Autism as a Stealth Virus Infection

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Autism: A Stealth Virus Infection

W. , M.D., Ph.D.

Institute of Progressive Medicine

Introduction

Autism is a diagnostic label applied to neurological

disorders of early childhood onset that primarily manifest as

deficits in social interactive skills including speech. Considerable

variability exists in the severity of illness in autistic patients.

At one extreme there is a somewhat arbitrary distinction between

grossly affected autistic children and a devastating neurological

condition known as childhood disintegration disorder. At the other

end of the spectrum, mildly affected autistic children can share

many characteristics with children showing delayed normal

development and/or attention deficit disorders. In recent years

there has been a marked increase in relatively mildly affected

autistic children who are commonly referred to as having high

functioning autism.

Autism spectrum disorder is usually diagnosed during the second year

of life with a failure of normal speech and impaired socialization.

With some children there can be an abrupt loss of certain acquired

skills (regressive autism). In most autistic children, however,

subtle indications of impaired and/or delayed development were

present even during the first year of life. Most autistic children

will also show a wider variety of clinical manifestations than

implied by a single diagnostic label. These manifestations can

include epileptic seizures, gastrointestinal disorders and endocrine

dysfunctions. Recovery from autism can occur especially among

relatively mildly affected children.

While many millions of dollars have been spent on autism-related

research, only a few studies have provided important insights into

the underling cause, prevention and treatment of this disease. This

report will provide a brief summary of the issues that are commonly

discussed in relation to the possible cause(s) of autism. The thesis

will then be presented that autism is the result of brain damage

caused by stealth-adapted viruses.

Accepted Research on Autism

1. Autism has a Genetic Component: This is apparent from the higher

incidence of autism among boys. It is also supported by the relative

concordance of disease among monozygotic (genetically identical)

twins compared to dizygotic (genetically different) twins. Still

there are examples where only one of two genetically identical twins

has the disease. Several well defined genetic disorders can lead to

autistic-like abnormalities, including Rett's syndrome, an illness

that occurs more commonly in girls. Genetic factors typically would

not be expected to change markedly over time and, would not,

therefore, easily explain the increasing incidence of autistic

disorders. Nevertheless, since genes regulate many aspects of brain

functioning, it is understandable that genetics will be a

contributing factor to the expression of autism from whatever cause.

Until the genetics of brain behavior are far better understood, it

is unlikely, however, that gene based therapies will offer real

benefits to presently affected children. .

2. Brain Abnormalities are Present in Autistic Children: Head

circumference has been accepted as a marker of brain size. While

essentially normal at birth, the head circumference of many newborn

autistic children increases significantly more than that of normal

children. The increase growth rate especially occurs within the

first several months of life and stabilizes thereafter. This

important finding indicates that an abnormal brain developmental

process is in place at the time of birth. Brain imaging has also

shown enlargements in certain regions of the brain, most noticeably

in parts of the cerebellum. Equally impressive are various

functional studies that show deficits in brain activation upon

certain types of sensory stimulation, and in blood flow patterns in

autistic children. The question arises whether these functional

changes are a consequence of autism, rather than its cause. Limited

histopathological studies on brain tissue from autistic patients

support the view that certain brain cells are damaged and/or do not

normally develop.

Controversial Issues Relating to Autism

1. Autism is the Result of Vaccination. Reports of marked clinical

deterioration and even the initial onset of autism within days of

being vaccinated have prompted the view that the vaccine has caused,

or has possibly precipitated, clinical illness. Initially the focus

of concern was on diphtheria/petussis/tetanus (DPT) vaccine. The

focus next shifted to MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) vaccine. In the

case of measles, vaccine-derived viral material has been seen using

immunohistochemistry and molecular based assays within hyperplastic

lymphoid tissue present in the gastrointestinal tract of autistic

children. Similar findings were found in non-autistic children with

lymphoid hyperplasia. Although there are reasons for concerns with

live viral vaccines, including the finding of retroviral related

reverse transcriptase activity in MMR vaccines, a primary

etiological role of measles vaccine virus is not supported by data

indicating prior brain size abnormality. Proponents of the vaccine

theory have also failed to indicate the lack of cell damage in

lymphoid cells positive by immunohistochemistry for measles

antigens. Measles vaccine virus was generally not detectable in the

cerebrospinal fluid of autistic children. A detrimental effect of

MMR vaccine has been dismissed by many authorities based on the

results of various epidemiological studies that fail to show a

statistically significant correlation between vaccine usage and

disease prevalence.

