[Fwd: [Health-resources] vaccine]

[Guest guest]

Thought some of you might find this of interest. COCO

Lynne O'Larey wrote:

>

>

> The following story was mailed to you by Kathi :

> source: http://www.stateline.org/story.cfm?StoryID=18081>

>

> Critics Question Safety Of Hepatitis B Vaccine

> By Sunny Kaplan, Staff Writer

> 06/01/99

> stateline.org

>

> Five-week old Lyla Rose Belkin died within 16 hours of her hepatitis B

> vaccination in 1998. Nurse Betty Fluck has severe physical exhaustion

> and uses leg braces and crutches due to chronic joint and leg pain she

> believes is caused by the same vaccine. Kirshner, 16, has daily

> headaches, nausea, joint pain, dizziness, fatigue and seizures which

> started the day after a hepatitis B shot she received in 1997.

>

> Critics point to tragedies like these as evidence that the vaccine is

> not as safe as it should be. Yet it is mandatory in 41 states and the

> District of Columbia for children entering daycare, kindergarten, sixth

> grade, high school or college. Hepatitis B is a viral disease that

> attacks the liver and can remain dormant without symptoms for years,

> but

>

> can emerge later in the form of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and

> cancer. It is transmitted through the exchange of infected blood and

> other body fluids, including " perinatal " transmission -- from a

> hepatitis B-infected mother to her child at the time

> of birth.

>

> Those at high risk of contracting the disease are needle-using drug

> addicts, those who engage in unprotected sex with infected partners,

> prison staffers and medical emergency and health care workers exposed

> to

>

> infected blood, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The

> agency

>

> said that 4,000 to 5,000 people die per year because of liver

> complications associated with the disease. When the vaccine was first

> approved in 1986, many health workers were the first to get it because

> of their risk of being exposed to infected blood. In 1991, the CDC

> recommended that three doses of hepatitis B vaccine be given to all

> infants as part of the routine immunization schedule, and in 1995 was

> recommended for routine use in all adolescents. Statistics show that

> almost 90 percent of kindergarten-age children now receive the vaccine.

>

> The move to recommend that infants -- with immature immune systems --

> receive the vaccine has caused considerable controversy. " It is highly

> improbable in the U.S. that a newborn has any significant risk of

> contracting hepatitis B as a child…newborns are not likely to engage in

> intravenous drug use or promiscuous sex, " said Bonnie Dunbar, a

> cellular

>

> biologist and vaccine researcher at Baylor College of Medicine in

> Texas.

>

> Dunbar also has a theory that some people are more likely to have a

> reaction than others based on their genetic makeup and the state of

> their immune system at the time of vaccination. She calls for

> government

>

> funding to determine who falls into such high-risk categories.

>

> According to the CDC, the decision to vaccinate all children was made

> because there is a small risk of some children being exposed to the

> disease in early childhood. Such as " from a bite from another child in

> a

>

> nursery, " or through an infected family member, said Dr. Walter

> Orenstein, director of the CDC's National Immunization Program.

> The CDC points to studies that they say show about 30 percent of

> patients don't know where they acquired their infection, which would

> make it difficult to identify all people at risk. Dunbar and other

> concerned researchers and parents say that no long-term, clinical US

> studies have been released showing the efficacy and safety of

> the vaccine when used on infants, nor they say, has it been proven how

> long the vaccine is effective. Further, they ask why all infants

> receive

>

> a vaccine for a disease that affects mostly adults partaking in risky

> social behavior.

>

> The CDC estimates that 200,000 people, mostly young adults, are

> infected

>

> with hepatitis B each year, but symptoms can be slow to surface. The

> agency's official figures, published in their own " Morbidity and

> Mortality Weekly Report " show 10,416 new cases of the virus were

> actually reported in 1997, 306 of which were in children below the age

> of 14. The package insert of the vaccine, which is manufactured by

> pharmaceutical giants Merck and Kline Beecham, says the length of

> time the vaccine is effective is " indeterminate, " according to

> Manhattan

>

> statistician Belkin, who has been doing research on the vaccine

> since his daughter Lyla died last September after receiving her second

> hepatitis B vaccine. Package inserts also alert physicians that serious

> adverse events reported during the commercial use of the vaccine

> include

>

> multiple sclerosis, arthritis and Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

>

> Dr. Harold S. Margolis, chief of the CDC's hepatitis branch, said that

> the CDC " feels comfortable " saying the effects of the vaccine last 15

> years. " What evidence is there that the protection will last into

> adulthood? If there is no evidence that the vaccine causes long-term

> protection, than why the heck are we doing it? " said Clifford

> Shoemaker,

>

> a Northern Virginia lawyer who handles vaccine reaction cases. Some

> critics propose screening pregnant women for hepatitis B instead of

> subjecting all babies to a possibly dangerous vaccine. At present 14

> states require expectant mothers be screened for the disease:

> California, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana,

> Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Carolina and

> Tennessee.

