This is part 3 of a comprehensive report by the National Vaccine
Information Center on a matter of keen importance to the autism
community: vaccines. It has been distributed to thousands of health care
professionals throughout the United States, including pediatricians, as well
as every member of every state legislature throughout the country and every
member of the US Congress.
We are reproducing the report in segments in the FEAT Daily
Newsletter. The document in its entirety can be found at the
NVIC website.
http://www.909shot.com/NVICSpecialReport.htm
DPT Vaccine Causes Brain Inflammation
By 1947, the first reports of brain inflammation and chronic brain
damage, including death, after pertussis vaccination were published (Brody,
1947; Byers and Moll, 1948). In 1955, Niels Low showed that the EEG
(electroencephalogram) of infants sometimes was altered by the DPT shot. He
concluded that "mild, but possibly significant, cerebral reactions occur in
addition to the reported very severe neurological changes."
By 1982, numerous reports of CNS dysfunction following DPT vaccination
had appeared in the medical literature (Berg, 1958; Strom, 1960, 1967; Dick,
1967, 1974; Kuhlenkampff, 1974; Stewart, 1977, 1979). In 1981, Pediatrics
published a UCLA/FDA study by Cody et al revealing that 1 in 875 DPT shots
in the U.S. is followed by a convulsion or collapse/shock reaction.
Finally, after more than 40 years of evidence in the medical
literature that the DPT vaccine was causing brain inflammation and CNS
damage in previously healthy children, this fact was confirmed by medical
science in the 1981 National Childhood Encephalopathy Study (NCES) and in
1991 and 1994 by the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences
(IOM).
Brain Damage On A Continuum
Signs of brain inflammation within seven days of DPT vaccination can
range from high fever, irritability, high pitched screaming, prolonged
crying for hours, drowsiness, and vomiting to seizures, collapse and
unresponsiveness (altered state of consciousness) followed by immediate
frank regression or progressive changes in mental, emotional and physical
health ending with a diagnosis of mental retardation, seizure disorders,
learning disabilities and other chronic neurological damage. DPT
vaccine-induced brain inflammation, the IOM noted in 1994, is associated
with a "broad range of long term dysfunctions (neurological, behavioral,
educational, motor, sensory, and self care dysfunctions)" that are similar
to those experienced by children after serious acute neurologic illnesses
due to other causes.
[A child, who had been healthy and bright before he reacted within
four hours of his DPT shot at 19 months of age with a convulsion followed by
days of fever and screaming and was left mentally retarded with autistic
behaviors, was awarded compensation in 1996 under the National Childhood
Vaccine Injury Act despite protests by federal health officials that he was
autistic and there is no proof that DPT vaccine causes autism. The U.S.
Court of Claims made the award, agreeing with the plaintiff's lawyer that
autistic behaviors can be the result of brain injury, including brain injury
caused by DPT vaccine.]
A Shot in the Dark
One of the sources of information reviewed by the IOM and included in
references in their 1991 report on pertusiss vaccine was original research
documenting more than 100 case histories of DPT vaccine associated immune
mediated neurological dysfunction contained in Coulter and Fisher's DPT: A
Shot in the Dark (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985; Warner, 1986; Avery,
1991). Their book was the first to undertake an extensive examination of the
history of pertussis and the pertussis vaccine within the larger context of
the medical, scientific, legal, social, and political issues involving mass
vaccination policies.
In their book, Coulter and Fisher described numerous case reports in
more than 50 years of medical literature and in new case studies they
presented of children, who had been developing normally (and in many cases
were of above average intelligence), and then received a DPT shot (often
simultaneously with live oral polio vaccine) who then exhibited symptoms of
brain inflammation, including high fever, extreme drowsiness, vomiting, high
pitched screaming, seizures, and alterations of consciousness. Many of these
children were subsequently diagnosed as mentally retarded, epileptic,
learning disabled, hyperactive, or autistic.
