[NVIC] New Junk Science Claims Vaccines Risk Free

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BL Fisher Note:

This " study " and the accompanying media report trumpeting that it

" quashes vaccine anxiety " would be laughable if it weren't such a pathetic

attempt to exonerate vaccines as incapable of causing brain damage and point

the finger at vaccine injury victims for bad genes. " Blame the victim " has

been the preferred tactic of those engaging in the fantasy that injecting

lab altered viruses and bacteria, toxic heavy metals and chemicals into

humans could not possibly cause harm, especially to children.

Genetic mutations in humans, some of them caused by exposure to

environmental toxins, may well predispose individuals to vaccine injury. But

this retrospective study, which looked at 14 patients who suffered seizures

post-vaccination, merely assumes these patients would have gone on to become

brain damaged rather than proving it. The only proof that this hypothesis is

correct is to compare the health outcome of many individuals with and

without this genetic variation who are vaccinated versus those who remain

unvaccinated. It would also be prudent to look at the integrity of

chromosomes pre-vaccination and post-vaccination to determine whether

vaccines are causing chromosomal breakage and genetic mutations.

This study does not address the fact that smallpox vaccine causes acute

disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) in 1 in 5,000 persons and rabies

vaccines causes encephalitis in as many as 1 in 400 persons. This study does

not talk about the fact that researchers around the world have used

pertussis vaccine for more than 60 years to deliberately induce experimental

autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in lab animals irrespective of genetic

variations.

The educated health care consumer, witnessing the twisted conclusions of

junk science masquerading as legitimate research into brain dysfunction

following vaccination, is not impressed.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/study-quashes-vaccine-anxiety/2006/04

/20/1145344222970.html

The Age, Australia

April 21, 2006

Study quashes vaccine anxiety

By Chantel Rumble

Fears that immunisations can cause brain damage and seizures in healthy

children have been quashed in a landmark study by Melbourne researchers.

The researchers studied a group of children who began suffering seizures

within three days of a vaccination and subsequently developed intellectual

disabilities.

They found that 80 per cent had a pre-existing genetic mutation, proving

they would have developed their disabilities whether or not they had been

immunised.

The findings could put an end to the decades-long controversy about the

apparent link between vaccinations and brain damage that has resulted in

some parents, carers and health professionals opposing childhood

vaccinations.

The genetic mutation, which causes a severe form of childhood epilepsy

called Dravet's syndrome, usually affects seemingly healthy children before

their first birthday.

The first symptom is one long seizure, usually triggered by a fever, and

over the next three or four years the child develops different types of

fits, including staring spells, little jerks and so-called drop attacks.

Intellectual development, which is normal until the first seizure, stops,

leaving the child disabled.

Like fevers, vaccinations can trigger the first seizure but they do not

cause the condition. The genetic mutation is to blame, the study shows.

Professors Sam Berkovic and Ingred Scheffer, who led the study, said it was

now clear that those who developed the syndrome soon after immunisations

would have been affected at some stage regardless.

" These people were destined to get Dravet's syndrome. The vaccination was

either coincidental or it may have led to the first seizure but we believe

that it would have happened anyway, it just might not have happened in those

48 hours, " Professor Berkovic said.

The study was conducted by the University of Melbourne's Epilepsy Research

Centre and published yesterday in The Lancet Neurology.

About 8 per cent of two-year-olds nationwide are not fully immunised,

including about 6.7 per cent of n children, and about 1 per cent of

cases are believed to be conscientious objections.

Professor Berkovic said failure to immunise all children unnecessarily

increased the risk of serious, preventable diseases such as whooping cough

and measles.

ABSTRACT

LANCET NEUROLOGY DOI:10.1016/S1474-4422(06)70446-X

De-novo mutations of the sodium channel gene SCN1A in alleged vaccine

encephalopathy: a retrospective study

F. Berkovic, Louise Harkin, Jacinta M. McMahon, T.

Pelekanos, Sameer M. Zuberi, Elaine C. Wirrell, Deepak S. Gill,

Xenia Iona, C. Mulley and Ingrid E. Scheffer

Background

Vaccination, particularly for pertussis, has been implicated as a direct

cause of an encephalopathy with refractory seizures and intellectual

impairment. We postulated that cases of so-called vaccine encephalopathy

could have mutations in the neuronal sodium channel a1 subunit gene (SCN1A)

because of a clinical resemblance to severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy

(SMEI) for which such mutations have been identified.

Methods

We retrospectively studied 14 patients with alleged vaccine encephalopathy

in whom the first seizure occurred within 72 h of vaccination. We reviewed

the relation to vaccination from source records and assessed the specific

epilepsy phenotype. Mutations in SCN1A were identified by PCR amplification

and denaturing high performance liquid chromatography analysis, with

subsequent sequencing. Parental DNA was examined to ascertain the origin of

the mutation.

Findings

SCN1A mutations were identified in 11 of 14 patients with alleged vaccine

encephalopathy; a diagnosis of a specific epilepsy syndrome was made in all

14 cases. Five mutations predicted truncation of the protein and six were

missense in conserved regions of the molecule. In all nine cases where

parental DNA was available the mutations arose de novo. Clinical-molecular

correlation showed mutations in eight of eight cases with phenotypes of

SMEI, in three of four cases with borderline SMEI, but not in two cases with

Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.

Interpretation

Cases of alleged vaccine encephalopathy could in fact be a genetically

determined epileptic encephalopathy that arose de novo. These findings have

important clinical implications for diagnosis and management of

encephalopathy and, if confirmed in other cohorts, major societal

implications for the general acceptance of vaccination.

Affiliations

a. Epilepsy Research Centre and Department of Medicine, University of

Melbourne, Austin Health, Heidelberg West, , Australia

b. Department of Genetic Medicine, Women's and Children's Hospital,

Adelaide, Australia

c. Department of Paediatrics, University of Adelaide, Australia

d. Fraser of Allander Neurosciences Unit, Royal Hospital for Sick Children,

Yorkhill, Glasgow, UK

e. Department of Pediatrics and Neurosciences, University of Calgary,

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

f. TY Department of Neurology, The Children's Hospital at Westmead,

Westmead, NSW, Australia

g. School of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Adelaide,

Adelaide, Australia

h. Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Royal Children's

Hospital, , Australia

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