- A child who developed severe epilepsy after receiving
the MMR jab has been found to have measles virus from the vaccine in his
brain.
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- The results of tests conducted recently have been revealed
by the 13-year-old boy's mother. She says that she has decided to go public
in order to push the Government to take the plight of children allegedly
damaged by the three-in-one measles, mumps and rubella vaccination more
seriously.
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- Scientists say that the implications of the discovery
are difficult to assess without further research. However, it raises new
questions about the triple inoculation, which has been dogged by controversy
since Andrew Wakefield, a former consultant at the Royal Free Hospital
in London, <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/01/21/nmmr21.xml>linked
it with a new syndrome of bowel disease and autism in children.
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- The boy's mother, who has asked to remain anonymous,
told The Telegraph yesterday that her son had developed an allergic rash
eight days after he received the MMR vaccination when he was 15 months
old. He then progressed to have 10 to 12 seizures every month.
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- In the summer of 1998, however, he descended into "status
epilepticus" - continuous convulsions - and surgeons at a London hospital
decided that he needed emergency brain surgery to save his life. It was
at this point that a brain biopsy was taken.
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- The woman, who is suing the manufacturers of the MMR
vaccine on behalf of her son, declined to say where the biopsy had been
tested for the measles virus but indicated that this had been done in a
reputable laboratory.
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- She had been shocked to receive the test results indicating
that vaccine-strain measles virus had been found, she said. She had also
learnt that samples from her son's bowel, taken in 1997 because he had
digestive problems, had tested positive for vaccine-strain virus.
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- After the operation when he was nine, her son had had
to relearn "virtually everything", she said. His personality
changed and he was no longer able to attend mainstream school, although
he had very recently been free of seizures.
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- "Now with this new information I am very concerned,"
the boy's mother said. "Is it over for him or not? No one knows and
this is why all these children - not just my son - need to be acknowledged
rather than have the continuous stream of blanket denials that have been
issued by the Department of Health."
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- British specialists investigating MMR were reluctant
to comment publicly on the case last night. One cautioned that it was theoretically
possible that the boy had developed a vaccine-related condition that was
more commonly caused by a natural measles virus infection.
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- If this was the case, he said, then MMR would actually
help to protect the wider population from similar infections. However,
he added: "We do not know what this result means."
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- © 2002 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/pressoffice/index.jhtml>Telegraph
Group Limited
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/
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- Comment
- From Mary Sparrowdancer
sparrowdancer1@earthlink.net
10-7-2
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- My heart goes out to the mother and to her child.
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- My children and I have decided that it is appropriate
and responsible for us to come forward at this time and warn others about
our own experience following my daughter's receipt of an MMR vaccination
this summer. The vaccine was forced upon her as a prerequisite for enrolling
in college.
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- Within days after my daughter (aged 18) received her
required shot, my son (17) came down with measles. Shortly after this,
I came down with both rubella and measles. Approximately a week later,
my daughter and her friends came down with mononucleosis - a reaction to
having been exposed to live viruses.
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- While my son was sick for a few days, I was sick for
approximately three weeks. Since both my son and I should have been fully
immune to measles and rubella, I am concerned about possible new or recombinant
strains of viruses being administered in the MMR vaccine.
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- I am deeply concerned that not only did the poorly informed
health care workers not inform my daughter that she would be shedding the
live viruses after her inoculation, but in addition to this, when we contacted
them to notify them of our resulting illnesses, they denied that the vaccine
could be a suspected cause.
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- It is my strong feeling that we need to return the decision-making
regarding healthcare matters back to individuals. This is of particular
importance when the decision-making involves our children's healthcare
and safety. Healthcare decisions should not be dictated by the pharmaceutical
salesmen and politicians who have now somehow usurped control of this area
of parental responsibility.
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- Well-informed, loving parents are far more capable of
weighing matters with the best interests of their children in mind.
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- Mary Sparrowdancer
www.sparrowdancer.com
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