In a good number of cases, the children who had reacted neurologically
to DPT were allergic, particularly to milk, or had been vaccinated while
they were sick with a coinciding viral or bacterial infection. In addition
to neurological damage, many were also left with chronic gastrointestinal
dysfunction and severe allergies, as well as autoimmune disorders such as
asthma. The personal or family history of autoimmune disorders appeared to
outweigh a history of neurological disorders in terms of being a high risk
factor for reacting to DPT, although a history of convulsions in the family
was also a high risk factor.
Tetanus, Hib Affects The Brain
The tetanus bacillus produces one of the most potent toxins in nature
which can severely damage the brain. In 1991, the Institute of Medicine
concluded that tetanus vaccine can cause Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS),
which begins one to four weeks after vaccination and takes up to four weeks
to progress. The tetanus vaccine was also found to cause brachial neuritis,
a neuropathy that usually appears within three weeks of vaccination
involving painful nerve inflammation in the arm and shoulder which can
progress over a period of many months.
Hib disease, a type of bacterial meningitis, is known to have a direct
effect on the CNS and can involve seizures and profound brain damage.
Although reports of demyelination (transverse myelitis and GBS) have been
reported after children receive Hib (haemophilus influenza B) vaccine, which
contains the Hib organism's capsular polysaccharide, a causal relationship
has not yet been confirmed. The combination DPTH vaccine has been given to
children since 1988.
Autoimmunity: From Disease and Vaccines
In 1935, scientists investigating the neurological complications of
rabies vaccine discovered they could deliberately induce brain inflammation
in lab animals by injecting them with brain myelin, causing an autoimmune
reaction whereby the animal develops antibodies to its own brain tissue,
causing demyelination. (Rivers & Schwenker, 1935).
The autoimmune diseases diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and lupus, for
example, involve chronic inflammation that causes tissue destruction
including central nervous system damage. It is thought that these diseases
may be triggered by an infection that activates autoreactive T-cells and, in
individuals genetically susceptible to developing autoimmunity, results in
chronic inflammation and/or autoantibodies that selectively destroy organs
in the body such as the brain.
Hepatitis B and Autoimmunity
During the past decade, there have been persistent reports in the
medical literature that, within weeks of recombinant hepatitis B
vaccination, some children and adults are suffering recurring fevers, severe
joint pain, vision and memory loss, muscle weakness, debilitating fatigue
and other chronic immune and neurological dysfunction which can involve
demyelination of the brain. The virus that causes hepatitis B disease
attacks the liver and can cause such severe joint pain, fatigue and weakness
that the disease is sometimes mistaken for rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.
Rare complications of hepatitis B disease include demyelinating disease,
such as transverse myelitis, and neuropathy.
Likewise, clinical symptoms that follow hepatitis B vaccine
complications are similar to lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, as well as
optic neuritis and multiple sclerosis (Guiserix, 1996; Pope & Bell, 1998;
WHO, 1990;Berkman, 1996). GBS, chronic fatigue and vascular disorders have
also been reported (Shaw, 1988; Salit, 1993; Granel, 1997). Tourbah et al
described CNS inflammation within 10 weeks of hepatitis B vaccination
(Neurology, 1999) and concluded that "The persistent inflammatory activity
observed clinically and on MRI in these patients is comparable to that
usually observed in multiple sclerosis," hypothesizing a triggering role of
hepatitis B vaccination in CNS demyelination.
Burton Waisbren, M.D., began writing and speaking about molecular
mimicry and hepatitis B vaccine reactions in 1996. Bonnie Dunbar, Ph.D.,
Professor of Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine; Ronald Kennedy,
Ph.D., Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and William Hildebrand,
Ph.D., Assistant Professor, of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences
Center are three scientists working to clarify the role that genetic
predisposition may play in the development of immune mediated neurological
dysfunction following hepatitis B vaccination.
They are studying families with several members who have reacted
severely to hepatitis B vaccine and are investigating autoimmune mechanisms
involving molecular mimicry and epitope spreading. Dr. Hildebrand made a
presentation at the October 26-27, 1998 Institute of Medicine Vaccine Safety
Forum Workshop on the correlation between major histocompatibility complex
(MHC) genes and autoimmune diseases.
Dunbar, an award winning vaccine developer, whose brother suffered a
severe, disabling reaction to several hepatitis B vaccinations, is
particularly concerned that race may be a factor in both normal and abnormal
immune responses to vaccines. She said, "There may be variations in the way
that different genetic populations respond to different vaccines and this
needs to be carefully evaluated before new vaccines are licensed and
recommended for use by everyone."
Hepatitis B vaccine has also been associated with diabetes (Poutasi,
1996). A 1996 report by Barthelow Classen, M.D. in the New Zealand Medical
Journal noted a 60 percent increase in juvenile diabetes following a massive
hepatitis B vaccine campaign for babies from 1988 to 1991. In 1997, U.S.
federal health officials acknowledged that one of their own studies showed
that "the possibility that hepatitis B vaccination, particularly at older
ages, may increase insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) risk cannot be
ruled out and will require larger more detailed studies."(Classen has also
published studies which show an increase in diabetes in children after the
addition of Hib and MMR vaccine in Finland (Infectious Diseases in Clinical
Practice, 1997).
Pertussis, DPT and Autoimmunity
The pertussis toxin, sometimes referred to as islet-activating
protein, has been shown in laboratory animals to provoke excess production
of insulin by the pancreas and diabetes in mice. In 1970, Pittman talked
about DPT "vaccine-induced hypoglycemia" and a report in 1982 (Champsaur et
al, Journal of Pediatrics) concluded that the administration of the DPT
vaccine to a 16 month old child with a coinciding viral infection and a
genetic predisposition may have lead to "insular damage and anti-islet
autoimmune reactions, leading to insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.".
From the earliest days of pertussis vaccine use, it has been
associated with development of asthma in previously healthy children (Koeng,
1953; Halpern & Halpern, 1955; Hopper, 1961; Hannik, 1969). In a 1997 issue
of Epidemiology, New Zealand researchers reported that of 1,265 New
Zealanders born in 1977, 23 received no childhood vaccinations and none
suffered childhood asthma. Among the 1,242 who got DPT and polio shots, 23
percent later had episodes of asthma, 23 percent had asthma consultations
and 30 percent had consultations for other allergic illness.
In a recent study (Hurwitz & Morgenstern, 2000) reviewing data from
the National Center for Health Statistics from 1988 to 1994 and, comparing
vaccinated to unvaccinated children, it was found that a child who received
DPT or tetanus vaccination was 50 percent more likely to experience severe
allergic reactions, more than 80 percent more likely to experience sinusitis
and twice as likely to experience asthma as those children who were not
vaccinated. The authors concluded that "asthma and other allergic
hypersensitivity reactions and related symptoms may be caused, in part, by
the delayed effects of DTP or tetanus vaccination.".
Rubella and Autoimmunity
The primary complications of rubella disease and live rubella vaccine
are autoimmune. There is evidence that persistent rubella viral infection in
congenital rubella victims can cause diabetes (Menser, 1978; Rubenstein et
al, 1982). And chronic arthritis has been confirmed to be caused by both the
disease and vaccine. In 1991, the Institute of Medicine found a causal
relationship between rubella vaccine (RA 27/3) and the development of acute
and chronic arthritis. Symptoms of severe joint pain most often occur within
two to three weeks of vaccination, which has been noted to be the incubation
period of natural rubella and the time period in which the vaccine strain
virus can be isolated.
Mumps, Measles, MMR and Autoimmunity
Since the late 1800's, the development of Insulin Dependent Diabetes
Mellitus (IDDM) after mumps infection has been persistently reported
(Harris, 1899; Otten et al, 1984). There also have been case reports of
diabetes following mumps vaccination (Sinaniotis, 1975; Otten, 1984) and
after measles-mumps vaccination (Quast, 1979) and MMR vaccination (Taranger,
1987).