>

> A federal hearing on the safety of the hepatitis B vaccine -- the first

> such hearing on vaccine safety in over 10 years -- was convened

> recently

>

> by U.S. Rep. Mica (R-Fla.) chairman of the House Subcommittee on

> Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, to hear testimony

> from researchers, aggrieved parents and some health workers who say

> they

>

> were injured by the vaccine, and by federal health officials who stand

> by the safety of the vaccine. " If hepatitis B vaccine was recommended

> in

>

> 1991 without scientific proof that it was safe in a broad sample of

> babies less than 48 hours old, then the CDC has been experimenting on

> babies at birth like guinea pigs, and this committee should suspend

> that

>

> universal immunization policy, " said Belkin.

> Belkin was told his daughter died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

> (SIDS), but the autopsy report showed Lyla had a swollen brain, a sign

> that pathologists told him is a classic adverse reaction to vaccination

> in the medical literature.

>

> Milwaukee immunologist Burton A. Waisbren, a clinical investigator and

> specialist in infectious diseases, also labeled the use of the

> hepatitis

>

> B vaccine an experiment by the CDC " designed to determine if vaccination

>

> at birth of all babies in the US will eventually decrease the frequency

> of cancer of the liver " sometimes caused by hepatitis B infection. He

> claims that parents are often not consulted before their newborns

> receive the vaccine. CDC information sheets on the vaccine, which by

> law

>

> are supposed to be given to parents before their infant is vaccinated,

> say the only risks associated with the vaccine are soreness where the

> shot was administered, mild to moderate fever, and on " rare occasions "

> a

>

> " serious allergic reaction. "

>

> The sheets also don't tell parents that certain exemptions for

> vaccination exist in every state for parents wanting to opt-out of

> vaccinating their children. All states allow for medical exemptions;

> religious exemptions are allowed in every state except Mississippi and

> West Virginia, and philosophical exemptions are allowed in 17 states.

> The CDC has released no results from long-term studies investigating

> debilitating or lethal reactions. Seven studies are underway looking at

> possible adverse events associated with the vaccine, including multiple

> sclerosis, diabetes and death, Orenstein said. He said the decision to

> recommend use of the vaccine on infants was " based on other studies,

> experience to date, expert opinion and licensure and experience from

> the

>

> Food and Drug Administration. " Studies performed in Britain and France

> do not show a correlation between the vaccine and symptoms that mimic

> multiple sclerosis, although these results have not yet been published

> in peer-reviewed medical journals.

>

> According to Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the

> Vienna,

>

> VA based National Vaccine Information Center, a parental advocacy

> group,

>

> drug companies that market the hepatitis B vaccine in the U.S.

> performed

>

> safety studies that only monitored children for four or five days after

> vaccination. Some researchers feel that those were inadequate. " It

> takes

>

> weeks and sometimes months for autoimmune disorders, such as rheumatoid

> arthritis, to develop following vaccination. No basic science research

> or controlled, long-term studies into the side effects of this vaccine

> have been conducted in American babies, children or adults, " testified

> Dr. Bonnie Dunbar of Baylor College of Medicine. The CDC says: " It is

> possible that these MS case reports are purely coincidental to

> hepatitis

>

> B vaccination. Carefully controlled studies (currently underway) are

> needed to determine the nature of these reports, " according to the

> agency's Web site.

>

> The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, managed by the CDC and the

> Food and Drug Administration, received reports of 43 deaths in babies

> under two who received the shot in 1997, although none have been

> causally linked to the vaccine yet, according to S. Ellenberg,

> director of the FDA's Biostatistics and Epidemiology Division. " With 10

> million doses of hepatitis B vaccine administered each year, a certain

> amount of children will die of coincidence alone, " said the CDC's Dr.

> Harold S. Margolis. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, a

> program set up in 1988 to compensate parents of children killed or

> injured by mandated vaccines has received 33 petitions so far claiming

> damage from the vaccine, only one has been adjudicated and it was

> dismissed. " I am convinced that I am only seeing the tip of the

> iceberg,

>

> I can't imagine how many cases there are out there where people have no

> clue that they have been injured by the vaccine, " said Virginia lawyer

> Clifford Shoemaker, who is getting ready to file 40 more cases.

>

> Those who were administered the vaccine between August 1988 and August

> 1997 and believe they have suffered a severe reaction must file a

> petition by this August. Otherwise, petitions must be filed within

> three

>

> years from receiving a vaccine. Shoemaker said that to prove that the

> vaccine is the cause of the reaction he will show that those injured

> had

>

> worsening conditions after each of the subsequent booster shots. The

> problem with giving it to infants, before they even leave the hospital,

> is that parents may ignore signs of a reaction when the child comes

> home, as they have no means of comparison with the child's " normal "

> behavior, and " babies can't tell you where it hurts, " he said. " The

> parents should be given the information to make an informed decision.

> As

>

> long as the child is not partaking in these behaviors the child should

> not get it, " Shoemaker said.

>

> **************************************************************

> > > Karin Schumacher

> > > Vaccine Information & Awareness (VIA)

> > > 12799 La Tortola

> > > San Diego, CA 92129

> > > (phone/voicemail)

> > > (fax)

> > > via@... (email)

> > > http://www.909shot.com (NVIC website)

> > > http://www.access1.net/via (VIA website)

> > > ***************************************************************

> > > We Must Have The Freedom To Choose & Respect Everyone's Choice

> > > ***************************************************************

> > > Any information obtained here is not to be construed as medical

> > > OR legal advice. The decision to vaccinate and how you

> > > implement that decision is yours and yours alone.

> > > ***************************************************************

> > >

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?_

[Guest guest]

You read the subject matter and you have a delete key. COCO

RAINBOWPED@... wrote:

> From: RAINBOWPED@...

>

> In a message dated 6/3/99 12:36:09 PM !!!First Boot!!!, mainard@...

> writes:

>

> << Critics Question Safety Of Hepatitis B Vaccine >>

>

> And what does this have to do with RLS?

> While we are on the subject, there have been over 12 million doses of

> Hepatitis B vaccine given to children with NO unexpected adverse reactions!

>

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

> With more than 18 million e-mails exchanged daily...

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> ...ONElist is THE place where the world talks!

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

> This forum is for support only. The information posted to this List is for

support purposes

> and is not intended to replace the examination, diagnosis and treatment of a

licensed

> physician and no such claims are inferred.

--

?_

[Guest guest]

Brief subject messages don't necessarily tell whether or not a post is

relevant. This unnecessary scare message has no place on this list,

and the tired old line about the delete key doesn't justify it.

> You read the subject matter and you have a delete

> key. COCO

>

> RAINBOWPED@... wrote:

>

> > From: RAINBOWPED@...

> >

> > In a message dated 6/3/99 12:36:09 PM !!!First

> Boot!!!, mainard@...

> > writes:

> >

> > << Critics Question Safety Of Hepatitis B Vaccine

> >>

> >

> > And what does this have to do with RLS?

> > While we are on the subject, there have been over

> 12 million doses of

> > Hepatitis B vaccine given to children with NO

> unexpected adverse reactions!

> >

> >

>

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

> > With more than 18 million e-mails exchanged

> daily...

> > http://www.onelist.com

> > ...ONElist is THE place where the world talks!

> >

>

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

> > This forum is for support only. The information

> posted to this List is for support purposes

> > and is not intended to replace the examination,

> diagnosis and treatment of a licensed

> > physician and no such claims are inferred.

>

> --

> ?_

>

> > begin:vcard

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>

_________________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

,

DITTO.................

Jan/IL

[Guest guest]

,

DITTO.................

Jan/IL

[Guest guest]

,

DITTO.................

Jan/IL

[Guest guest]

Joyce,

I agree 100% with what your saying. I also agreed with the new member's

assessment of this group. I don't write much but I'm here to read RLS related

info. I have gained a great deal of knowledge from this group and have taken

it to the Dr. with me. If I want general health info I'll join another group.

I also think that any flare ups can and usually get straightened out between

the members involved.

Jan/IL

[Guest guest]

Joyce,

I agree 100% with what your saying. I also agreed with the new member's

assessment of this group. I don't write much but I'm here to read RLS related

info. I have gained a great deal of knowledge from this group and have taken

it to the Dr. with me. If I want general health info I'll join another group.

I also think that any flare ups can and usually get straightened out between

the members involved.

Jan/IL

[Guest guest]

Joyce,

I agree 100% with what your saying. I also agreed with the new member's

assessment of this group. I don't write much but I'm here to read RLS related

info. I have gained a great deal of knowledge from this group and have taken

it to the Dr. with me. If I want general health info I'll join another group.

I also think that any flare ups can and usually get straightened out between

the members involved.

Jan/IL