VACCINES BREED VICIOUSNESS

[Guest guest]

[PROVE NOTE: Being healthy becomes an even more elusive goal if you

primarily rely on vaccines to get there. When you read this article, keep

in mind that children now receive as many as 39 doses of vaccines for 12

idfferent viral and bacterial illnesses and there are literally hundreds of

new vaccines in development. It is also interesting to keep in mind that the

bacteria strains chosen for inclusion in the pnuemococcal vaccine for

children were specifically chosen because they are the strains that have

evolved to be the most antibiotic resistant. It is very difficult to do fair

and comprehensive risk/benefit analysis when there is so much about the

uninteded consequences of vaccines that have yet to even be studied. More is

not better - educated parents everywhere will continue to demand having

options for thier individual children and the legal right to exercise those

options. Dawn]

http://www.nature.com/nsu/011213/011213-14.html

Vaccines breed viciousness

Vaccinations may increase death toll.

13 December 2001

HELEN PEARSON

Vaccines can drive the evolution of virulent disease.

Inadequate vaccines can encourage the emergence of nastier bugs, placing the

unprotected at risk, a new mathematical model shows. The effect could

undermine future vaccination programmes.

Many vaccines save people from dying of a disease, but do not stop them

carrying and transmitting it. Over a few decades this may cause more

virulent strains to evolve, predict Read and his colleagues of the

University of Edinburgh, UK(1).

In some situations, such as in areas endemic for malaria, deadlier disease

strains could kill more people than vaccination saves. " Most of the time the

benefits [of vaccination] will be eroded, " says Read.

Vaccines for HIV, and hepatitis B and C " give most cause for concern " , says

immunologist Bangham, of Imperial College in London. These viruses

are difficult for the body's immune system to eradicate, leaving them time

to reproduce and evolve. Tearaway strains of flu also emerge regularly and

evade existing vaccines.

Infections that linger in the body are more likely to meet a second bug,

explains evolutionary biologist Dieter Ebert from the University of Fribourg

in Switzerland. The competition drives pathogens to evolve faster, nastier

killing tactics to get the most from their host.

Don't encourage them

Vaccines that encourage evolution include those that slow a disease-causing

organism's growth or target its harmful toxin. These types are being pursued

to fight diseases such as anthrax and malaria. The possibility that these

might save individuals but harm populations " has not been considered

before " , says Ebert, and should be a factor in public-health policy.

Most existing vaccines, such as those for smallpox, polio and measles, are

very effective as they use a different strategy. They stimulate a natural

immune reaction which either kills off subsequent infections or blocks

pathogen reproduction and transmission altogether. Read does not advocate

halting such programmes. New vaccines should similarly aim to prevent

pathogens getting a toehold, says Bangham; many in the pipeline do not.

Several different vaccines are being developed to fight malaria: results of

clinical trials for one that interrupts the life cycle of microorganism

Plasmodium falciparum were announced last week(2). 'Multivalent vaccines'

that target several different parts of a pathogen or life cycle at once are

the better choice, Read suggests.

References

Gandon, S., Mackinnon, M. J., Nee, S. & Read, A. F. Imperfect vaccines and

the evolution of pathogen virulence. Nature, 414, 751 - 756, (2001).

Bojang, K. A. et al. Efficacy of RTS,S/AS02 malaria vaccine against

Plasmodium falciparum infection in semi-immune adult men in The Gambia: a

randomised trial. Lancet, 358, 1927 - 934, (2001).

© Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001

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Dawn

PROVE(Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education)

prove@... (email)

http://vaccineinfo.net/ (web site)

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