Thank you.

Following Ben Goldacre’s column (Bad science, December 6), it’s worth emphasising that not only is there no evidence for any association between measles vaccine, autism and intestinal disease, but that the most recent evidence provides strong evidence against any such link. What makes this evidence wonderfully ironic is that it has been provided by the same individuals (Professor John O’Leary and Dr Orla Sheils from Trinity College Dublin) who reported the original evidence in favour in a 2002 publication.

I tend to look more towards genetics as the cause, myself. The bottom line, however, is that my kids are who they are. Autism is part of who they are. They, like so many before them, will learn to make their way in this world, in whatever form that takes.

I don’t think you will find a one size fits all answer for the cause of every single case of autism.I think it’s going to be like mental retardation,and medical treatments for each,if any,will depend on the cause,AND the medical problems that coexist along with the autism.I also think it is as,if not more, dangerous to subject children to chelation,and some of these DAN! treatments,on the basis of the theories of some questionable doctor,who has set up a website,to peddle his even more questionable treatment.Especially children who only have autism.Look at this and explain how this “ACE pathway” “treatment” is anything but quackery.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/09/stealth-viruses.html

Seizures are a big part of autism,vaccines or no vaccines,but I am very interested in what you say about:

“dying in their sleep or after a minor fever” could you provide some more details ?

There are those who say those who say there was no such thing as autism before the MMR vaccine, and have never heard of Leo Kanner,or Bruno Bettleheim.However,those who were children before the late 1980s,who were autistic,but not retarded,and who were verbal,were routinely labeled as having “childhood schizophrenia”, without any regard to developmental problems.I know.I was one of those children.I had to get properly diagnosed,as an adult,with atypical autism.

I was diagnosed,after I regressed,again…as an adult.This happened after a recurrence of acute meningitis,the same infection I had as a five month old baby.The same infection that I believe triggered my autism in the first place.

Infection.Not vaccines.

Let me give you a brief health history here.As I said,I have recurring meningitis.The first time I had meningitis,I was five months old.There were pulmonary complications.I have had acute meningitis twice since.I had pneumonia five times,by age twenty-one.I was retroactively told I had children’s interstitial lung lung disease.I have had inflammatory bowel disease,since at least age three.I have only found relief recently with high dose circumin.I have had idiopathic arthritis continually since the age of ten. This was a direct result of one of those “mysterious flu like illnesses” you hear about.I have a history of heart failure,mitral valve prolapse,chicken pox with heart complications,and rheumatic fever.I have recurring labyrinthitis.(An especially bad bout at age fourteen,caused me to lose many teeth,after it spread to my mouth.)In the past few years,I have had three bouts of shingles.The most recent,involved carditis,cerebral vasospasms or ‘’stroke like episodes” as they say. Infections for me have always been long,drawn out affairs, lasting from three weeks to six months,they still are.As an adult,fevers of 105 are still quite common.I have come very close to death four times.Twice from meningitis,once from heart failure,and once from pneumonia.I have been tested for every possible primary immune deficiency,and I don’t have any of them.All tests for autoimmune disease have been normal,too.I am looking into mitochondrial disease as a possible cause.

My point is,I have the autism,and I have all of these unexplained medical problems,and I have not had an MMR vaccine,or a lot of the others kids get nowadays.I got the polio,the DTP,and the older separate measles,and rubella,and I think that was it.

This is why I believe the studies that say vaccines do not cause autism.

Take measles for example. One of the arguments that I’ve often heard is “Measles doesn’t kill anyone”. That’s a fallacy. Measles can lead to pneumonia, encephalitis, and in some cases meningitis. Because you are vaccinated, your infant has immunity, you’re correct. But what if they’re not immunized? What happens to their child? It becomes at risk.

And what happens if your child develops measles? They have to be quarantined. And it is not only your child who has to be quarantined, but anyone who has come in to contact with your child who is not immune. The incubation period is 10-12 days prior to the onset of the first symptoms, which most people would take for the common cold or flu and the infectious period is 4 days prior to the rash appearing and then 4 days after. How many people do you and your child come in to contact with in 4 days? At the store? At your child’s school? Their playgroup or music class or other activity? Their church/temple/mosque/etc.? At a restaurant? All of those people are at risk for exposure. How many people do *they* come in contact with? And it’s not just immediate contact – measles can still be present in a closed area (clinic, office, classroom) for up to 2 hours after the infected person was present.

