SchaferAutismReport: Vaccines Get New Scrutiny

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PUBLIC HEALTH

Vaccines Get New Scrutiny

A Parents' Guide to Managing Vaccinations

RESEARCH

A Government Call for Vaccine Research

Autism, Other Disorders Linked To Post-Natal Factors: Study

PEOPLE

Aides Testify About Concerns For Autistic Students

ADVOCACY

Important Hearing Monday In NY for Philosophical Exemption Rights

MEDIA

Defending Vaccines: Actress Dispels Link To Autism

COMMENTARY

A Message to Autism Speaks' Singer and Shih: ENOUGH ALREADY!

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PUBLIC HEALTH

Vaccines Get New Scrutiny

Vaccinations are supersafe, but maybe not all at once, or for certain

children

By Deborah Kotz for US News. is.gd/bgnq

When Austin decided to give her

daughter the Gardasil vaccine, she desperately wanted to protect Sara, then

15, from the human papillomavirus that had caused abnormal Pap smears in

other family members. A day after the shot, however, Sara complained that

she was dizzy and her head was pounding. " Her doctor said the

migraine—the first one Sara ever experienced—could have been caused by

Gardasil, but it faded the next day, so I didn't worry, " says Austin,

of Westfield, Mass. But the headache struck again after Sara's second

shot—and again after her third. Then, the crushing pain became constant,

causing Sara to miss school, quit the soccer team, and spend weekends in

bed.

Now worried.

Might Gardasil be to blame for Sara Austin's

severe headaches?

Her mom now wonders if she made the right

decision to vaccinate, even though the Food and Drug Administration insists

there's no reason to be worried about Gardasil. " We're monitoring the

safety of the HPV vaccine very carefully, and the only adverse event that

causes some concern is syncope or fainting, " says Ball,

director of the FDA's office of biostatistics and epidemiology. And

Gardasil's benefits can't be ignored: It protects against several dangerous

HPV strains, including those responsible for the bulk of cervical cancers.

But others in the medical establishment believe Gardasil's safety hasn't

yet been proven and question why it's being recommended for girls as young

as 9. " I certainly think it's wrong to give [Gardasil] to young

teenage girls, " contends pediatrician DeAngelis, editor in

chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association. " What are

the risks? We won't know until it's given to millions of women. "

Karameh Hawash, the pediatric neurologist who recently treated Sara Austin

with a prescription migraine drug, says she has seen two other girls

stricken by daily headaches after receiving Gardasil shots.

Such uncertainty explains the decibel level

of the battle cries both defending and attacking vaccines, which has risen

in recent years along with the number of immunizations children face: 38

shots against 15 diseases before kindergarten, compared with 11 shots

against eight diseases 15 years ago. There's no question that vaccines have

been lifesaving: If every American child followed the recommended schedule,

some 33,000 lives would be saved, 14 million infections prevented, and $10

billion slashed from healthcare costs every year, according to the Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention. But plenty of parents are unconvinced

by the public-health mission, given other data—also from the CDC—showing

that about 30,000 " adverse events " are reported every year by

doctors and patients, of which 3,000 to 4,500 are serious enough to cause

hospitalization, life-threatening illness, or even death. While the CDC's

associate director for immunization safety, Iskander, insists that

" vaccines are extraordinarily safe medical products, " he also

acknowledges that the " trade-off between risks and benefits can be

very difficult for parents.”

Certainly, the government has taken steps

through the years to make vaccines safer, replacing the live pertussis

component of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine, which caused high

fevers and seizures in some children, with the inactive virus, for example.

At the same time, though, officials are targeting an ever-expanding array

of diseases. Some parents, fighting against the more-is-better philosophy,

have gone so far as to organize chickenpox parties in the belief that

infecting their kids the " natural way " is safer than vaccination

with a weakened form of the virus; others, fearful that vaccines have led

to the rise in autism, choose not to vaccinate at all. Alarmed, the

American Academy of Pediatrics in September formed an " immunization

alliance " with other medical groups to push for kids to get all

recommended vaccines on time. Public schools are pushing harder, too; one

land school district threatened to bring criminal charges against noncompliant

parents.

Call for study.

Far more quietly, the government is

acknowledging that, at the moment, science doesn't know much about how many

shots a kid can safely get at once and which children will be harmed. Last

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Vol. 12 No.

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