Secret British MMR Vaccine Files Forced Open By Legal Action

Secret British MMR Vaccine Files Forced Open By Legal Action

The UK’s Daily Mail newspaper reports today that the British government was desperately trying to prevent secret files on the proven dangerous Pluserix MMR vaccine from being released publicly under the UK’s Freedom Of Information laws.  In a recent case they have been forced to open the files up to scrutiny:-

And here is some of what will be discovered.

British Government’s Reckless Disregard for Child Health Safety

The UK’s Department of Health and others appear to have been reckless as to the safety of British children over the manner in which Glaxo company, Smith Kline & French Laboratories Ltd’s Pluserix MMR was introduced and used on British Children in 1988

• the problems with Pluserix MMR were known to the supplier, Glaxo company Smith Kline & French Laboratories Ltd from the experience of its introduction to Canada, in 1986, where Pluserix was marketed under the name “Trivirix”

• Trivirix (Pluserix) was withdrawn from use in Canada in 1988 because it was dangerous, causing high levels of adverse reactions in children

• the high levels of British adverse reactions to the vaccine were apparent and known about at British Ministerial level in 1990, as shown by ministerial correspondence

 
• Pluserix/Trivirx are the identical vaccine manufactured in the identical Smith Kline factory in Belgium and with the exact same component parts and constituents

 
• despite the Canadian position and contemporaneously with the final withdrawal of Pluserix/Trivirix in Canada the UK signed the contract to purchase Pluserix MMR from Glaxo company, Smith Kline & French Laboratories Limited in July 1988, even though it was known by then to be too dangerous for use on our children
  

 
• SK&F was provided with a blanket indemnity in that contract by the NHS Procurement Directorate
  

 
• the contract was signed up by the backdoor through the North East Thames Regional Health Authority as agent for the NHS Procurement Directorate rather than being a contract directly entered into with the NHS Procurement Directorate which negotiated the contract or the NHS Executive of the time
  

 
• there was no Parliamentary scrutiny of this and it seems to have been effected in a manner Ministerially deniable

 
• similar problems were experienced in Japan with the Japanese MMR vaccine which, in common with Pluserxi/Trivirix, contained the Urabe strain of mumps virus

 
• the Japanese MMR was also withdrawn by 1992 on safety grounds having caused high levels of adverse reactions

 
• the British government continued the licence for Pluserix MMR after 1992, which enabled it to be supplied overseas

 
• even today, because it is cheaper than safer alternatives, organisations like UNICEF continue supplying urabe strain containing MMR vaccine to the more adverse reaction vulnerable and less well nourished third world children
  

 
• since 1998, statistical paper after paper has been published in a blaze of publicity, claiming no evidence of an association between the MMR vaccine and autism, but when all the noise has died down, on subsequent careful examination, each one has been found to be flawed

 
• other than the Royal Free’s paper, no clinical studies of the MMR child litigants were undertaken or published
  

 
• after being put under financial pressure by the British Government, in 2005 the Oxford based Cochrane Collaboration published a systematic review of all prior papers and its authors claimed to conclude the MMR vaccine was safe:-
   
  • it was shown the authors had violated the standards of evidence-based medicine and
  • their conclusions were not supported by the body of the review
  • and it later was discovered that the British Department of Health had increased the funding for Cochrane’s Oxford administration by £1 million per annum and extended the contracts of its British groups.

 

 

Autism Explosion Followed Big Change in MMR Shot

Olmsted on Autism: Autism Explosion Followed Big Change in MMR Shot

By Dan Olmsted

In 1990, Merck & Co., manufacturer of the mumps-measles-rubella vaccine known as the MMR, made a significant but little-noticed change: It quadrupled the amount of mumps virus in the combination shot, from 5,000 to 20,000 units. Then in 2007 it reversed course, reducing the amount to 12,500 units. Neither the measles nor the rubella (German measles) component of the MMR was changed at all — each remained at 1,000 units throughout.
 
Merck also makes the single-component mumps shot, and in 1990 it also increased the potency of that shot by the same amount, from 5,000 to 20,000 units. But unlike the MMR shot, the standalone mumps shot’s potency was not scaled back in 2007. It remains at 20,000 units.
 
These changes were mentioned in passing recently during an informal conversation with a Merck scientist. I started looking for an explanation for the sequence of events, but Merck did not respond to a detailed written request for comment.
 
Absent such an explanation, simple logic dictates the reduction had something to do with the MMR in particular rather than the mumps vaccine in isolation. But what? And what about the timing — the increase in 1990 and the decrease in 2007?

 
The huge rise in autism cases began about the time the mumps component in the MMR was raised in 1990. One theory, dismissed by Merck and federal public health officials, is that viral interference between the components in the MMR could create a persistent sub-clinical measles infection in a subset of vulnerable children; and because the measles virus can cause brain damage, that could lead to autism.
 
