Telegraph, UK: Yet Another Study MMR to Autism. How many more do we need?

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MMR: The debate that won't go away Last Updated: 12:01am BST 26/05/2008http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS & grid= & xml=/health/2008/05/26/hautism126.xmlIt seemed the MMR controversy had been resolved,

but does new research point to another possible connection between

autism and vaccinations? Cassandra Jardine reports Four years ago, it seemed as if the agonising over autism and the

measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) triple vaccine had finally been

consigned to history. Several large-scale epidemiological studies

concluded there was no evidence of a link between the two. By the age of three, 90 per cent of children have had

the MMR vaccineTaking just one of these studies - involving 4,500 children in

Denmark - Sir David King, chief scientific adviser to the Government

until the end of 2007, said: "If anything, there was more

autism found among the children who weren't vaccinated."Parents who had claimed that their children had regressed mentally

and physically following the MMR vaccination were told it was

probably a coincidence. Meanwhile, Dr Andrew Wakefield, the

gastroenterologist whose research had triggered the scare, with a

study in 1998 of 12 such cases, is currently defending himself in

front of the General Medical Council against charges of gross

professional misconduct.So how is it now that the debate has been reignited in the US,

with growing concern that an apparent increase in the number of

children with autism may have an environmental cause (including MMR

and other childhood vaccinations)?All three presidential candidates have referred to what Republican

Senator John McCain calls the "autism epidemic", pledging

substantial sums of money for research.Then, earlier this month, Dr Bernardine Healy, former head of the

National Institutes of Health, America's medical research

agency, told CBS News: "I think that the public health

officials have been too quick to dismiss the [autism link to

vaccination] hypothesis as irrational." She called for detailed

studies of children whose parents believe they have been affected.

"I have not seen major studies that focus on 300 kids who got

autistic symptoms within a period of a few weeks of the

vaccines," she said.Healy's comments are significant because she's the first

figure from the mainstream medical establishment not to dismiss the

link.Next month David Kirby, author of the award-winning book Evidence

of Harm, will be in London giving a public lecture and addressing

the House of Lords about the causes of regressive autism (as opposed

to classic autism, which does not involve a sudden loss of speech

and other functions).The focus of his attention is not MMR but thiomersal, a

preservative containing mercury (a known neurotoxin) that is used in

some vaccines, including those for flu. (The Department of Health is

keen to stress that no children's vaccine in this country has

contained thiomersal for the past four years, and when it was

formerly used in childhood vaccines it was at levels that were lower

than those in the US.)"A convergence of events," Kirby says, "has

highlighted the importance of research, treatment and identifying

the minority of children who may be susceptible to vaccine damage." Chief among these convergent events is the case of Hannah Poling,

the nine-year-old daughter of neurologist Jon Poling, from Georgia.

In July 2000, aged 19 months, she received five different

vaccinations, against a total of nine diseases, in one day. Her

mother Terry says that when she entered the surgery, she was a

bright - even precocious - child. Within 48 hours, she had stopped

eating, ceased to respond to speech and become prone to episodes of

screaming and fever.Hannah Poling's case is part of the Omnibus Autism Proceeding

- 5,000 cases of regressive autism being looked at by the US

Vaccines Court, a body funded by a 75 cent levy on every vaccine

given in the US. In February, the US government agreed compensation

for her disabilities, having conceded, out of court, that her

condition had been "significantly aggravated" by vaccination.Initially, her case didn't appear to be of widespread

significance because she was found to have a dysfunction of the

mitochondria, the "batteries" in our cells that produce

energy essential for normal functioning. This abnormality made her

an unsuitable test case in any legal proceedings. But then the next child under consideration as a test case was

found to have a similar weakness, raising the possibility that a

small minority of children may, because of a genetic predisposition,

be more susceptible to the damaging side-effects of vaccination."It now looks as if 20 per cent of children with regressive

autism may have this weakness; some are saying 65 per cent,"

says Kirby. "The cause of this weakness could be genetic or environmental."The last point is crucial. Jon Poling, Hannah's father,

believes two triggers are needed before a child becomes severely

ill: possibly, an early vaccination which might compromise a

child's metabolic system, then a later one which results in

symptoms. There are various theories why this might be so. According

to David Kirby, even trace elements of mercury and aluminium (also

used in vaccines) might damage the mitochondria and could be passed

from mother to foetus.The actor Jim Carrey and his wife Jenny McCarthy believe that

McCarthy's son, Evan, was "vaccine-damaged" four

years ago, aged two. "In the Eighties. children received only

10 vaccines by age five, whereas today they are given 36

immunisations, most of them by age two," says McCarthy.

