neurodevelopmental evaluation,

> which resulted in a

> diagnosis of full-syndrome autism.

> Rohbeck said she began looking for a possible

> connection between

> vaccines and autism among neighborhood children

> after the Thurston

> County Health Department did not follow up on

> parents' concerns raised

> at a meeting last October. With the parents'

> continued involvement, she

> has now compiled vaccination records of 14 Olympia

> children diagnosed

> with autism, as well as 16 who are not.

> The admittedly unscientific chickenpox-MMR

> association continues

> to be striking, and the two cases following the

> clinical trials seemed

> to underscore it, she said.

> A Merck spokeswoman said the company reported

> those two cases to

> the FDA this March -- the same month UPI asked Merck

> about them.

> " We just received these reports in March 2006,

> six months after

> ProQuad was approved in the U.S., and they were sent

> to the FDA after we

> received them, " Merck's Fanelle said in a

> statement.

=== message truncated ===

__________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

The trends of increased diagnosis do coincide with the introduction

of the chicken pox vaccine. And my son received 4 shots at one

visit, including this one. Had I known then what I know now he

would not have gotten it at all. And the chicken pox is just

another one of the herpes viruses. Glad to know though that some

research is being done.

>

> > This is so interesting. I had Chicken Pox at age

> > 21, 9 years before

> > Abbey was born. Abbey had Chicken pox 2X by age 5.

> > Obviously not

> > getting immune the first time and obviously not

> > requiring the

> > immunization.

> > What do you all think of this report?

> > Lynn

> >

> >

> > <http://www.sarnet.org/img/SARlogo1.gif>

> >

> > Tuesday, April 18, 2006

> > Vol. 10 No. 66

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > " Healing Autism:

> > No Finer a Cause on the Planet "

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > PUBLIC HEALTH

> > . The Age of Autism: Pox -- Part 1

> > . Analysis: Vaccines Need Shot in Arm

> >

> >

> > CARE

> > . A Lapse in Vigilance and a Lesson in Instinct

> >

> > ACTION ALERT!

> > . Support the (Revised) Combating Autism Act!

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > PROMOTE YOUR SUMMER EVENT NOW - FREE

> > DEADLINE FOR MAY SAR AUTISM CALENDAR IS

> > April 25!

> >

> >

> > Submit listing here: www.sarnet.org/frm/cal-frm.htm

> >

> > Latest SAR Calendar 100s of Events!

> > www.sarnet.org/events/

> > PUBLIC HEALTH

> >

> > The Age of Autism: Pox -- Part 1

> >

> > By Dan Olmsted for UPI

> > http://tinyurl.com/qhcet

> >

> > Children in families with problematic

> > reactions to chickenpox

> > virus may be at risk for developing autism if they

> > get that live-virus

> > immunization too close to other live-virus vaccines,

> > a three-month

> > United Press International investigation of cases in

> > one northwest U.S.

> > city suggests.

> > Several such families in the Washington state

> > capital of Olympia

> > watched their children regress into full-syndrome

> > autism -- losing

> > language and social skills and adopting repetitive

> > behaviors -- in the

> > months following the shots. Two children had

> > participated in small

> > clinical trials in Olympia of investigational Merck

> > & Co. chickenpox

> > vaccines in combination with the live-virus

> > mumps-measles-rubella

> > vaccine -- the MMR.

> > Federal health authorities consistently have

> > rejected concerns

> > about a link between immunizations and autism. But a

> > family background

> > of problems coping with viruses used in live-virus

> > vaccines has not been

> > considered a possible risk factor, experts said.

> > One of the children in the clinical trials,

> > Jimmy Flinton, now 4,

> > got about 10 times the standard dose of chickenpox

> > vaccine in a shot

> > that also contained the standard MMR.

> > Called ProQuad, that combined immunization was

> > approved by the

> > U.S. Food and Drug Administration last September --

> > the first time four

> > " attenuated " or weakened live viruses have been

> > mixed together in a

> > single shot.

> > The second child, Baltzley, now 6, got

> > an investigational

> > " process upgrade " chickenpox shot and a separate MMR

> > shot at the same

> > office visit.

> > Both children have a parent who had unusual

> > reactions to

> > chickenpox virus.

> >

> >

> > Four days after the MMR and chickenpox

> > injections he became ill

> > with a fever and lay limp in his mother's arms for

> > the first time in his

> > life.

> >

> >

> > 's Baltzley's mother, , had

> > chickenpox three times,

> > the last at age 16, just three years before he was

> > born. Jimmy Flinton's

> > father, , had shingles as a teenager. Shingles

> > is reactivated

> > chickenpox virus that painfully inflames nerves and

> > mostly affects older

> > people or those with weakened immune systems.

> > Both children got the vaccines at 12 months,

> > the age at which

> > chickenpox and MMR immunizations are first

> > recommended by the Centers

> > for Disease Control and Prevention. They were among

> > a total of 101

> > subjects in the two trials in Olympia, according to

> > the Western

> > Institutional Review Board, which approved the trial

> > protocols.

> > Half-a-dozen other parents of preschool-age

> > autistic children from

> > the same neighborhood in Olympia recognized a common

> > thread: unusual

> > chickenpox histories in their families and

> > simultaneous or closely timed

> > chickenpox and MMR shots in their children.

> > " It's the proximity of the chickenpox and MMR

> > vaccinations " and

> > the family histories that stand out, said

> > Rohrbeck, mother of

> > 3-year-old Grant.

> > Rohrbeck has not been able to develop immunity

> > to chickenpox

> > despite being twice vaccinated as an adult, the last

> > time just two years

> > before her son was born. A couple of months before

> > he got the standard

> > chickenpox and MMR shots at the same office visit at

> > age 1, Grant had a

> > stubborn and severe case of roseola, which like

> > chickenpox is a

> > herpesvirus.

> > Four days after the MMR and chickenpox

> > injections he became ill

> > with a fever and lay limp in his mother's arms for

> > the first time in his

> > life.

> > " He began having chronic diarrhea, and by his

> > 15-month checkup he

> > had regressed so drastically that his pediatrician

> > suggested he could be

> > autistic, " Rohrback recalled. The doctor agreed to

> > the parents' request

> > for an immediate neurodevelopmental evaluation,

> > which resulted in a

> > diagnosis of full-syndrome autism.

> > Rohbeck said she began looking for a possible

> > connection between

> > vaccines and autism among neighborhood children

> > after the Thurston

> > County Health Department did not follow up on

> > parents' concerns raised

> > at a meeting last October. With the parents'

> > continued involvement, she

> > has now compiled vaccination records of 14 Olympia

> > children diagnosed

> > with autism, as well as 16 who are not.

> > The admittedly unscientific chickenpox-MMR

> > association continues

> > to be striking, and the two cases following the

> > clinical trials seemed

> > to underscore it, she said.

> > A Merck spokeswoman said the company reported

> > those two cases to

> > the FDA this March -- the same month UPI asked Merck

> > about them.

> > " We just received these reports in March 2006,

> > six months after

> > ProQuad was approved in the U.S., and they were sent

> > to the FDA after we

> > received them, " Merck's Fanelle said in a

> > statement.

> === message truncated ===

>

>

> __________________________________________________

>