A study released last week by the M.I.N.D. Institute at UC Davis reported that most of the fivefold increase in full-syndrome autism — from 9 in 10,000 children in 1990 to 44 in 10,000 children in 2000– is real and cannot be accounted for by broader categories or diagnostic substitution. And from 1990 to 2007, the mumps portion of the MMR was higher by roughly the same amount — quadruple.
 
Merck’s decision to cut back on the increase in the mumps vaccine also is surrounded by interesting timing.  The cutback, in 2007, came at the same time Merck announced it was suspending its recently introduced, much-hyped four-in-one shot, ProQuad — the MMR with the chickenpox vaccine added to it. In suspending ProQuad, Merck cited a shortage of chickenpox vaccine; subsequently, a study showed ProQuad caused twice as many fever-induced seizures as separate MMR and chickenpox shots given at the same time, and a CDC advisory committee withdrew its preferential recommendation of the vaccine. Merck won’t say when ProQuad will return to the market.
 
An investigation I conducted while at UPI in 2006 found two cases of regressive autism in one small city — Olympia, Wash. — in clinical trials leading up to approval of the vaccine. Merck said the parents originally failed to report those cases to it (though the pediatricians paid to conduct the studies for Merck certainly knew about them and would have been expected to report them); the company alerted the FDA only after my inquiry.

The Merck scientist I spoke with recently also acknowledged that viral interference can affect the potency of individual MMR ingredients; that explains why the company added a whopping dose of chickenpox vaccine to the ProQuad shot, several times more than the standalone chickenpox vaccine contains. Using the same amount of chickenpox vaccine in the MMR shot as the standalone vaccine simply wouldn’t have protected children against the disease, because more virus was needed to offset the interference from the other components.
 
A significant number of parents of children with regressive autism cite the MMR as the proximate cause — they say their child was developing normally until the shot, then in many cases had a serious physical reaction within a short period of time and began losing developmental milestone and showing typical signs of the disorder. Some also developed severe gastrointestinal problems, an ailment first described in cases of regressive autism following the MMR shot by Dr. Andrew Wakefield in Britain in 1998; he named it autistic enterocolitis and found measles RNA in the children’s GI tract, suggesting persistent infection.
 
In looking at whether the increase in mumps potency in 1990 could buttress this theory of the autism epidemic, two questions arise: Is there evidence that increasing the mumps portion of the MMR could have any impact on measles infectivity or create symptoms consistent with those described by Wakefield and parents? And, could ProQuad’s higher rate of measles rash and fever-induced seizures be a warning sign that something is amiss with the MMR itself, especially beginning in 1990 when Merck tinkered with the proportions of the components?
 
The answers seem to be, yes and yes.
 
In the real world, children rarely get two viral illnesses at once — for instance, chickenpox and rubella. But when they do, viruses tend to interact — or interfere — with each other in unpredictable and synergistic ways. One example: Studies in the UK and Iceland showed that when mumps AND measles epidemics hit these populations in the same year, the risk of inflammatory bowel disease spiked. That’s an epidemiological argument for immune interference, and a striking fit with the observations by Wakefield, and thousand of parents, that a similar condition occurs in many children with regressive autism after they get the measles-mumps-rubella shot.
 
A related finding comes from a study funded by Merck.  In 2005, the study reported that the four-in-one ProQuad shot — the MMR and chickenpox — was “generally well tolerated” and had a safety profile similar to the MMR and the chickenpox shot (also made by Merck and called Varivax) when given separately.
 
But there were a couple of interesting differences. First, “Measles-like rash and fever during days 5-12 were more common after the first dose of MMRV [ProQuad]” than after the MMR and Varivax given separately. The difference was substantial — 5.9 percent who got the MMRV had the rash and 27.7 percent had fever, compared to 1.9 percent with rash and 18.7 fever after getting separate shots. While that did not alarm the researchers, it could be a foreshadowing of the doubled rate of fever-induced seizures that was spotted after ProQuad was approved.
 
Second, even though the new element in ProQuad was the chickenpox portion, something new and unexpected was also going on with the mumps and measles components. “Geometric mean titers to measles and mumps were significantly higher after 1 dose of MMRV than after administration” of MMR and Varivax separately, according to the study’s summary. Later, the authors state: “This suggests that the measles and mumps virus replication is greater after MMRV than it is” after the MMR and Varivax given separately.
 
In non-scientific language, it looks like the addition of another live virus — chickenpox — potentiated the measles and mumps components: It kicked both viruses into higher gear and they replicated at rates higher than in the MMR. At the same time, the researchers observed a greater incidence of measles-like rash, and fever, in those who got ProQuad. Were the increased measles and mumps viruses interacting in some unexpected and potentially dangerous way?
 
Then, for whatever reason, sometime between February and December of last year Merck reduced the mumps component of the MMR from 20,000 units to 12,500 while leaving the standalone mumps shot as it was. During that same period, it decided to suspend production of ProQuad. In April 2007, it announced the suspension, and said no more would be available after July. Then in early 2008, Merck’s study showing the doubled risk of seizures in ProQuad was unveiled and the CDC withdrew its recommendation.
 
And just last month, Merck said it would stop making the individual MMR component shots including, of course, the mumps shot. That leaves the MMR as the only vaccine in town, and it means there will no longer be a mumps vaccine formulation on the market with the dose the MMR contained from 1990 to 2007.
 
None of this might matter if not for the fact that measles is capable of causing cause catastrophic brain damage and death; that’s an argument for the measles vaccine. In medical parlance, it’s a neurotoxic virus.
 
“The invasion of the CNS [central nervous system] by MV [measles virus] is apparently not an uncommon event, as reflected by the finding of genomic sequences in normal autopsy cases and the widespread distribution of MV in in neurons, glial cells and vascular endothelial cells of the diseased brain,” according to “Measles Virus Infections of the Central Nervous System” by Uwe G. Liebert of the University of Leipzeig, Germany, published in Intervirology in 1997. “The susceptibility of the host as well as his age and immune status at the time of infection constitutes significant factors for disease progression.”
 
Merck acknowledges the three viruses can indeed interact to affect a child’s immune system, although in ways it says are not harmful.
 
A Merck scientist publicly discussed the interference issue at a CDC meeting in 2004, the year before ProQuad was approved, according to agency minutes. Dr. Florian Schodel “confirmed the possibility that the chickenpox virus component of ProQuad was causing a local immune suppression and an increase in measles virus replication. … The current hypothesis is that the varicella and measles virus are co-infecting the same or proximate areas of the body and engaging in a specific interaction, but how that works is as yet unknown.
 
“He said the interference appeared to involve only the chickenpox and measles viruses – ‘there is no such effect for the mumps or rubella vaccines administered locally at the same time.'”
 
Yet based on Merck’s own 2005 study cited above, ProQuad triggers an increase in mumps virus replication, too. Live viruses in ProQuad seem to be behaving in ways “as yet unknown” that cause immune suppression, co-infection, interaction and increased replication. Even without ProQuad on the market, interaction between the MMR components and the chickenpox virus remains a possibility. The CDC started recommending the chickenpox shot in the mid-1990s at the same 12-month well-baby visit as the MMR. 
 
That suggests the pattern highlighted by ProQuad could be at work through the increased mumps component of the MMR and the addition of chickenpox to the childhood immunization schedule in the mid-1990s. The lesson could be that combining live viruses, and then increasing them or adding new ones, is inherently dangerous, especially when invasion of the brain by one of them “is not an uncommon event.”
 
As Andy Wakefield told me when I was working on the series in Olympia describing the children in the ProQuad clinical trials who became ill after the vaccination and subsequently regressed into autism: “It’s actually heartbreaking, listening to these parents, for more than just the immediate reasons their child has met this fate. It’s that you’re staring into an abyss,” Wakefield said. “You’re listening to stories which reflect the fundamental misconception of vaccine manufacturers of what viruses are and what they do.”
 
Two additional points worth noting: After the increase in 1990 and decrease in 2007, there is still more than twice as much mumps virus in the MMR as there was in 1990.
 
The changes in the mumps virus component of the MMR serves as a potent reminder of something else: MMR is not one thing but three different exposures. And over the period 1980-2009 the MMR has changed significantly at least twice, making epidemiological studies even more difficult to interpret.

Merck Stops Producing Vaccines Without Cells From Babies Killed in Abortions

Merck Stops Producing Vaccines Without Cells From Babies Killed in Abortions

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A leading pro-life group that educates about the vaccines that are based on the cells from babies killed in abortions is worried about a new decision from the pharmaceutical giant Merck. The company has decided to stop producing some vaccines that are not made based on fetal cells from abortions.

Merck & Co. Inc has stopped the production and sale of its monovalent vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella.

Instead, the company will focus on combination vaccine, MMRII, which accounts for 98 percent of the company’s sales of the vaccines targeting those diseases.

The monovalent vaccines account for only two percent of the total sales but they are important to the pro-life movement because they are produced based on animal cells and not from cells obtained from the bodies of babies killed in abortions.

“Merck’s separate dose for rubella, Meruvax, uses aborted fetal cell lines and taints the entire MMR II vaccine,” Debi Vinnedge of the pro-life group Children of God for Life tells LifeNews.com.

“The separate doses of Attenuvax (measles) and Mumpsvax (mumps) use chick embryo. Without these separate doses for measles and mumps, there will be no moral alternative for parents,” Vinnedge says.

Merck spokeswoman Amy Rose said the decision to eliminate the monovalent vaccines was made for both financial and health reasons.

“The combination vaccine is what’s recommended, and it’s such a significant portion of the orders we see,” she told AAFP. “It’s in the best interest of public health to make more of that rather than dedicate manufacturing capacity to monovalents.”

Rose said Merck has not decided if it will make the moral monovalent vaccines available for sale again in the future.

Vinnedge’s group issued Merck a letter on Tuesday asking the company to reconsider its decision.

She says millions of pro-life Americans “are deeply concerned with the use of aborted fetal cell lines in the rubella portion of your MMR II and other vaccines, I am asking you to reconsider your position.”