"With billions of pharmaceutical dollars, could it be possible

that the vaccine programme is becoming more of a profit engine then

a means of prevention?" On June 4 they will be leading a march

in Washington DC, waving banners saying "Too many. Too soon."To date there has been no successful legal challenge to MMR in the

UK. There is a Vaccine Damage Payments Unit which was set up in

1979, following concerns that the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine

could cause brain damage (the vaccine has since been changed).advertisement & lt;a

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src="http://view.atdmt.com/VDF/view/dvrtkvdc0130000032vdf/direct/01/1789014489"/ & gt; & lt;/a & gt;However, compensation is capped at £120,000 (including legal

costs) and disability thresholds are high. Only two out of 53 claims

were successful in the year to April 2008 - neither of them for autism."Under the US system, a person may receive an award if they

can prove the vaccine caused an existing condition to get

worse," explains a spokesperson for the Department of Work and

Pensions. "This provision doesn't exist in the UK system,

where… payments are made when it can be shown that it was more

probable than not that someone became severely disabled as a result

of vaccination."In the civil courts, more than 1,000 cases were being prepared for

a group MMR action until, in September 2003, legal aid was

withdrawn. No reason was given. Following the success of the Poling

case in the US, Peter Todd of London solicitors Hodge, Jones &

Allen, has 200 clients who want to reapply for legal aid. He

believes vaccines could be linked to a whole range of neurological

and auto-immune disorders - epilepsy, childhood diabetes, arthritis,

and even attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)."Vaccines are designed not to infect but to stimulate the

immune system into making a response, so it would not be surprising

if they were implicated in auto-immune disorders," Todd says.

"Even if the condition was underlying, vaccines may have

materially affected its onset."The vaccine hypothesis was bolstered recently by a five-year study

in monkeys who were given the same vaccinations that American

children are routinely given. Last week, Dr Laura Hewitson, a

specialist in obstetrics, gynaecology and reproductive sciences at

the University of Pittsburgh, told the International Meeting for

Autism Research in London that in the double-blind

placebo-controlled study, 13 vaccinated animals showed increased

aggression, impaired cognitive skills and developmental delay.. The

three unvaccinated animals in the study developed normally. "There was a significant difference between the two

groups," said Hewitson. "The vaccinated group had trouble

developing reflexes?… They also became more insular and more

aggressive. There was an increase in aggressive behaviour after they

had their MMR vaccines, and they stopped exploring their

surroundings as much."Abnormal brain activity was found in the monkeys, and higher

sensitivity to a naturally occurring brain chemical linked to

sleeplessness, hallucinations, lack of social skills and a high pain

threshold - all symptoms found in children on the autistic spectrum.

The monkeys also exhibited abnormalities of the amygdala, the part

of the brain which regulates emotions."We can't conclude that vaccines cause autism from this

study," said Hewitson, "What we can conclude is that the

vaccinated monkeys showed significant negative behavioural

differences before and after the MMR."Certainly autism appears to have increased dramatically. In the

early Nineties prevalence in the UK was put at four or five per

10,000. In 2006, The Lancet put it at one in 86 and, last year,

Cambridge University's Autism Research Centre estimated that

some 210,000 children - one in 58 - suffer from an autistic spectrum disorder.Few people believe that vaccination programmes should cease. The

vast majority of children benefit from being protected against a

range of diseases, but there are concerns that some may be paying a

high price for immunity. Already there is a sense of panic coming

from Government circles about the future of the immunisation

programme. Earlier this month Labour MP, Mary Creagh, proposed that children

should not be allowed to attend school if they haven't had all

their jabs; last week it emerged that doctors in the south-east of

England were giving children two doses of MMR in a three-month

interval (the usual regime is at 13 months and then aged 3) to

prevent a measles outbreak spreading beyond the capital.Of course further research is needed into the early identification

of autism and its causes. However the new evidence from the US

suggests that screening children for mitochondrial dysfunction

(there are "markers" in the blood of affected children)

may also be beneficial.Delays in vaccinating children who display asthma, eczema, food

allergies and other signs of a compromised immune system should also

be considered, as well as a ban on "catching up" -

children who have missed immunisation being given vaccines in a

shorter time period - which could overload a young system. advertisement & lt;script

language='JavaScript1.1'

src='http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/adj/N3784.AD.com/B2804119.8;abr=!ie;sz=300x250;click=http://servedby.advertising.com/click/site=0000722760/mnum=0000556824/cstr=28110512=_483abfe9,3855055316,722760^556824^291^0,1_/bnum=28110512/optn=64?trg=;ord=3855055316?' & gt; & lt;/script & gt;Many parents believe that provision of single vaccines on the NHS

would allay concern further and that some vaccinations should be

scheduled for later in childhood when immune systems are stronger.

The alternative may be another panic.Additional reporting by Sally BeckDavid Kirby is giving a free public lecture on Wednesday 4th

June, 6.30-10pm at Regent Hall, 275 Oxford Street, London W1.© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2008 | Terms & Conditions of reading |

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