The focus has since returned to killed vaccines that contain

thimerosal as a preservative. It has been argued that increasing

the number of thimerosal containing vaccines has exposed children to

neurotoxic levels of mercury, a component of thimerosal. It has been

further suggested that children lacking normal capacity to either

excrete or detoxify mercury may be at particular risk for developing

autism. In none of these studies has scientific validation been

obtained for the many suppositions being promulgated. For example,

the issue of impaired excretion of mercury arose from the

observation that mercury levels in hair samples obtained from

autistic children were actually lower than those from unaffected

children. One could equally well argue that the autistic children

were holding onto mercury for beneficial reasons. Moreover, many

autistic children have not received thimerosal containing vaccines.

Environmental mercury contamination is a feature of gold mining

operations in developing countries that have not experienced an

unusually high incidence of autism. Mercury was a common component

in 19th century medicines and when poisoning was reported, kidney

rather than brain damage tended to dominate the clinical picture.

Unfortunately, emotional rather than scientific arguments have been

thrust onto parents with a disregard for contradictory and non-

supportive data.

2. Autism is a Primary Biochemical Disorder. Elevated levels of one

or more neuropeptides were reported to be present in neonatal blood

samples obtained from virtually all children subsequently diagnosed

with autism. Although these observations were not confirmed in a

subsequent study using a different methodology, the inference is

again supportive of brain damage being present prior to birth.

Elevated serum levels of the neuropeptide BDNF, have also been

reported in autistic children. This is interpreted as a possible

response to ongoing brain damage in autistic children. Urine

analyses on autistic children have also shown markedly elevated

levels of various metabolic products. An inference is that the

levels of these chemicals would also be increased in the brain and

that they somehow interfere with normal brain function. A prime

example is the opiate-like peptides resulting from incomplete

digestive breakdown of casein and gluten proteins. This view is

bolstered by noticeable clinical improvements in some autistic

children when placed on a casein and gluten free diet. Peptides from

abnormal bacterial and fungal bowel flora may also been suggested as

having neuroregulatory activity whose levels may be reduced by

antibiotics. A role for cell associated peptidase is suggested by

unpublished studies that peptidase IV inhibitory fragments may also

be present in the urine of some autistic children.

3. Autism is an Auto-Immune Disease. Antibodies that react with

brain tissue or with neuropeptides have been detected in some

autistic children. The idea has been advanced that a brain damaging

immune response has possibly been triggered by a viral illness or by

the inoculation of a virus vaccine. These suggestions disregard the

data indicating preexisting brain abnormalities unless it is argued

that an auto-immune disease occurred in the mother.

Autism: A Stealth-Adapted Viral Encephalopathy

The increasing prevalence of autism is consistent with

an infectious process. Indeed many commentators have referred to an

autism epidemic. A minority of cases of autism result from prenatal

infection with conventional viruses, including human

cytomegalovirus. It is not unreasonable, therefore, to suspect that

many other cases of autism may also be the result of atypical viral

illnesses. Viral infection could render a person susceptible to

further brain damage from vaccines and other environmental factors.

Several lines of evidence exist that are supportive of, or at least

consistent with a stealth virus cause of autism. These data provide

a framework for therapy and management of autistic children.

1. Blood samples from autistic children consistently induce readily

identifiable cell damaging (cytopathic) effects using viral culture

methods adapted for the detection of stealth adapted viruses.

Stealth virus testing of blood samples from autistic children has

been subjected to formal " double blind " analyses. Furthermore,

cerebrospinal fluid and gastrointestinal biopsy have similarly

yielded positive cultures. Clinical testing for stealth adapted

viruses was discontinued in 2002 under orders from the Federal

Government.

2. Assays intended to detect conventional viruses and bacterial

pathogens are sometimes positive in autistic children and their

parents. These results can be attributed to serological and/or

molecular cross-reactivity with stealth virus components. For

example, various bacteria-derived genes have been detected in

cultures of stealth-adapted viruses that can explain misdiagnoses of

Lyme disease or mycoplasma infections.

3. Direct studies have provided evidence for stealth virus

infections among family members of autistic children. Many of the

family members will, upon close questioning, report symptoms of

neurological and/or immunological dysfunction consistent with an

underlying pervasive infectious disease.

4. The cytopathic effect caused by stealth adapted viruses is

enhanced by including live measles vaccine virus in the cultures, or

by the addition of sub-lethal levels of toxins such as thimerosal. A

reasonable argument can be advanced that stealth adapted virus

positive infants should be exempted from the overt immunological

stimulation induced by repeated inoculations of mixed vaccines,

whether live or containing thimerosal. The focus of Public Health

concern should, however, be more on stealth adapted viruses than

potential precipitating factors.

5. Knowing that a newborn infant is infected with a stealth adapted

virus would encourage efforts to develop and to sustain strong

interpersonal behaviors as he or she undertakes the difficult tasks

of acquiring language and emotional relationship skills.

6. Most importantly, studies on stealth adapted viruses have led to

the recognition of an alternative (non-mitochondria) mechanism by

which cells can obtain energy. Cultures of stealth adapted viruses

undergo a healing process mediated by materials termed alternative

cellular energy pigments (ACE pigments). Various natural products

have ACE pigment activity. Although marketable as dietary

supplements, they can not legally be promoted for disease therapy.

It is even difficult to obtain FDA approval for investigational

studies on some of these products. Enhancing the ACE pathway has,

nevertheless, helped expedite healing from conventional viruses,

such as HSV and HPV. In another study, an ACE product markedly

alleviated diarrhea in children living in a developing country.

Three issues appear to be limiting the acceptance of stealth adapted

virus infection as the underlying cause of autism. Sadly, one of

these factors is the money being made out of the autism epidemic.

Parents pay to attended meetings in which they are presented with

scientifically incoherent and commonly contradictory presentations

by so called experts. In some of these meetings, eager parents need

to pay more for a private session with a speaker as if really

important information is being withheld from the public talk. More

disconcerting is to see a speaker, fresh from receiving a standing

ovation, devising with fellow physicians and healthcare providers a

franchising opportunity to profit from the calamity that has

befallen families with autistic children. Equally bad are

discussions of kickback schemes to encourage ordering of unwarranted

laboratory tests, or the peddling of unproven medical devices as

income generating additions to questionable medical practice. Biased

opinions are also encouraged by being given monetary value as

lawyers solicit support for planned litigation against vaccine

manufacturers.

The second major factor is that Public Health authorities are

reluctant to embrace the concept of a viral epidemic, especially one

that could be traced in part to vaccine contamination. This attitude

was probably largely responsible for prohibiting further clinical

testing for stealth adapted viruses. In spite of data indicating the

presence of monkey cytomegalovirus DNA in licensed polio virus

vaccines, neither CDC, NIH or FDA have publicly tested blood samples

from autistic children for the presence of stealth adapted viruses.

The third factor is that most of those involved in autism research

and clinical care are simply not well trained even in conventional

virology yet alone fully understand the concept of stealth

adaptation. Stealth adapted viruses do not provoke an inflammatory

reaction, the accepted hallmark of an infectious disease; and can be

somewhat difficult to culture. New concepts are often resisted but

especially so if they undermine a profitable enterprise. Founders

and directors of many autism support groups have seemingly been

overly influenced by those making their living from autistic

children. In spite of millions of dollars expenditures, the autism

epidemic continues.

I firmly believe that parents have the right to

request/demand that Federal and/or State Health Departments do

appropriate virus cultures on a sampling of autistic children. The

methods need to be appropriate for the detection of stealth adapted

viruses and have been published. The California Department of Health

has also been provided very detailed protocols. The Government has

access to several isolates of stealth adapted viruses deposited with

the American Type Culture Collection, a national repository of

biological samples. The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention

(CDC) can also contact individuals infected with monkey derived

stealth adapted viruses that presumably originally entered humans

from contaminated polio virus vaccines. This is a call for effective

action; do what it takes to get the cultures done.

Confirmation of a stealth virus cause of autism will hopefully be

followed by the demonstration of clinical improvements in children

treated with anti-stealth virus therapies. Although the immune

system is ineffective, the body has an auxiliary defense system

based on generating an alternative (non-mitochondria) pathway of

cellular energy. Various products are becoming available that can

provide alternative cellular energy (ACE) and/or activate this

pathway. Clinical trials using these methods are urgently required.

If anyone would like to e-mail me directly, please do so

at s3support@... I can also host a teleconference if enough

parents are interested. I would appreciate receiving copies of any

correspondence with CDC, State Health Departments or politicians.

The web site www.s3support.com has additional information on stealth

adapted viruses and the ACE pathway.

DEFINITION * TREATMENT * PREVENTION

Autism is 1 in 150 children today, 1 in 68 families! TAAP (The

Autism Autoimmunity Project) is a non-profit charity dedicated to

obtaining funding for independent research into the cause, treatment

and prevention of autism and other autoimmune disorders. Please

learn from our mistake and 'Educate BEFORE You Vaccinate!' For more

information visit our website at www.TAAP.info and 'TAAP into the

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