Boost vaccine safety

From Health Lover, Ilena Rosenthal
http://ilenarose.blogspot.com


Boost vaccine safety
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/o...nged_0812.html

By MARGARET DUNKLE
Published on: 08/12/08

In recent months, a vitriolic public health debate has been taking
place, sparked by the case of Hannah Poling, a 9-year-old Georgia girl
with autism. Her parents, neurologist Jon Poling and his wife, Terry,
filed in federal no-fault vaccine court, asserting that vaccines
caused their daughter's condition and asking for compensation for the
lifelong care Hannah will require.

Without a formal hearing, the federal government conceded the nine
vaccines Hannah received on July 19, 2000, significantly aggravated an
underlying medical condition — mitochondrial dysfunction, or an
impaired functioning of how cells create energy. This predisposed
Hannah "to deficits in cellular energy metabolism and manifested as a
regressive encephalopathy with features of autism spectrum disorder."
In simple terms, Hannah has autism.

photo

Jon (left) and Terry Poling with daughter Hannah, who has autism. The
federal government conceded that vaccines Hannah received in July 2000
significantly aggravated an underlying medical condition,
mitochondrial dysfunction, an impaired functioning of how cells create
energy.


This concession, which became public in March, has prompted strong
reactions. Some government officials are, ironically, fueling public
distrust of immunizations by failing to acknowledge — much less
address — emerging vaccine safety issues. And every day, more parents
and some pediatricians reject the vaccination schedule.

Former National Institutes of Health Director Bernadine Healy has
entered the debate, saying the scientific community should never turn
its back on a hypothesis out of fear for what it might reveal: If you
know there is a susceptible group, she said in a television interview,
"you can save those children. If you turn your back on the notion
there is a susceptible group ... what can I say?"

Yet, amazingly, just last month the Federal Interagency Autism
Coordinating Committee refused to mention vaccine safety in its
strategic plan.

The matter is urgent. One in every 150 children has an autism spectrum
disorder. Mitochondrial dysfunction is not rare among these children.
The best evidence suggests that at least 4 percent — and perhaps 20
percent or more — of autistic children have mitochondrial dysfunction.

With stakes this high, it's time for policy-makers to take five
common-sense steps to ensure that more children are not damaged by the
very vaccines intended to protect them.

• With Marshall Plan dispatch, Congress should launch a bold,
nothing-off-the-table program of basic scientific research on the role
of mitochondrial dysfunction and neuro-inflammation in autism and
other disorders. Funding — $200 million for starters — must not be
taken from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

• Reform vaccine practices so they are as safe as possible for both
children in general and susceptible subgroups. Examine the schedule,
number and frequency of vaccines, use of combination vaccines,
preservatives used and ages at which vaccines are administered. Find
ways to identify children for whom vaccination or another event might
cause or worsen mitochondrial dysfunction, leading to autism. Study
siblings to identify biological markers that could lead to prevention,
screening and treatment.

• Piggyback new research onto existing efforts. Use the Newborn
Screening Saves Lives Act to propel advances concerning genetic and
metabolic disorders. Modify the National Children's Study to test
alternate vaccine schedules. And integrate new analyses into ongoing
studies, such as mitochondrial research already under way at Johns
Hopkins University and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

• Identify children nationwide who have abrupt developmental
regressions, including those that are vaccine-related, and speed them
into research and intense early intervention. And strengthen the
Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, including imposing serious
consequences for health care providers who do not report bad
reactions.

• Improve the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Encourage parents
to focus on early intervention by allowing longer than three years to
file. Update the Vaccine Injury Table, making it easier for families
to receive compensation as new discoveries emerge. And explore
limiting compensation to the most critical immunizations, returning
adverse reactions from other vaccines to the regular court system.

A loud wake-up call from a beautiful little redheaded girl from
Georgia has provided policy-makers with a historic opportunity to
tackle critical issues of vaccine safety. If they fail to answer, what
can I say?

— Margaret Dunkle, Hannah Poling's great-aunt, directs the Early
Identification and Intervention Collaborative for Los Angeles County.
She is a senior fellow at the Center for Health Services Research and
Policy at George Washington University.

In article ,
Ilena Rose wrote:
From Health Lover, Ilena Rosenthal
http://ilenarose.blogspot.com


Boost vaccine safety
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/o...nged_0812.html

And how are you going to do it?

There is no such thing as a safe effective drug.
Everything has risks and benefits.
--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University
Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558

Herman Rubin wrote:
In article ,
Ilena Rose wrote:
From Health Lover, Ilena Rosenthal
http://ilenarose.blogspot.com


Boost vaccine safety
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/o...nged_0812.html

And how are you going to do it?


Did you read the article or only the subject line?

There is no such thing as a safe effective drug.
Everything has risks and benefits.

It does not mean safety cannot be improved.

In message , Herman Rubin wrote:

And how are you going to do it? *

Not her problem. However, she's going to insist that it be
stopped until perfect safety is proven. (I leave as an
exercise for the reader to design an experiment to prove
perfect safety.)

--
| The brighter the stupid burns, the more |
| chance that someone will see the light. |
+- D. C. Sessions -+