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- Alarming evidence is emerging to suggest that a huge
rise in the number of children suffering autism may be linked to vaccines
they were given for mumps, measles and rubella.
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- New figures from Britain and America show there has been
dramatic increase in cases of autism since the MMR vaccine was introduced
1988. Many children only developed the brain condition after they were
given the jab in their teens, having showed no previous symptoms.
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- The findings are corroborated by scientific research
which shows that the measles virus is present in the gut of 24 out of 25
children who developed autism after an apparently healthy infancy.
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- This work, due to be published later in the year, is
being carried out at the Royal Free Hospital in London and Coombe Women's
Hospital in Dublin. Professor John O'Leary, director of pathology at the
Coombe Hospital, said there needed to be a full investigation, and added:
"Further urgent research is required." Dr Fiona Scott of the
Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge said: "This
rise in cases of autism is disconcerting. Instead of the Government arguing
with parents that there is no link they should urgently carry out a decent
study"
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- There are no central records on the number of children
with autism. However, figures collated by health campaigner David Thrower
show that in many areas of the country cases have risen alarmingly since
the vaccine came into widespread use.
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- In Yorkshire the numbers have spiralled by 22-fold in
the last seven years. In the Shetlands and the Western Isles there are
no children over 13 with the condition - suggesting a link with the introduction
of the vaccine. In Surrey cases of autism among three-year-old boys are
now running at one in 69. Official figures say the average should be one
in several thousand.
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- The United States is also recording sharp increases in
autism over this period. In New Jersey cases have grown by 876 per cent
in the last eight years. In California cases rose 275 per cent from 1993
to 1998, and in Pennsylvania cases rose by 109 per cent from 1993 to 1997.
Experts say such huge rises cannot alone be explained by better detection
and diagnosis.
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- Last week the Express launched a campaign for justice
for children who have suffered brain damage after routine vaccinations.
At present the Government provides a one-off, £40,000 payment for
parents who can prove their child is over 80% damaged by a vaccine.
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- The Daily Express is calling for this money to be raised
and for the 80 per cent rule to be abolished. However, parents who believe
their child has developed autism from an MMR jab have no hope of any payment
because, despite the growing evidence, the Government refuses to accept
any link. More than 600 parents have now launched legal action to claim
compensation.
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- Richard Barr, of Alexander Harris solicitors who are
co-ordinating the legal fight, said: "A lot of evidence is coming
together and pointing to a link. If there was another explanation for the
rise in autism, such as leaded petrol or chemicals, cases would have shot
up a long time ago:"
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- In Japan the MMR vaccine has been banned. And in the
UK some doctors are refusing to give it. Last week the Sunday Express carried
an article by Dr Richard Halvorsen who wrote: "It may .be safer for
healthy children to catch these illnesses rather than run the risk of immunisation."
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- As a GP, I gave kids the MMR jab. Now I wouldn't give
it to my own.
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- The triple vaccine routinely given to children to prevent
measles, mumps and rubella has been controversially linked to autism-like
symptoms. We asked Dr Richard Halvorsen to investigate. (Sunday Express
Magazine 21 May 2000)
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- Childhood immunisations, I had always assumed, were safe.
The Department of Health (DOH) has repeatedly reassured us that their benefits
are far greater than the risks and, as a GP, I have been responsible for
the immunisation of many hundreds of children. So, when I was asked by
the Sunday Express Magazine to write about the MMR vaccine, I expected
to be able to reassure readers that the vaccine was of clear benefit and
that side-effects were either not serious or extremely rare. My research
unearthed a different story that makes for disturbing reading.
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- The MMR immunisation was introduced in the UK in 1988
with the first dose aimed at children of 12-15 months, a second at 3-5
years. It is designed to protect against measles, mumps and rubella (German
Measles) and works by stimulating the immune system to produce antibodies
against the viruses without causing harm. It was well received by both
parents and doctors so that over 90 per cent of children were being immunised
by 1992.
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- Most children received the vaccine with no obvious serious
side-effects but it grew increasingly apparent that some became seriously
ill within a few weeks. These children began behaving strangely, stopped
talking and became socially withdrawn, staring into space for hours on
end. Many developed a raging thirst, bizarre eating habits, multiple food
allergies, hyperactivity and sleep problems. This was usually accompanied
by abdominal pain, bloating and bowel disturbances, and some became incontinent
of urine or faeces. They did not simply fail to develop but lost what they
already had. Now, we all know coincidences happen, but here are thousands
of children who had all developed normally until receiving the vaccine,
after which they became very unwell in a remarkably similar pattern. The
behaviour these children showed was similar to autism, but differed in
that they were previously developing normally and then lost the skills
that they had developed, such as speech and play, a condition called "autistic
regression".
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- Most of the parents felt sure that the cause of these
devastating changes in their children was the MMR vaccine, but if they
mentioned this concern to their doctors it always met with dismissive reassurance
that it must have been a coincidence because the MMR was safe. One doctor,
instead of dismissing the possibility of a relationship with the MMR vaccine,
listened to the worried parents and studied some of the affected children.
