Why Researchers Say That There is NOT a Link Between Vaccines and Autism

There are many parents that are convinced that their children’s autism comes from the vaccines in which they are given. If the researchers and government claim to disprove the theory that they give, scientists that side with them are able to generate new hypotheses and reasons for the disorder seen in their children. Firstly, they argued that the MMR vaccine was seen as the reason for the developmental disorder. Because autism symptoms generally begin the same time (12-15 months) as the vaccine is given, researchers say that there is no correlation between the two and that it is just a coincidence. Secondly, people say that thimerosal , a mercury preservative, causes autism. This was disproved because as thimerosal was removed from vaccines, autism rates were still increasing, which would nto occur if this was the cause.

The final “cause” of autism given by parents, is that an immune response is triggered when too many vaccines are given at once, leading to a weakening of the immune system. This definitely seems like it could be the most plausible reason, but after looking further, studies and researchers show that children take in more than the little amount given in the vaccines. I do have a problem with this explanation though. While it is true that children take in more of certain diseases and sicknesses than present in the vaccines, we have not studied the specific interactions between different things. The environment and genetics in a child could certainly affect the side effects and possibly if any developmental problems are developed.

Many studies have been done though to refute the claim that autism is linked to vaccines. When families try to bring the cases to court, it is impossible to win because no studies show a definite link between the two. Infinite numbers of claims can be made, along with coincidences and possible correlations, but until there is definite proof, if there is any, no one can say for sure that vaccinations lead to autism. 

Sources: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091008131852.htm, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090130093407.htm

Do Vaccines Cause Autism?

 

In this video, Jim Moody, a lawyer, says that we know that the MMR vaccine is linked to autism; we just do not “have a body count”. He argues that the government makes its citizens take these vaccines and then claims that these vaccines to not cause autism. Lynn Koegel of the Koegel Autism Center, on the other hand, has researched the causes of autism and she says that she knows the vaccines are not causing autism. Many people also believe that the mercury preservative that used to be in vaccines is another cause of autism. Koegel argues that if this was the case, then when the mercury was removed from vaccines in 1999, the rate of autism would have decreased. Unfortunately, this was not the case and instead, even more children are being diagnosed with the developmental disorder.

So the question still remains: do vaccines cause autism? On one side, you have Jim Moody arguing that the side effects of the MMR vaccine are still unknown and its safety has not been demonstrated because scientific studies that validate the safety of the vaccine schedule have never been done (unlike Koegel who says that too much time has been put into this). He has 31 studies to show that there are dangers, but it is argued that none of them show that vaccines are linked to autism. This supports Lynn Koegel’s claim that “study after study after study has come out showing that it’s not the cause of autism.”

Sources: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez7FOi-s9dY&feature=player_embedded, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2336894/?tool=pmcentrez

An HIV Vaccine?!

 

I know that this is not directly related to vaccinations and autism, but I thought this article was very interesting. It discusses how they now trying to develop a vaccine for HIV. Currently, 25 million people are infected with HIV. This year alone, 5 million people were diagnosed, and that number has been on the rise. This article seemed so interesting to me because we all know that HIV is a sexually transmitted disease, and for some reason, I never thought that scientists and researchers would like to find a way to prevent it. I only believed that they were on a mission to cure it, but like many other diseases, HIV also takes many lives and can be seen as an epidemic.

To make a successful vaccination against HIV, there are a few factors that need to be involved. They include mucosal immunity, antibodies present in your cells, cellular immune responses, and the overall response and reactivity of the immune system. Because live pathogens are typically better in vaccines, it is very difficult to handle HIV. When tested on animals, AIDS was developed, which is not what we would want.

I think it would be interesting to see if the HIV vaccine could be successful. Like every other disease that we make a vaccine for, it is always extremely beneficial. However, I am intrigued in seeing if curing the disease will lead to other side effects or coincidences like in the vaccine and autism battle today.