If measles exposure occurs in a health care facility or a school, any child or adult who is susceptible, either because of lack of vaccination or unwillingness to be vaccinated following exposure, must be excluded from those places from 18-21 days following the *last reported case* – not your child’s case, but the last person in the exposure chain who develops the rash. Think of how many people that might be. Which means that those teachers, health care workers, professionals, your partner, your friend, your neighbor may not be able to return to work for months at a time. That is the way it would need to be to ensure society’s safety. What effect would that have on the economy? Could you or your partner take that much time off of work? What if you were the primary supporter of your family?

Now, fortunately, enough people are vaccinated at this time that the above scenario would probably not be that extreme. But what about in our children’s generation? Their children’s? The more people who are not vaccinated, the greater the risk of a pandemic developing. And so someone’s choice not to vaccinate doesn’t just affect them, it affects us all. Just something to think about.

What really bothers me is how much I hear “vaccines don’t cause autism” and not NEARLY enough of “we will work our fingers to the bone to discover why our children are losing all previously held skills, why they are seizing, why they are dying in their sleep or after a minor fever.” It seems as if everyone is much more concerned with convincing the general public of the safety and need for so many vaccines, so early in life and then again throughout the adult life, without testing titers, without looking at family history and concerns of contraindications, allergies, etc. and much less concerned about working tirelessly to discover why the skills loss or unexpected deaths are happening so frequently.

I’m fine with believing vaccines don’t cause anything and are perfectly safe (except I’m asked to sign a form that says I won’t hold the doctor liable if something does happen to my child) but I would like someone to work VERY VERY hard on finding out why perfectly healthy children are losing all skills or are dying at random and I’d love to be hearing about their tireless research. These deaths and skills loss concern me very much and should be what concerns the medical community very much. The fact that they would rather spend the time convincing me to vaccinate myself and my kids and spend very little time talking about what they are doing to prevent loss of skills and death is very bothersome and causes more mistrust than any kind of power people think Jenny McCarthy or other parents’ personal stories hold over the random parent’s decision to vaccinate…while it is still their decision and not completely mandatory.

OBJECTIVE: Viral and bacterial infections in childhood decrease the likelihood of allergic diseases in later life. The frequency of allergic diseases in patients with a history of measles has been reported to be low but some studies still suggest that measles can increase the frequency of allergic diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of allergic diseases following measles in childhood. METHODS: Fifty-two children hospitalized in our clinic with measles were compared with 51 children without measles. Allergic diseases were investigated in both groups by using the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire. In all children, allergy skin tests were performed with the four most common allergens. RESULTS: Sensitivity to Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus was less frequent in children with measles than in those without (p < 0.05). A history of nebulized salbutamol use in the emergency room in the previous 12 months was also less frequent in the measles group (p < 0.05). Inhaled corticosteroid use was more common in the group without measles (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that findings of allergic disease are less frequent in children with a history of measles. These children were less sensitive to D. pteronyssinus.
Under this point of view, the results related to asthma are not surprising, but
Now, there are different findings with full immunizaiton status
Aust N Z J Public Health. 2004 Aug;28(4):336-8. Links
Asthma and vaccination history in a young adult cohort.Benke G, Abramson M, Raven J, Thien FC, Walters EH.
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Central and Eastern Clincal School, Alred Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria.
BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that childhood vaccinations may be associated with the onset of asthma. We investigated the association between asthma, atopy and vaccination history in a cohort of young adults living in Melbourne, Australia. METHODS: Subjects were aged between 22 and 44 years and were surveyed by an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Questions were asked about vaccinations to measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), triple antigen (DTP), hepatitis B and Sabin polio vaccine (OPV). Atopy was assessed by skin prick testing to common aeroallergens. RESULTS: There was no significant association observed for subjects diagnosed with asthma who had received measles or MMR vaccinations compared with those who did not receive measles or MMR vaccinations (RR 1.33, 95% CI 0.98-1.80). Non-significant associations were also observed for OPV and hepatitis B vaccinations (RR 3.27, 95% CI 0.50-21.3 and RR 1.08, 95% CI 0.83-1.41, respectively). However, subjects reporting full immunisation were found to be at higher risk to asthma (RR 1.52, 95% CI 1.09-2.11) but not atopy . CONCLUSIONS: Our results show relatively weak support for the hypothesis that childhood vaccinations may lead to increased risk of asthma, but caution is advised due to possible recall bias.

The results on asthma has been different considering ONLY MMR, ONLY DTaP or the full immunization status.
I do think that it is really unfortunate how once and again urban myths arguments and DOnt´s for sure are used without the needed equilibrated and full view analysis that is required in the complexity of the consideraion of the development of the first 3 years, exposures to xenobiotics, genetics and epigenetics interactions and autoimmunity/immune impacts of infections
http://www.jimmunol.org/cgi/content/abstract/174/12/7481

Not done with the needed approach in ASD , yet. And no, epidemiology is not going to solve these questions.