Dr Andrew Wakefield, from the Royal Free Hospital in north London, published
a paper in February 1998 in the medical journal The Lancet suggesting that
the MMR vaccine could be the cause of the children's autism and bowel disturbances,
which he calls "autistic enterocolitis". Dr Wakefield was vociferously
attacked for causing unnecessary worry in parents and the MMR vaccine was
vigorously defended as being "highly safe and effective".
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- The Chief Medical Officer, Sir Kenneth Calman, felt confident
enough to say, "I have concluded there is no link between MMR immunisation
and autism."
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- Questioned in Parliament in 1997 on the possible link
between MMR and autism, then health minister Tessa Jowell reassured MPs
that: "No vaccine is issued in the United Kingdom unless it passes
the highest standards for quality, and parents should have confidence that
the vaccines that are provided are both safe and efficacious."
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- But I was concerned to find that the safety trials on
the MMR followed children up for only three weeks. This could not possibly
detect side-effects that appeared after three weeks. This is alarming for
a vaccine aimed at millions of healthy children.
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- In 1999, two studies appeared that the Department of
Health claims "reinforce the conclusion that there is no link"
between MMR and autism. The first, by the Committee on the Safety of Medicines,
involved examining questionnaires sent to the parents who had suspected
MMR as a cause for their child's autism - 1200 questionnaires were distributed
and 126 examined in detail. The study concluded: "It is impossible
to prove or refute the suggested associations between MMR vaccine and autism"-
hardly convincing reassurance.
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- It is hard to obtain precise figures for the number of
children affected with autism because the government does not keep records.
But the second study cited by the DOH looked at one area - north London
-and found an alarming increase in autism there. The incidence was running
steadily at between four and eight of the children born there each year
between 1978 and 1985. Then came a dramatic increase to just under 50 of
the children born in 1992, the last year studied by Professor Brent Taylor
and colleagues at University College London. Curiously, however, they concluded:
"Our analyses do not support a causal association between MMR vaccine
and autism."
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- To others, including myself, the research figures actually
support the link between MMR and autism. What has not been adequately explained
is the recent massive increase in autism. However, the start of this increase
can be traced back to children who were born in the mid 1980s in Britain
and the 1970s in the United Sates. These were the first children to receive
the MMR vaccine. In California the incidence of autism was running at 150-200
a year until 1980, then it took off to reach nearly 600 in 1990.
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- In the UK some local authorities have measured the rate
of autism and have again found very high numbers. However, the Government
still has no plans to monitor the number of children with autism. The lack
of willingness of the Government and the medical profession to accept that
a problem could exist smacks of complacency at best, and negligence at
worst. Not all governments hold the same view. In Japan, MMR was withdrawn
in 1993 because of an unacceptably high level of side-effects.
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- The evidence against MMR is now mounting. Dr Wakefield
has studied more children with "autistic enterocolitis". His
research suggests that the MMR vaccine can cause an abnormal immune reaction
which, in susceptible children, causes the child's immune system to damage
the child's gut, allowing it to absorb chemicals that may attack the brain.
This is an auto-immune reaction and it may be no coincidence that some
research has linked other auto-immune diseases, such as diabetes, with
immunisation.
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- It is looking more and more likely that recent increases
in the numbers of children with autistic regression and other developmental
disorders may be triggered, or caused, by the MMR vaccine. The illnesses
the vaccine is designed to prevent can themselves cause damage, but the
use of MMR in this country may be doing more harm than good. Parents from
the UK, mainland Europe, Australia, the US~ Canada or Asia are all telling
the same story.
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- The parents of over 2,000 children are planning to take
their cases to court. It has been suggested that parents are using the
MMR vaccine as a "scapegoat" in a desperate attempt to explain
their child's autism. This strikes me as an insensitive and flawed suggestion:
the last thing parents want to believe is that their child's devastating
problems were caused by something they inflicted on the child themselves.
The Government gives the impression of not wanting to know and appears
to be more concerned with preserving public confidence than in investigating
these children. On 10 April this year Professor Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical
Officer, sent a letter to every GP in the country in which he repeats that
"there is no new evidence that indicates a causal link between MMR
vaccine and autism".
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- The Hippocratic principle is that doctors should "first
do no harm". At the very least parents must be told of the concerns
surrounding the MMR vaccine. Doctors should obtain "informed consent"
when offering any medical intervention, especially when the "patient"
is not ill to start with. That means discussing the risks as well as the
benefits. If the MMR vaccine were a drug, it would be suspended until proper
trials had been done to examine its safety. Based on what I now know, I
would not give my children the combined MMR vaccine. I would consider either
using the vaccines singly (not available in this country but possible in
mainland Europe) or not vaccinating at all. It may be safer for healthy
children to catch these illnesses rather than run the risk of immunisation.
It's important that girls have either had rubella or are immunised before
pregnancy.
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