[tri-med] FYI - Immunization Controversy

I am forwarding this article or URL for your information (FYI) as I believe
it may be of interest and is from a reliable source. As always, check the
information with your own doctor or health care professional before starting
or changing any treatments.

<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/06/23/nmmr23.xml&;
sSheet=/news/2002/06/23/ixnewstop.html>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.
jhtml?xml=/news/2002/06/23/nmmr23.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/06/23/ixnewstop.html

US experts back MMR doctor's findings
(Filed: 23/06/2002)

The man whose research first raised concern over the vaccine's safety
is winning support. Lorraine Fraser reports from an influential
Congressional hearing.

Scientists in America have reported the first independent
corroboration of the research findings of Dr Andrew Wakefield,
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$VY2VTQAAANAFFQFIQMFSF
F4AVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2001/12/02/nmmr02.xml>the
specialist who has questioned the safety of the childhood MMR vaccine.

Dr Arthur Krigsman, from New York University School of Medicine, has
observed serious intestinal inflammation in autistic children
identical to that described by the controversial British doctor and
his colleagues in a research paper four years ago.

Dr Krigsman's discovery is significant because it independently
supports Dr Wakefield's conclusion that a previously unidentified and
devastating combination of bowel and brain disease is afflicting
young children - a claim that the Department of Health has dismissed
as "bad science".

Dr Wakefield has seen nearly 200 previously normal youngsters who
apparently developed the combined behaviour and digestive problems
after receiving the three-in-one measles, mumps and rubella jab - a
vaccination given routinely to babies and pre-school children in
Britain and the United States.

Pathologists at Trinity College, Dublin, have since identified
measles virus in bowel tissue samples from 75 of these children and,
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$VY2VTQAAANAFFQFIQMFSF
F4AVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2002/06/16/nmmr16.xml>as
reported in The Telegraph last week, now claim to have evidence that
the virus comes from MMR.

The Department of Health refuses to accept that such results cast
doubt on MMR's safety. A principal criticism levelled at Dr Wakefield
and his colleagues is that no part of their research has been
replicated by scientists elsewhere.

Last Wednesday, however, Dr Krigsman reported that he had seen the
same pattern of illness in 43 American children.

At a hearing of the Government Reform Committee of the United States
Congress on the safety of MMR and other vaccines, he said that - like
the British children - his patients had all inexplicably
deteriorated, losing language and other skills, at around 12 to 18
months of age.

All the children had a definite diagnosis of autism and had come to
him because they had symptoms of serious digestive problems, such as
pain, constipation and diarrhoea, for which no explanation could be
found.

"Our findings, which are independent of Dr Wakefield's findings,
completely support his explanation and his observations of the
abnormalities in the bowels of these children," he said.

The intestines of the children were "not normal", he added. One
13-year-old autistic boy, who had become so violent that his parents
had wanted to institutionalise him, had the "worst case" of
inflammation of the colon the doctor had ever seen through a
fibre-optic scope.

Dr Krigsman, an experienced consultant paediatric gastroenterologist
and an assistant professor at the university, told the committee that
he did not know whether his patients' illnesses were linked to MMR.
However, he now plans to have the biopsies he took during the
examinations tested independently to check for evidence of measles
virus infection.

The results will be awaited anxiously by parents and public health
officials in Britain, where
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$VY2VTQAAANAFFQFIQMFSF
F4AVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2002/02/07/nmmr107.xml>the
debate over the safety of MMR began with the report from Dr Wakefield
and other doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in north London in 1998.

Dr Krigsman's research was among presentations described as
"significant findings" by Dan Burton, an Indiana congressman chairing
the Congressional committee.

Doctors in Britain and America are recognising more autistic children
than ever. The US National Institute of Health estimates that one
American child in 250 is affected, compared with one in 10,000 a
decade ago. A recent survey by the National Autistic Society in
England suggested that one in 86 primary school pupils may have the
condition.

Health officials in both countries insist, however, that there is no
evidence to link this apparent increase with the use of MMR or any
other vaccine, and say there is no reason for parents to worry. In
Britain, the Department of Health has rejected calls to allow single
measles vaccines on the NHS as an alternative, claiming that numerous
statistical studies have concluded that MMR is safe.

The Congressional committee heard evidence from other specialists
suggesting that MMR and the mercury-based preservative, Thimerosal,
may both harm susceptible children, possibly by altering their immune
system. Thimerosal is not used in MMR, but is contained in other
childhood jabs such as DTP - the diphtheria, tetanus and
whooping-cough vaccine.

Dr Jeff Bradstreet, the medical director of the International Child
Development Resource Centre in Florida, disclosed that tests on his
eight-year-old autistic son Matthew - who received vaccines
containing mercury and the MMR jab - have found particles of measles
virus in the fluid that bathes his brain and spine as well as in his
intestines.

Two other boys with autism who, like Matthew, have recently started
to suffer seizures, also have measles virus in their cerebrospinal
fluid.

While the significance of this is not yet clear, Dr Bradstreet said
he was broadening his research in this area.

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