She also said parents have been willing to wait for the alternative vaccines to be produced and were willing to pay higher costs in order to give their children vaccines that are not abortion-based.

“Once again, many of these families are waiting for you to resume production and their children will be unprotected unless you provide the doses. They are already abstaining from rubella and some have even flown overseas to vaccinate their children. That is, in my view, a disgrace to American healthcare,” she said.

Vinnedge says Merck’s decision is far-reaching because Merck is the sole provider of these alternative vaccines.

ACTION: Contact Merck and express your desire for the company to reverse its decision and make the non-abortion vaccines available. Contact Richard Clark, CEO, Merck & Company, One Merck Drive P.O. Box 100, Whitehouse Station, NJ 08889-0100. Call 908-423-1000 or find more information at http://www.merck.com/contact

Related web sites:
Children of God for Life – http://www.cogforlife.org

MMR vaccine and Childhood Chronic Disease

Current childhood vaccine programs: An overview with emphasis on the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine and of its compromising of the mucosal immune system

 

– Harold E. Buttram, MD – (full text pdf) journal article (Medical Veritas) via VIC Vaccine Injury Coalition

Monovalent vaccines for Measles, Mumps, Rubella

Merck Focusing on Combination Vaccine

Manufacturer Stops Sales of Monovalents for Measles, Mumps, Rubella

By David Mitchell
12/24/2008

Merck & Co. Inc. has stopped production and sales of its monovalent vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella. The manufacturer instead plans to focus on its combination vaccine, MMRII.

Merck spokeswoman Amy Rose said MMRII accounts for 98 percent of the company’s volume for measles, mumps and rubella vaccines, compared to just 2 percent from monovalent vaccines Attenuvax (measles), Mumpsvax (mumps) and Meruvax (rubella).

“The combination vaccine is what’s recommended, and it’s such a significant portion of the orders we see,” said Rose. “It’s in the best interest of public health to make more of that rather than dedicate manufacturing capacity to monovalents.”

Rose said Merck had not decided when, or if, it might make the monovalent vaccines available for sale in the future.

Doug Campos-Outcalt, M.D., M.P.A., who serves as the AAFP’s liaison to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and is a former member of the AAFP Commission on Clinical Policies and Research, said Merck’s decision was insignificant in terms of public health. He added, however, that some parents likely will be unhappy.

“The use of the single antigen is pretty limited,” he said. “There’s no harm if you need one in getting all three. There are some parents out there that want a delayed vaccine schedule. They want the vaccines spread out over a longer period of time and not so many at once. That’s a lot of hooey. Alternative schedules have never been proven to be superior.”

MMR Vaccine

MMR vaccine is it safe or effective? You be the judge based on the medical literature that is available to you.

 

 The MMR vaccine consists of 3 live viruses for Measles, Mumps and Rubella. The MMR-V has live chicken pox added to the mix. It contains a weakened or partially inactivated, live measles virus which is grown in cell cultures of a chick embryo. A weakened live strain of mumps virus is grown in cell cultures of a chick embryo. A weakened Wistar RA 27/3 strain of live attenuated rubella virus which is grown in human diploid cell (W-38) culture originating from the tissues of a fetus aborted in 1964. There is no preservative such as Thimerosal(mercury). It contains the antibiotic neomycin, and Sorbitol and Hydrolyzed Gelatin as stabilizers. All three live viruses are available as single vaccines but doctors will most often tell you they are not available, or refuse to give them as separate vaccines.

 

 How it can shed to others:

 

Mumps vaccine virus genome is present in throat swabs obtained from uncomplicated healthy recipients. 
  
Seven children were followed for up to 42 days post-vaccination with live mumps vaccine and 37 throat swabs were obtained serially. Viral genomic RNA was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in the phosphoprotein (P) and hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) regions. Virus isolation was also attempted. Genomic differentiation of detected mumps virus genome was performed by sequence analysis and/or restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). No adverse reaction was observed in these children. Although mumps virus was not isolated from any of the samples, viral RNA was detected in four samples from three vaccine recipients, 18, 18 and 26, and 7 days after vaccination, respectively. Detected viral RNA was identified as the vaccine strain. Our data suggests that vaccine virus inoculated replicates in the parotid glands but the incidence of virus transmission from recipients to other susceptible subjects should be low. 

 

Detection of measles vaccine in the throat of a vaccinated child. 
   
Measles vaccine is widely used, most often in association with mumps and rubella vaccines. We report here the case of a child presenting with fever 8 days after vaccination with a measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. Measles virus was isolated in a throat swab taken 4 days after fever onset. This virus was then further genetically characterised as a vaccine-type virus. Fever occurring subsequent to measles vaccination is related to the replication of the live attenuated vaccine virus. In the case presented here, the vaccine virus was isolated in the throat, showing that subcutaneous injection of an attenuated measles strain can result in respiratory excretion of this virus. 
 

 Reactions to MMR Vaccine are Triphasic:

Any reactions that are 6 – 14 days are the measles component and usually show as temperature and rash, and sometimes seizures.

The second phase is between 11 and 32 days which is the mumps components. This can consist of temperature, seizures, and acquiring mumps.

The third phase can occur within the first 0 – 30 days, and is the rubella component. It can cause joint pain or arthritis. This most often occurs in adolescents and adults, and perhaps babies, but they wouldn’t be able to tell you.

 

  

 Delaying MMR until a child is older makes it ‘safer’? The reality is there is no ‘safe’ time to delay as reactions can occur at any time if the conditions are right. A 6 year old, or 12 year old child, or a young adult can have serious reactions or death associated with the vaccine. Parents can opt to have titer tests done first.

 

 

 

The CDC, AAP, FDA, NIH, etc., can say what they wish to the public and promote MMR and its safety, continue to put their heads in the sand, and talk out their rear ends, but let’s get real and look at some of the studies:

AAP Study: Relationship b/t MMR & Encephalitis w/ Perm. Brain Injury or Death.

  

 

The purpose of this study of claims submitted to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is to determine whether or not there is evidence for a causal relationship between the first dose of a currently used attenuated measles vaccine, MR, MMR, mumps, or rubella vaccine and encephalopathy of undetermined cause with permanent brain injury or death that occurred within 15 days after administration.

A total of 403 [compensation] claims of encephalopathy and/or seizure disorder after measles, MR, MMR, mumps, or rubella vaccination were identified during this 23-year period [1970-1993]. Of these claims, 48 (25 males and 23 females) met the inclusion criteria and acquired an acute encephalopathy of undetermined cause 2 to 15 days after receiving measles vaccine, MR, or MMR. This acute encephalopathy was followed by permanent brain impairment or death. The patients ranged in age from 10 months to 49 months, with a median age of 15 months and a mean age of 17.5 months.

Results
A total of 48 children, ages 10 to 49 months, met the inclusion criteria after receiving measles vaccine, alone or in combination. Eight children died, and the remainder had mental regression and retardation, chronic seizures, motor and sensory deficits, and movement disorders. The onset of neurologic signs or symptoms occurred with a nonrandom, statistically significant distribution of cases on days 8 and 9. No cases were identified after the administration of monovalent mumps or rubella vaccine.

Conclusions
This clustering suggests that a causal relationship between measles vaccine and encephalopathy may exist as a rare complication of measles immunization

 

 

  Former science chief: ‘MMR fears coming true’

 He said he has seen a “steady accumulation of evidence” from scientists worldwide that the measles, mumps and rubella jab is causing brain damage in certain children.

But he added: “There are very powerful people in positions of great authority in Britain and elsewhere who have staked their reputations and careers on the safety of MMR and they are willing to do almost anything to protect themselves.”

 In the late Seventies, Dr Fletcher served as Chief Scientific Officer at the DoH and Medical Assessor to the Committee on Safety of Medicines, meaning he was responsible for deciding if new vaccines were safe.

He first expressed concerns about MMR in 2001, saying safety trials before the vaccine’s introduction in Britain were inadequate.

Now he says the theoretical fears he raised appear to be becoming reality.

He said the rising tide of autism cases and growing scientific understanding of autism-related bowel disease have convinced him the MMR vaccine may be to blame.

“Clinical and scientific data is steadily accumulating that the live measles virus in MMR can cause brain, gut and immune system damage in a subset of vulnerable children,” he said. “There’s no one conclusive piece of scientific evidence, no ‘smoking gun’, because there very rarely is when adverse drug reactions are first suspected. When vaccine damage in very young children is involved, it is harder to prove the links.

“But it is the steady accumulation of evidence, from a number of respected universities, teaching hospitals and laboratories around the world, that matters here. There’s far too much to ignore. Yet government health authorities are, it seems, more than happy to do so.”

 “Yet there has been a tenfold increase in autism and related forms of brain damage over the past 15 years, roughly coinciding with MMR’s introduction, and an extremely worrying increase in childhood inflammatory bowel diseases and immune disorders such as diabetes, and no one in authority will even admit it’s happening, let alone try to…

 

 

   Very informative presentation:

The Seat of the Soul– The Origins of the Autism Epidemic

 

Sally Beck wrote an article on the study at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina titled “Scientists fear MMR link to autism”, which was similar to the one reported by Andrew Wakefield, MD, in 1998.

In the American study, 275 children with regressive autism and bowel disease
were evaluated. Of the 82 children completely tested, 70 proved positive for
the measles virus. Beck quoted Stephen Walker, MD, the team leader as
saying, “Of the handful of results we have in so far, all are vaccine strain
and none are wild measles. This research proves that in the gastrointestinal
tract of a number of children, who have been diagnosed with regressive
autism, there is evidence of measles virus.”

Very little was reported about the Wake Forest research in the American media. But with no surprise, immediately afterwards, this came out:

Reuters Health Information in New York published an account of a different study headlined “No Evidence of Measles Virus in MMR-Vaccinated Autistic Children.” It said “contrary to the findings of some earlier studies, measles virus genetic material was not detected in the blood of MMR-vaccinated autistic children with development regression, according to a report in the Journal of Medical Virology for May.”

 

 

 

So here we have two studies that are contradictory. What are the differences between the two studies?

 

 

 

 In the U.S. study, measles virus genomic RNA was actually found in the gut of 70 affected children and the viral results of another 200 children with typical gut pathology are still pending.

In the U.K. study, the researchers “could not detect” measles virus genetic material in the blood of 15 MMR-vaccinated children with autism.

It is essential to also point out that the above-mentioned M.A. Afzal is not N.A. Afzal, a pediatric gastroenterologist attached to the Centre for Pediatric Gastroenterology at The Royal Free Hospital, London, U.K. It was at the Royal Free Hospital that Andrew Wakefield practiced gastroenterology for years and where he was the shining star before he dared to “rock the boat” and was forced to resign. It is also at the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London that Brent Taylor, one of Wakefield’s most vocal critics, is professor of community pediatrics. N.A. Afzal published his first study with the Royal Free team in December 2002.  He published two more studies in 2004 and one in 2005. The abstracts of all four studies did not contain any reference to autism and vaccines.

M.A. Afzal, on the other hand, is a member of the virology department at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC). The Institute is a respected multi-disciplinary scientific establishment with national and international roles in the standardization and control of biological substances including viral and bacterial vaccines. Since 1976, the institute has been directly funded by the United Kingdom Health Departments.

But back to M.A. Afzal of the NIBSC, who according to Reuters was certain in 2006 that the measles virus material genuinely did not exist in the patients ‘ blood samples because he and his team did not find it. He must have been aware that a Japanese team from Tokyo University led by H. Kawashima had found the same “genetic material” in the blood of children with autism in 2000: “In order to characterize the strains that may be present, we have carried out the detection of measles genomic RNA in peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMC) in eight patients with Crohn’s disease, three patients with ulcerative colitis, and nine children with autistic enterocolitis…”

Kawashima discovered and reported that “the sequences obtained from the children with autism were consistent with being vaccine strains” and that the results were concordant with the exposure history of those children.

 

 

So how come Team Tokyo found vaccine-strain measles virus genomic RNA in peripheral mononuclear cells of vaccinated autistic children in 2000 and Team U.K. found nothing in 2006? The answer to that perplexing and rather sensitive question may be in a very interesting study that was published in the Journal of Medical Virology in May 2003, titled appropriately “Comparative evaluation of measles virus-specific RT-PCR methods through an international collaborative study” and authored by both Afzal and Kawashima, in addition to renowned experts A.D. Osterhaus, S.L. Cosby, L. Jin, J. Beeler and K. Takeuchi.

 

 

Measles infection and inflammatory bowel disease

Afzal and colleagues published “Absence of detectable measles virus genome sequence in inflammatory bowel disease tissues and peripheral blood lymphocytes” in the Journal of Medical Virology.  According to the authors, in spite of using a “highly sensitive measles-specific RT-PCR-nested PCR system,” they failed to detect the presence of measles virus in 93 colon biopsies and 31 peripheral blood lymphocyte preparations, examined and obtained from patients with IBD and non-inflammatory controls.

It seems from the above that M.A. Afzal was looking for evidence of viral presence in the colon (large intestine) and did not find any. Wakefield had better luck, a little later, when he looked for such evidence in the ileum. Afzal was certainly aware that the children tested by the Royal Free Team had ileal lymphonodular hyperplasia.

 

(Lancet. 1998.Feb 28; 351(9103): 646-7. PMID: 9500326) (J Med Virol. 2003 May; 70(1): 171-6. PMID: 12629660) (Absence of measles-virus genome in inflammatory bowel disease. Ital J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 1998 Aug; 30(4): 378-82. PMID: 9789132)  (Absence of detectable measles virus genome sequence in inflammatory bowel disease tissues and peripheral blood lymphocytes. J Med Virol. 1998 Jul; 55(3): 243-9.)

 

 

 

 

 

  Measles virus and Crohn’s disease

In April 1999, Wakefield, Montgomery and Pounder published “Crohn’s disease: the case for measles virus.”  They reported, “We and others have suggested that measles virus may be causally related to Crohn’s disease, and that the associated risk is an atypical pattern of exposure. The data for Crohn’s disease suggest that persistent infection may follow early low dose exposure and low zone immunological tolerance. The changing pattern of measles virus exposure this century would be consistent with a shift toward lower dose of infection. Such an exposure would also be consistent with persistence of the virus at very low copy number within discrete foci of granulomatous inflammation..”  Afzal, Minor, Armitage and Gosh published “Measles virus and Crohn’s disease” in June of the same year.  

(2000: MMR Wakefield AJ, Montgomery SM, Pounder RE. Crohn’s disease: the case for measles virus. Ital J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 1999 Apr; 31(3): 247-54. Review. PMID: 10379489.)  (Afzal MA, Minor PD, Armitage E, Ghosh S. Measles virus and Crohn’s disease. Gut. 1999 Jun; 44(6): 896-7. PMID: 10375297 Safety Review.)

“Measles, mumps, rubella vaccine: through a glass, darkly,” Wakefield and Montgomery reviewed the safety testing of MMR vaccine or lack thereof.

(Potential viral pathogenic mechanism for new variant inflammatory bowel disease. Mol Pathol. 2002 Apr; 55(2): 84-90. PMID: 11950955)

In “Clinical safety issues of measles, mumps and rubella vaccines,” Afzal, Minor and Schild did not directly respond but essentially reviewed all the studies that had been done by the anti-Wakefield camp and had failed to identify the presence of measles virus genomic RNA in patients with IBD. In the available abstract, M.A. Afzal stated, “Based on the published data reviewed here, it can be concluded that there is no direct association between measles virus or measles vaccines and the development of Crohn’s disease, a conclusion which is supported by most epidemiological findings.” (Bull World Health Organ. 2000; 78(2): 199-204. Review. PMID: 10743285)

As to the safety of the MMR vaccine, the Cochrane MMR Review: “The design and reporting of safety outcomes in MMR vaccine studies, both pre- and post-marketing, are largely inadequate.”

 

April 2002

 

In “Potential viral pathogenic mechanism for new variant inflammatory bowel disease,” Uhlmann and associates, including Wakefield, published results of their meticulous research. It revealed that “75 of 91 patients with a histologically confirmed diagnosis of ileal lymphonodular hyperplasia and enterocolitis were positive for measles virus in their intestinal tissue compared with five of 70 control patients. Measles virus was identified within the follicular dendritic cells and some lymphocytes in foci of reactive follicular hyperplasia. The copy number of measles virus ranged from one to 300,00 copies/ng total RNA.” The authors concluded, “The data confirm an association between the presence of measles virus and gut pathology in children with developmental disorder.” 

 

(Dig Dis Sci. 2000. Apr; 45(4): 723-9.)

 

March 2008-

 

 

MMR: Vaccine can cause blood disorder

 There’s more bad news for advocates of the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine with the discovery this week that it can cause a blood disorder.  Researchers have found that it may trigger immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), an immune system malfunction that destroys the body’s own blood platelets. The effect seems to last for an average of seven days, during which time the child’s platelet count could fall.

The risk is relatively low, say researchers, and one case of ITP will be caused per 40,000 vaccinations.  The risk appears to last for up to 42 days after vaccination.

Researchers from Kaiser Permanente Colorado, Denver analyzed the health profiles of more than 1 million children who had been vaccinated.  Of these, 259 developed ITP, and they reckon the vaccine was responsible for 76 per cent of these cases.

(Source: Pediatrics, 2008; 121: e687-e692).

 

 

 

Persistence of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Antibodies in an MMR-Vaccinated Cohort: A 20-Year Follow-up.

 

Conclusions.  A high rate of seropositivity was found 20 years after the first MMR dose, particularly for rubella and measles. Our results show that MMR vaccine–induced antibodies wane significantly after the second dose. According to epidemiological data, the protection induced by MMR vaccination in Finland seems to persist at least until early adulthood. However, the situation requires constant vigilance. (The Journal of Infectious Diseases 2008;197:950–956)

 

 MMR vaccine and Tylenol Use:

 Acetaminophen (paracetamol) use, measles-mumps-rubella vaccination, and autistic disorder: The results of a parent survey.

The present study was performed to determine whether acetaminophen (paracetamol) use after the measles-mumps-rubella vaccination could be associated with autistic disorder. This case-control study used the results of an online parental survey conducted from 16 July 2005 to 30 January 2006, consisting of 83 children with autistic disorder and 80 control children. Acetaminophen use after measles-mumps-rubella vaccination was significantly associated with autistic disorder when considering children 5 years of age or less (OR 6.11, 95% CI 1.42-26.3), after limiting cases to children with regression in development (OR 3.97, 95% CI 1.11-14.3), and when considering only children who had post-vaccination sequelae (OR 8.23, 95% CI 1.56-43.3), adjusting for age, gender, mother’s ethnicity, and the presence of illness concurrent with measles-mumps-rubella vaccination. Ibuprofen use after measles-mumps-rubella vaccination was not associated with autistic disorder. This preliminary study found that acetaminophen use after measles-mumps-rubella vaccination was associated with autistic disorder.

 We know that acetaminophen impairs the glutathione pathways, as well as hormone balance. The glutathione pathways are the same ones involved in naturally “chelating” out metals. Acetaminophen can also suppress the immune system and when given with Gardasil, results in a lower antibody development. Thus it can crash some aspects of the immune system. So, if autism results from a situation where if the immune system is suppressed and nutrition isn’t quite right, the body is not able to clear out heavy metals, and then anything can make that situation worse and contribute to the problem. This study does not mean that MMR is not implicated, but that Acetaminophen was part of an overall negative equation.

 

Proquad

 Children suffered higher rates of fever-related convulsions when they received the combination vaccine Proquad instead of two separate shots. The study (Nicola P. Klein, MD, PhD, a research scientist from Northern California Kaiser Permanente and co-director of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center) which included children ages 12 months through 23 months, found the rate of seizures was twice as high in toddlers who got ProQuad, compared with those who got separate shots for MMR and Chicken Pox (Varicella vaccine).

ProQuad was licensed in 2005 but had suspended production because of manufacturing problems. There is five times more chickenpox antigen in the ProQuad shot than in the Varicella vaccine.

 

ACIP approves MMRV vaccine revision 2008

Possible increased risk for febrile seizures found among children aged 12 to 23 months after receipt of MMRV vaccine.

“MMRV vaccine has not been widely distributed in the United States since June 2007 and is not expected to be available again until 2009; however, some providers might still have some supply in stock,” she said. “As far as postvaccination safety monitoring, in October 2007 following FDA review of adverse event reports submitted to VAERS and Merck’s worldwide adverse experience system, MMRV vaccine labeling was updated to include convulsion and febrile seizures among adverse reactions postvaccination.”

Quick Picks:

 

According to The New England Journal of Medicine, 60 percent of all measles cases among American school children between 1985 and 1986 occurred in those who were vaccinated.

  The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study in 1986, which showed that among 235 cases of student measles reported in Dane County, Wisconsin; more than 96 percent had received a measles vaccine. A study reported in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found that 58 percent of 1600 cases of measles in Quebec, Canada, in 1989 occurred in those who had already been vaccinated.  The World Health Organization has conceded that those administered the measles vaccine have a 14 times greater likelihood of contracting the disease than those who remain unvaccinated.

 

 Jamie Murphy “The vaccine can never duplicate the kind of immunity that we get from nature…When children get the measles after they’ve been vaccinated, they’re getting it from the vaccine and the virus (because there’s so much virus in the vaccine that stays in the body). When their resistance becomes lowered, that can become reactivated. Also, when a natural epidemic of measles occurs, as it does every three to four years in the United States, those children who have been vaccinated, because they did not get a true immunity from the vaccine, become susceptible to measles.”

 Vera Scheibner reports that “In April 1993, the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Japan decided to discontinue the use of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (Sawada et al., 1993). This decision was prompted by published reports of vaccinated children and their (unvaccinated) contacts contracting mumps from the MMR vaccine, and reports of one in 1044 vaccinees developing encephalitis.”

 

A study published in 1994 in the Archives of Internal Medicine evaluated all U.S. and Canadian articles reporting measles outbreaks in schools, and found that, on average, 77 percent of all measles cases in these outbreaks were occurring among vaccinated individuals. The authors concluded that “the apparent paradox is that as measles immunization rates rise to high levels in a population, measles becomes a disease of immunized persons.

 

 In 2007, a study performed at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases in South Africa reviewed the increase in mumps outbreaks in the UK and US. In the US, 56,000 cases were reported in 2004-2005. Many of these cases are occurring on college campuses. A mumps outbreak at a New York summer camp found that 96% of those infected had prior vaccination coverage. A similar outbreak in Nova Scotia among vaccinated adolescents and young adults has also been reviewed and it was found that the virus’ genotype was the same as that in the UK and US. These recent outbreaks have raised concerns among scientists about the effectiveness of the mumps vaccine in the MMR. According to the South African scientist, there may be a waning immunity towards mumps in the vaccinated population, which in time could make the vaccine ineffective. Belgian scientists came to the conclusion that the secondary mumps vaccination was a failure during a 2004 outbreak affecting 105 Belgian children from ages 3-12.

 Antibody levels 5 to 6 years after immunization with (the now discredited) high-potency EZ and high-potency Schwarz measles vaccine were insufficient in 40 percent and 50 percent of vaccinated children. The authors concluded, “Given the rapid decline in antibody titers over a 5- to 6-year period in an area where measles vaccine coverage was high, it seems likely that multiple-dose immunization schedules will be needed in the future to maintain protective antibody concentrations….”

 

As a consequence of the fact that antibody response to the vaccine virus is temporary, today we are facing cases of atypical measles occurring in infants under a year old, as well as in older children and in adults. Atypical measles is a severe disease that was first described in the early 70s in children, and later in adolescents and young adults exposed to the wild-type measles virus several years after being vaccinated with the killed or attenuated measles vaccine. The condition is characterized by atypical rash, high fever, cough, headache, and pneumonia. Further complications can include hepatitis, persistence of pulmonary lesions for several years, thrombocytopenia and other circulatory system problems, and cardiac involvement.

 

Another problem found with measles vaccination, documented in several studies, is that it produces immune suppression that contributes to an increased susceptibility to other infections.

The 60% of people who were vaccinated in 1970 have caused many of them to be susceptible to natural measles, because the shots were given too early. This is also why most analyses which profess to have a scientific element, go from the 1973 licensure.

Atypical measles explained by James Cherry: (PMID: 14765342. Page 505).