Autism & Vaccines
The debate is heating up again in the controversy surrounding vaccinations and whether or not they cause autism. CNN has an interesting video of Larry King interviewing several families and a pediatrician who have or work with autistic children.
I found this article posted on CNN's webpage:
March 6, 2008
Vaccines and autism
Posted: 12:01 PM ET
Some new news to share about autism today. At a press conference this morning, a Georgia family will describe how the government has conceded that a vaccine “contributed” to their daughter’s autism symptoms. The family will receive compensation from a federal vaccine court.
That doesn’t mean the federal government agrees that vaccines cause autism. Nor does this 9-year-old girl’s case mean the 4,900 other families in the vaccine court have won their claim that vaccines resulted in their children’s autism. That case continues.
Advocates who see a vaccine-autism link point to Hannah Poling’s case as a big victory for their cause - evidence of the potentially disastrous side effects of vaccines.
Within 48 hours after receiving her vaccinations, Hannah, then 19 months old and by all accounts a normal little girl, developed a high fever, inconsolable crying and some signs of regression, including difficulty walking and speaking.
Over the next several months, she had countless visits with doctors finally culminating in the diagnosis of encephalopathy with features of autism spectrum disorder. At the same time, and this is potentially very important, she had genetic testing and was found to have the gene for an underlying mitochondrial disorder.
So, did the vaccines worsen an already existing condition leading to the symptoms of autism? That is what the government seems to have conceded. And, if so, was it caused by the mercury preservative thimerosal, which was present in Hannah’s vaccines several years ago, or was it the profound immune response that vaccinations cause in the body?
The Centers for Diseases Control, American Academy of Pediatrics, Institute of Medicine and other prestigious medical organizations maintain there is no link between vaccines and autism.
As many experts have told me, this case is likely to raise more questions than it answers. But, these are good questions and important ones for anyone who cares about this issue. What do you think?
- Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Chief Medical Correspondent
Editor’s Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.
Filed under: Dr. Sanjay Gupta • autism
3 comments:
It is very sad that Dr. Poling and his wife with medical education background would have placed such irresponsible blame of their daughter’s autism on the vaccine. It is understandable that they may be depressed by the fact of their daughter’s illness, but vaccine may not be the cause or worsening fact of autism. The court may be sympathized with their unfortunate situation to reward or compensate their emotional suffering. But as medical practitioners, they should know that there could be so many unconfirmed cause of the illness. With the increase of autism rate in the world, did people ever question the life style that might contribute to the problem, such delayed pregnancy, stressful life, drug use or genetic disorder? Fetus needs a lot of care right from the beginning of the pregnancy. Each stage of growth of the fetus will shape the health of the children. It is sad that we don’t look into the fabric of our life style; instead, we blame vaccine that have saved so many peoples life and put such a negative impact on the use of vaccine.
Julie Anderson
I want to quote what the other annonymous person just wrote and comment on that......"With the increase of autism rate in the world, did people ever question the life style that might contribute to the problem, such delayed pregnancy, stressful life, drug use or genetic disorder? Fetus needs a lot of care right from the beginning of the pregnancy. Each stage of growth of the fetus will shape the health of the children"...I have to say that i disagree with you, i have 3 children all in which are boys. I never did drugs, always took my pregnancies serious, ate healthy and didnt drink alcohol. I had a normal pregnancy, normal vaginal delivery with no complications with any of my kids. That being said, my third child is autistic. Noone in my side of the family or my husbands side has Autism so i definitly think it has to do with the vaccines. Noone is shunning vaccines, ofcourse they did the world justice but by pediatricians giving 4,5 or 6 vaccines at once is rediculous with the mercury in them combined is more than a 500 lb man can withstand. