A shot in the dark

[Guest guest]

From last August, but good. Apologies if posted before.

Love, light and peace,

Sue

" He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a

fool forever. " ~ Chinese proverb

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http://society.guardian.co.uk/publichealth/story/0,11098,1017591,00.html

A shot in the dark

According to a new book, it is not just MMR that parents should be wary of -

evidence is mounting that other vaccines may have dangerous side effects

Kate Figes

Wednesday August 13, 2003

The Guardian

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? That is the question that countless

parents now tussle with. Ever since Wakefield's report first

suggested a link between MMR and autism in 1998, there has been a growing

lack of confidence in government-recommended vaccinations. MMR was

introduced in 1988 and by 1996, 92% of children received the vaccine. Now

that number has fallen to 79% - as low as 65% in some parts of the country.

Instead of allaying parents' fears by announcing proper research into the

effects of MMR, the government has gone on the offensive. Countless

spokespeople declare the new vaccine " safe " and parents are blamed for

negligence. The Health Protection Agency announced on Friday that we are

threatened with a measles epidemic. Just a week earlier, MMR was in the news

again when two mothers who had refused to vaccinate their children lost an

action brought by the children's absent fathers in the court of appeal.

According to , author of a timely book, Calling the Shots:

Childhood Vaccinations, it is not just MMR but all vaccinations that parents

should be wary of. She didn't think twice about taking her two children for

the new meningitis C injection in 2000. Her four-year-old son was fine, but

two-year-old Florence reacted with three major febrile convulsions 36 hours

later. All the doctors they saw denied any link between the fits and the

injection. then saw a marked deterioration in her previously healthy

child. Florence's hair thinned and began to fall out. She became listless,

tired and vulnerable to infections. She had eight fits over the next eight

months, each longer and stronger than the last. " Both of my children had had

fits before, but these were different, deeper and longer - the longest

lasted 20 minutes. She went blue and needed resuscitating. I thought she was

going to die. " Tests for epilepsy proved negative. Florence contracted

pneumonia and traces of meningitis were found in her blood, but still the

medics denied that the vaccination could have been the cause.

suddenly had a very sick child on her hands. " I watched her all the

time for signs of a temperature, trying to ward off another convulsion.

There were bottles of Calpol everywhere, in the car, the pram, my handbag.

It was my only line ofdefence and a pathetic one at that. " Her anxieties

were compounded by guilt. Sickness is part of life, but there is a huge

difference between accepting the risk of infection and consciously doing

something to damage the health of one's child. " I felt so angry with myself

because I hadn't researched this new vaccine properly - I just accepted it

naively. "

Above all, she had no way of knowing whether the vaccine had caused

permanent damage to her child's health or whether she would recover. A man

on the Jabs helpline told her that it could go one of two ways; either

Florence would get better, or she would go the way of his son, who had

started convulsing after the MMR. At first the convulsions were far apart,

but over time he had more and more and now his son is severely

brain-damaged, having several convulsions a day.

The Hib vaccine designed to fight meningitis C, however, was new, and there

was no way of knowing how Florence would cope with it. At this point

began to consider alternative medicine. She went to see a

homeopath, who prescribed Thuja to neutralise the effects of immunisation;

but Florence had another fit and began to despair. The gap between the

fits was closing. She had Florence's liver tested to see whether she would

be strong enough to take anticonvulsant drugs, which have strong side

effects. She took Florence to see an iridologist homeopath, who diagnoses by

looking into the patient's eyes. He concluded that Florence had had a bad

reaction to a vaccine (she had not told him about the Hib) and that her

liver was loaded with toxins that needed clearing. He sent them home with a

bag of homeopathic pills and reassured her that Florence would not have any

more convulsions. To this day, she hasn't.

Vaccines may be in the news, but there is nothing new in the story.

Twenty-seven years ago, my cousin was seriously brain-damaged after

receiving the whooping cough jab. He was not alone. Other children were

affected, and their parents organised a campaign. But then hospital records

mysteriously disappeared. Nothing was proved conclusively, but the parents

know that the vaccine was to blame. Neither of my children has been

vaccinated against whooping cough as a result. My eldest daughter did,

however, have a febrile convulsion when she was 10 months old, late in the

evening of the day she received her last triple injection for diphtheria,

tetanus and polio. When, naive and convinced that our child was dying, we

took her into hospital, every doctor and nurse I talked to in the subsequent

24 hours denied that there could possibly be a link with the injection she

had received the previous morning.

The vaccine pressure group Jabs has registered 2,000 vaccine-damaged

children since January 1994. Of these, 1,800 are the result of MMR, 170 from

the DTP triple and Hib and a handful from Hib alone or the flu jab. Some of

the side effects - such as encephalitis, convulsions that can lead to

epilepsy, and arthritis, primarily from the rubella vaccine - are even

listed by the manufacturers of the drugs in their product sheets. Jabs also

believes that vaccines can contribute to longer-term health problems such as

eczema, asthma and allergies.

While there is a remote possibility that one's precious child could suffer

lasting health consequences from vaccination, it is understandable that

parents are wary of accepting blanket government health guidelines.

now realises that she has to take complete responsibility for her

children's health as individuals. " A vaccine doesn't come with a guarantee.

It's not a case of one size fits all. Instead I have to determine how best

to keep ph and Florence well through preventative measures such as good

nutrition and alternative medicines. " She has also taken both her children

to a private paediatrician who offers single jabs and immunity testing.

Next spring a major multi-party legal action will be brought against all the

producers of the MMR vaccine and the Department of Health using eight test

cases. If it is successful, the government will have to moderate its claim

that MMR is safe and compensation will be owed to the plaintiffs. " The

government has already acknowledged that vaccines can have serious side

effects by paying compensation to roughly 1,000 vaccine-damaged children, "

says Jackie Fletcher of Jabs, " but the criteria are very strict and they

keep very quiet about it. We need a proper no-fault compensation system so

that parents don't have to go through hoops to get the support they need

looking after a handicapped child. "

Instead of this standoff between parents and government, in which no one

seems to win, we need a more constructive approach. In her book,

calls for a new attitude; greater open-mindedness, and proper research into

the effects of vaccines. The " yellow card " system, where doctors log any bad

reaction a child has to a drug for the committee for the safety of

medicines, needs to be properly used, she says.

" At the moment it's a catch-22 situation, " says Fletcher. " Doctors are told

that vaccines don't cause problems, so they don't link it and fill out the

card. " and Jabs would like to see screening systems so that more

vulnerable children can be identified, and the withdrawal of

performance-related targets for GPs administering vaccines. Widespread

anecdotal evidence suggests that children are being struck off lists if

their parents refuse MMR so that doctors can reach their targets.

Do we need so many vaccines? Could they be causing more health problems than

they solve by overloading immature immune systems? Could they even be

contributing to long-term problems such as MS or cancer in ways we don't yet

understand?

Loving parents know one thing for certain: that nothing is more important

than the health of their children. If this means vaccinating to prevent

life-threatening diseases, then we vaccinate. But our children should not be

used as guinea pigs for an expanding vaccination programme which lines the

pockets of drug companies. We need more than patronising government

reassurances that all vaccines are safe for every child. We need facts,

trust and transparency in order to make decisions that could have lasting,

even devastating consequences.

·Calling the Shots: Childhood Vaccinations - One Family's Journey by

is published on August 20 by Kingsley, price £12.95. Jabs

website: www.jabs.org.uk