A gastrointestinal disorder thought to be caused by infectious or
immune mechanisms is Crohn's disease, which has been linked to measles
infection (Ekbom, 1994) and measles vaccine (Thompson, 1995). Crohn's
disease and ulcerative colitis, both thought to be autoimmune disorders,
have also been reported to occur at a high rate in persons who had measles
and mumps infections in the same year of life (Montgomery et al, 1999).
Evidence has been documented that measles infection as well as the MMR
vaccine may be involved in the development of a syndrome involving both
inflammatory bowel disease and regressive developmental disorder in children
(Wakefield et al, 1998).
Autism, The Brain, and The Immune System
In the year 2000, the controversial hypothesis that autism is somehow
linked with vaccination has set the stage for a long overdue examination of
the interaction between the brain and the immune system and the evidence for
both disease and vaccine-induced immune and brain dysfunction, which has
been documented in the medical literature for more than 200 years.
After Rimland in the 1960's persuaded researchers to investigate the
biological rather than psychological cause for autism, DeMyer and her
colleagues wrote in a 1973 Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia
that the findings of their study "in conjunction with other investigations,
support the biological cause theory of autism." The authors noted that a
high number of autistic children have "gross EEG abnormalities" and are
neurologically handicapped with learning and behavior disorders that range
from mild to severe mental retardation. They concluded that "viral disease
during or after gestation, birth trauma, malnutrition, oxygen lack or
generally any of the events known to damage the brain may be the cause of
the autistic syndrome.".
Seizures and Autism
In 1975, Mnukhin and Isaev also found a high incidence of epileptic
seizures in autistic children, indicating autism has an organic,
neurological basis. They were soon joined by other autism researchers who
asserted that the symptoms of autism are grounded in dysfunction of the
nervous system (Ornitz & Ritvo, 1976). Deykin and MacMahon in 1979 (American
Journal of Epidemiology) agreed that the high rate of abnormal EEG's and
seizures in autistic children suggested neurologic damage. They pointed out
that the central nervous system is not fully developed at birth and may be
at special risk for brain damage from viral infections in the first year of
life. They concluded that "viruses with encephalitic potential, especially
those occurring during gestation or during the first few months of life
might be associated with the development of certain childhood mental
illnesses.".
Autoimmunity Affects Vaccine Responses
In 1982, Weizman and his colleagues reported that some autistics have
abnormal cell-mediated immune responses to myelin basic protein, (a
component of brain myelin) suggesting that an autoimmune mechanism may be
involved in the development of autism. That report reinforced observations
by Stubbs in 1976 that some autistic children have defective antibody
responses to rubella vaccine and, in 1977, that autistic children have
depressed T-cell responses.
In 1984 in Pediatric Annals, Ritvo and Freeman described the medical
model of autism and concluded, "The symptoms are due to neuropathology
which, in turn, may have a variety of etiologies," observing that there is a
high rate of abnormal EEG's, seizures, severe allergies, and significant
differences in brain metabolism patterns and brain chemistry in autistic
children compared to those who are not autistic.
The autoimmune connection was made again by Reed Warren and his
associates in 1986 when they presented evidence that confirmed Stubb's
studies in the 1970's indicating that autism is associated with immune
system dysfunction. Warren stated, "The lack of suppressor cells in the
autistic patients may be consistent with an autoimmune process underlying
the development of autism." He added, "Our findings in the autistic patients
are quite similar to those observed in a study of patients hospitalized for
major depressive disorder.".
In 1987, Rutter and Schopler writing in Journal of Autism and
Developmental Disorders, discussed the clear differences between adult
schizophrenia and childhood autism, particularly the high rate of seizures
and mental retardation in autistic children. They pointed out that there
were two groups of autistic children: those babies who have abnormal
behavior at birth and those who develop normally and then regress and added
"There is no one basic deficit because the disorder reflects varying
patterns of organic brain dysfunction rather than any single disease state."
Source: FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER
