Hepatitis B Vaccine Triples the Risk of Autism in Infant Boys

Sept. 17, 2009 (www.ageofautism.com)

http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/09/d...boys.html#more

David Kirby: New Study: Hepatitis B Vaccine
Triples the Risk of Autism in Infant Boys
By David Kirby

"The science is largely complete. Ten
epidemiological studies have shown MMR vaccine
doesn't cause autism; six have shown thimerosal doesn't cause autism."
-- Dr. Paul Offit, "Autism's False Prophets"

"16 studies have shown no causal association
between vaccines and autism, and these studies
carry weight in the scientific industry."
-- Dr. Nancy Snyderman, NBC Today Show Medical Editor

Conventional wisdom holds that the autism-vaccine
question has been "asked and answered," and that
least 16 large, well-constructed epidemiological
studies have thoroughly addressed and debunked
any hypothesis that childhood vaccination is in
any way associated with an increased risk for autism spectrum disorders.

But there are several critical flaws in such an
oversimplified generalization, and they are
rarely given close examination by public health
experts or members of the media.

To begin with, it is unscientific and perilously
misleading for anyone to assert that "vaccines
and autism" have been studied and that no link
has been found. That's because the 16 or so
studies constantly cited by critics of the
hypothesis have examined just one vaccine and one vaccine ingredient.

The current US childhood immunization schedule
calls for 28 injections with 11 different
vaccines against 15 different diseases by two
years of age. Of those 11 vaccines, only the
Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) shot has been studied
in association with autism, (although a CDC study
of an MMR-plus-chickenpox vaccine did show that
the risk for febrile seizures in infants was doubled.)

Meanwhile, those 11 vaccines contain scores of
ingredients, only one of which, thimerosal, has
ever been tested in association with autism.

It is illogical to exonerate all vaccines, all
vaccine ingredients, and the total US vaccine
program as a whole, based solely on a handful of
epidemiological studies of just one vaccine and
one vaccine ingredient. It is akin to claiming
that every form of animal protein is beneficial
to people, when all you have studied is fish.

Now, a new study has shown that giving Hepatitis
B vaccine to newborn baby boys more than triples
the associated risk of developing an autism spectrum disorder.

An abstract of the study was published in the
September, 2009 issue of the respected journal
Annals of Epidemiology. In it, Carolyn Gallagher
and Melody Goodman of the Graduate Program in
Public Health at Stony Brook University Medical
Center, NY, wrote that, "Boys who received the
hepatitis B vaccine during the first month of
life had 2.94 greater odds for ASD compared to
later- or unvaccinated boys. Non-Hispanic white
boys were 61% less likely to have ASD." The
authors used U.S. probability samples obtained
from National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) 1997*2002 datasets.

The conclusion states that: "Findings suggest
that U.S. male neonates vaccinated with hepatitis
B vaccine had a 3-fold greater risk of ASD; risk
was greatest for non-white boys."

The authors noted that an earlier study by them
found that hepatitis B vaccination was associated
with receipt of early intervention/special
education services (EIS); in probability samples
of U.S. children, and that "children with
autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) comprise a growing caseload for EIS."
The author's new study used a different database
than their earlier study (NHIS vs. NHANES) and
they found same thing, suggesting a validation of their findings.

Critics will point out that this sample was
limited to boys born before 1999, so the results
are only applicable to that U.S. male birth
cohort, and that the study's cross-sectional
design limits inferences on causality. Another
weakness is that the autism diagnoses were parent reported.

On the other hand, these results are
generalizable to US boys age 3-17 born prior to
1999; vaccination status was confirmed through
medical records; and there was controlling for
confounders that may be associated with care
seeking behaviors. (The P-value equaled 0.032)
The full manuscript is currently under review by another journal.

Assuming that the full manuscript is published in
a peer-reviewed journal, it will be among the
first university-based population studies to
suggest an association between a vaccine and an
increased risk for autism. And that would be in
direct contradiction to all those MMR and
thimerosal studies that purportedly found no such link.

Does that mean that Hepatitis B vaccine causes
autism? Of course not (though any relative risk
above 2.0 is general considered to prove causation in a US court of law).

But there are other studies, both published and
greatly anticipated, which might support a
hypothesized causal association between HepB vaccine and ASD, at least in
boys.

Any day now, data culled from CDC's Autism and
Developmental Disabilities Monitoring network
(ADDM), is expected to be published in the
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, and the
numbers are expected to put the rate of autism at around 1 in 100, or
higher.

ADDM researchers examine the education and (when
possible) medical records of all eight-year-old
children in selected US cities and states. They
look only at eight-year-old cohorts to allow time
for all diagnoses to be made, reported and counted.

So far, ADDM has published data from just two
birth cohorts: children born in 1992
(eight-year-olds in 2000) and those born in 1994
(eight-year-olds in 2002). The 1992 cohort
revealed an estimated ASD rate of one in 166, or
60-per-10,000. (This has since been revised to 67-per-10,000, or one in
150).

But CDC data for the same six ADDM locations
showed an increase in ASD from 6.7 for 1992 births to 7.4 for 1994 births.

And now the total average number expected to
exceed 100-per-10,000 for the 1996 birth cohort,
born just two years later. The overarching question, of course, will be,
"why?"

There are many possible explanations, though a
50% increase in just two years is astonishing, no matter what its cause.

One possible answer is the Hepatitis B vaccine,
(which also contained 25 micrograms of mercury
containing thimerosal up until 2002). Introduced
in 1991, it was the first vaccine ever given on a
population basis to newborn babies (within the
first three hours after delivery) in human history.

But according to the CDC's National Immunization
Survey, only 8% of infant children received the
Hep B vaccine in 1992, when that birth cohort showed an ASD rate of
1-in-150.

By 1994, the number of children receiving Hep B
vaccine at birth had reached just 27% --and the
same cohort showed a 10% ASD increase in
locations where both years were measured.

But by 1996, Hep B coverage rate had risen to
82%. And that is the cohort whose ASD rate rose
to around 100-per-10,000 or more.

Correlation, obviously, does not equal causation.
But the uptake rate of that particular
immunization is at least one environmental factor
that did demonstrably change during the period in question.

In addition, some recent studies and vaccine
court decisions have supported the contention
that Hepatitis B vaccine can damage myelin -- the
nervous system's main insulating component -- at
least in certain genetically susceptible adults and infants.

A study published last October in the journal
Neurology found that children who received the
Hepatitis B vaccine series were 50% more likely
to develop "central nervous system inflammatory
demyelination" than children who did not receive the vaccine.

Most of this increase was due to the Engerix B
brand of the vaccine, manufactured by the UK's
GlaxoSmithKline. That brand increased the risk of
demyelination by 74%, and patients with confirmed
multiple sclerosis were nearly three times more
likely to develop the disorder.

"Hepatitis B vaccination does not generally
increase the risk of CNS inflammatory
demyelination in childhood," the authors
concluded. "However, the Engerix B vaccine
appears to increase this risk, particularly for
confirmed multiple sclerosis, in the longer term.
Our results require confirmation in future studies."

Let's hope that future studies of neonatal HebB
administration, demyelinating disorders, and ASD
are completed as quickly as possible.

David Kirby is author of Evidence of Harm, a
founding contributor to Huffington Post and a
contributor to Age of Autism. His next book,
Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial
Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the
Environment will be released within the year and
is available now for pre-order at Amazon.

On Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:03:51 +0100, "john" wrote:

David Kirby: New Study: Hepatitis B Vaccine
Triples the Risk of Autism in Infant Boys
By David Kirby

That is crap.
--
POLICE - POLIZEI - POLITIE - POLICIA

http://www.ariplex.com/ama/amapolis.htm