Vaccination and MS

[Guest guest]

Neurol Sci 2001 Apr;22(2):151-4 Related Articles, Books, LinkOut

Vaccinations and multiple sclerosis.

Gout O.

Federation of Neurology, Hjpital de la Salpetriere, Paris, France.

Two problems must be considered in regard to the relationship between

vaccinations and MS: Do vaccinations favour the first attack of MS? Do they

increase the short- or long-term risk in patients with known disease?

Answers to these questions are difficult due to the paucity of reported

cases, our ignorance of the precise frequency of neurological adverse events

in vaccines based on prospective studies, and finally by the lack of a well

established pathophysiology. In most instances, the role of the vaccine is

based on a temporal link between the injection and the onset of neurological

disease, and more rarely to a positive reintroduction. Acute disseminated

encephalomyelitis (ADEM), a monophasic and multifocal illness of the white

and grey matter, has been observed following various viral or bacterial

infections as well as vaccine injections for diseases such as pertussis,

tetanus and yellow fever. The similarities between ADEM and experimental

allergic encephalitis (EAE) are suggestive of an immunological process. In

addition to the dramatic presentation of ADEM, more limited white matter

involvement, such as optic neuritis or myelitis, has been reported following

vaccine injections, and has occasionally been counted as the first attack of

MS. In France, 25 million inhabitants, almost half of the population, were

vaccinated against hepatitis B (HB) between 1991 and 1999. Several hundred

cases of an acute central demyelinating event following HB vaccination were

reported to the pharmacovigilance unit, leading to a modification of

vaccination policy in the schools and the initiation of several studies

designed to examine the possible relationship between the vaccine and the

central demyelinating events. The results of these studies failed to

establish the causality of the HB vaccine. Nevertheless, molecular mimicry

between HB antigen(s) and one or more myelin proteins, or a non-specific

activation of autoreactive lymphocytes, could constitute possible

pathogenetic mechanisms for these adverse neurological events.

PMID: 11603617 [PubMed - in process]

Meryl W. Dorey,

President

The Australian Vaccination Network, Inc.

PO Box 177 02 6687 1699 Phone

Bangalow NSW 2479 02 6687 2032 FAX

meryl@... http://www.avn.org.au

" All truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is

violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident. " (Schopenhauer)

____________________________________________________________________________

______

Any information obtained here is not to be construed as medical OR legal

advice. The decision to vaccinate and how you implement that decision is

yours and yours alone.