Source:  http://bmb.oxfordjournals.org/content/62/1/87.full

Mercury in Vaccines

Until now, I never truly understood the reason for using mercury and the problems involved with it until reading this article. Thimerosal has been used as a preservative in vaccines since the 1920’s in order to kill any germs that enter the virus before reuse. What they did not discover until recently is that this mercury-based substances can cause detrimental side effects, including mercury poisoning, neurological damage, and death. What shocks me about this article is that other countries were banning thimerosal from their vaccines thirty years ago because studies showed that patients were later receiving brain damage, but we only recently started removing it and the influenza vaccine STILL has traces of thimerosal in it. While it cannot be proven that the mercury-based substance causes autism, there is a scary parallel; the number of reports of autism has increased along with the number of thimerosal-included vaccinations that are administered. I do not know if I agree with these finding though. Almost all products are mercury-free now so there should be a decrease in autism cases, but the opposite is being seen. My hypothesis, however, is that this steady increase in the number of autistic children may be linked to the diagnosis process. The autism spectrum used to be very specific and now it is getting more general; there are both severe and mild cases which would not be considered autism years ago. While it is true that thimerosal and mercury can cause nervous system disorders, it is still inconclusive if it also causes autism.

Sources: //www.naturalnews.com/011764.html

HepB Vaccine

In this article, the Hepatitis B vaccine was related to autism. Studies were done to show the increase of autism in the past twenty years and its relation, if any, to the HepB vaccine. When the data was recorded from children, they were eight years old in years 1992, 1994, and 1996, children in the years of ’92 and ’94 had approximately the same results. They were 1 out of every 166 in 1992 and 1 out of every 150 in 1994. The numbers for the 1996 cohort have not been published yet, but it is estimated that the number of children with autism will drastically increase (1 in 100). The facts presented in this study make a lot of sense to me. While researchers say that they are positive that MMR and DPT vaccines do not lead to autism, HepB shows potentially different results. From the groups in 92, 94, and 96, the amount of hepatitis B vaccines given slowly increased in each period from 8%, 27%, and 82% respectively. In my eyes, these results make a lot of sense and although it has not been proven yet, you can definitely make an inference.

It is already known that the HepB vaccine can cause side effects, including “central nervous system inflammatory demyelination.” This affects the transport of signals in your body to and from your brain. Hypothetically, this makes sense in regards to autism.

I also think that it is very interesting that boys who received the HepB vaccine in their first month of life had a 2.94% greater chance of being diagnosed with autism compared to those that received it later on or not at all. Unlike other vaccines that are being accused of causing autism, arguments for the causation of HepB are much stronger and closer to being validated, and I agree that there is a significant amount of data to make a strong argument of their case. 

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/new-study-hepatitis-b-vac_b_289288.html

DPT Vaccine

The DPT vaccine is one of the many immunizations given to infants. It is one of the first ones since administration of it prevents diphtheria, pertussus, and tetanus, which are associated with high death rates and complications in children. I found this article about DPT to be very interesting compared to other articles which come out and directly accuse vaccines of causing autism. This article, on the other hand, showed controversies with the vaccine regarding side effects but never mentions the word autism. Instead, it names a few minor and more common symptoms followed by the more serious side effects. Common symptoms include a headache, fever, and flu-like symptoms, while extreme symptoms include hyperactivity, convulsions, seizures, and mental retardation. I found the choice of words to be very interesting for this website since many other websites do claim that there is a link between DPT and autism. To see why this website was different, I looked around and realized that this was a lawyer’s website. Many lawyers know that they do not have a cause when claiming autism is a side effect. Instead, they can use one of these rare side effects instead. If it can be proven that the DPT vaccine caused one of the extreme symptoms, monetary compensation could be rewarded. This is due to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) that was created by the government.

I think that having compensation for children who were negatively affected is great, and it shows that unlike many people claim, the government is not trying to hide that there are rare problems with the vaccines given, in this case DPT.

Sources: http://www.monheit.com/dpt_vaccines/problem.shtml, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-dpt-vaccine.htm, http://www.monheit.com/dpt_vaccines/you_do.shtml

MMR Vaccine

Because of a study done in 1997, many parents now worry about the links between MMR and autism. The MMR vaccine is given to infants between twelve and fifteen months old in order to prevent measles, mumps, and rubella (the German measles). After this study was published by a British researcher named Andrew Wakefield, many parents were coming forward and claiming that their children’s sudden changes in behavior were from the vaccine. Wakefield claimed that the vaccine caused an inflammation in the gut which allowed unspecified toxins to enter the bloodstream, ultimately leading to the brain. In my opinion, from a scientific point of view, this makes perfect sense, but when further researched, scientists still say that there is no link between MMR and autism. A very important reason why I do not agree with the theory that there is a link between the MMR vaccine and autism has to do with a chronological point of view. The MMR vaccine was developed in 1963 and began being used for child immunizations in 1971. Autism rates only began to increase in the past twenty years or so, leading me to question how they could be related. How can a vaccine that has been used for over forty years in infants only show an increase in autism in a different group of patients in the last twenty years or so?

Source: http://www.dukehealth.org/health_library/advice_from_doctors/your_childs_health/mmr_vaccine_and_autism

How Many Vaccines Have you Been Given?

Chart from: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/schedules/child-schedule.htm


The chart of 2010 Recommended Immunization Schedule (which I have included above) shows which vaccinations should be given to children up to six years of age, how many should be administered, and when they should be given. When adding up all of these required doses, the total comes out to 36 times in the first six years of life that a child receives a vaccine. Twenty-five of these vaccine doses are given to infants within the first twelve months of their life. Until researching this topic, I never realized the actual amount of injections given to a baby, and people’s reaction to this information can go in two ways. Firstly, if parents are concerned with their children not catching diseases, they fully support giving the vaccinations; they understand that after their child is immunized, they are not susceptible to these horrible sicknesses. On the other hand, parents who believe that vaccinations can lead to developmental disorders have a problem with the amount of vaccines being given and in the period of time which they are administered to children. This is because the first few years are crucial for brain development, and some believe in a link. Today, some studies claim that there is a definite link while others researches insist that no connection exists. Right now, it is up to parents to decide if their child should receive certain vaccinations or not.

Overview of Autism

Before going into specific vaccines and their possible links to autism, I am going to go over the basics of autism. This will include symptoms, possible causes, diagnosis, and treatments.

Symptoms
Autism is a developmental disorder in the group known as ASD's (autism spectrum disorders). It is estimated that 3-6 children out of every 1,000 have autism, but that number is on the rise.
Symptoms of autism include difficulty with social interaction, problems with both verbal and nonverbal communication, repetitive behaviors, and specific, obsessive interests. Infants and children can be unresponsive to adults, ignore people who call their names, focus on one object for a long period of time, and avoid eye contact with people. Furthermore, they start speaking later than most children and have trouble interacting with most children. Finally, it is other for autistic children to feel pain, but they are very sensitive to sound, touch, and smells.
By the time they reach adulthood, between 20 and 30 percent of those with autism start to have epileptic seizures, along with a higher risk of brain tumors and learning disorders.

Treatments
There is no direct treatment for autism, but there are a few options to treat the symptoms. Therapy and early intervention is suggested in regards to behavior and in school. Researchers believe that counseling helps autistic children. Also, medications are prescribed. Anticonvulsant drugs are given for epilepsy, stimulant drugs are given for hyperactivity and impulsivity, and antidepressants are also prescribed for anxiety and depression.

Diagnosis
Patients are usually diagnosed at a young age by their pediatrician. A questionnaire is given to the parents, and if enough symptoms are shown, further testing is done by professionals in other areas of study including psychiatrists, speech therapists, and neurologists. By combining the parent and pediatrician's observations, the doctor is able to determine if there is a chance that the child has autism.

Causes
There is no certainty on what causes autism, but researchers have a variety of theories. Most support the idea that genetics and the environment coincide. Many findings require more research including 1) disruption of brain development in the fetus and 2) irregular levels of neurotransmitters.Other studies have found specific genes linked with autism and abnormalities in several different areas of the brain.  

Sources: http://autism.about.com/od/whatisautism/a/autismoverview_5.htm

Overview of vaccines

Hey guys! So this is my first blog ever so I hope I am doing this the right way. My goal with this project is to show you the possible link between vaccines and developmental disorders, particularly autism. In order to this, I feel as though my first goal should be to explain to you what a vaccine is and how you are immunized against diseases.
A vaccine is a preparation of weakened or killed pathogens which can cause disease. In this weakened state, your body is able to recognize and destroy the pathogen while leaving behind antibodies. These antibodies can later recognize the pathogen if it enters your system again and destroy it before there are detrimental effects. To create a vaccine, there are four phases that drug companies must go through. The first is done on a small group of healthy adults, the second is on a larger group of patients that are closer to the desired target age, the third randomly uses a large amount of patients, and the final stage involves case and control studies.
To administer these vaccines, there are a variety of administration techniques. The most popular method is through an injection. Today, more advanced ways are being discovered and incorporated, including oral, nasal, and transcutaneous administration.

Sources: http://bmb.oxfordjournals.org/content/62/1/1.full