Doctors prefer to harm children than pay heed to Court decision.

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In face of lawsuit, U.S. health agencies stand behind safety of vaccines

 

By Liz SzaboUSA TODAY

 

Federal health officials restated their belief in the safety of childhood vaccines Thursday, reacting to questions raised by a government settlement with the family of a 9-year-old Georgia girl, who developed neurological problems shortly after receiving childhood shots.

The government agreed to pay the family from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in November. The issue has rekindled the autism and vaccine debate — on the Internet and in the media — in the past few days. The Associated Press obtained documents about the case from the Department of Health and Human Services, where the vaccine-compensation program is located. The amount of the settlement hasn't been set yet.

U.S. officials have not said vaccines caused the girl's autism-like symptoms. Instead, officials said the shots exacerbated the girl's underlying medical condition, an extremely rare disorder of the mitochondria, which are energy-producing structures inside the cell.

"Nothing in any of this is going to change our recommendations for childhood immunizations," Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news conference. "Our message to parents is that immunization is lifesaving. … This was a very special situation. "

CDC officials explained that mitochondrial disorders, which make it hard for cells to produce enough energy, can be triggered by a variety of events, from fevers to the types of infections against which vaccines protect children.

Children with this predisposition may appear normal at first, said Edwin Trevathan, a CDC neurologist and expert on mitochondrial disorders. An illness that puts the body under stress can leave cells struggling to produce enough energy. That can hurt the brain the most because it needs so much energy. "It makes it extremely difficult for parents to watch their previously normal-appearing child suddenly deteriorate," he said. He said most autistic children don't have mitochondrial disorders.

At their news conference Thursday in Atlanta, Terry and Jon Poling described how their daughter changed after receiving several childhood shots in 2000, when she was about 18 months old. She quickly became feverish and irritable, they said.

"Suddenly my daughter was no longer there," Terry Poling said. She said her daughter, Hannah, has been diagnosed with autism.

She and her husband called on the government to remove thimerosal — a mercury-based preservative — from all flu shots. It has been removed from other vaccinations.

The National Autism Association called Hannah's situation a landmark court case, though the Polings' attorney, Clifford Shoemaker, said, "This was not a court decision."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Find this article at: http://www.usatoday..com/printedition/news/20080307/a_vaccine07.art.htm

 

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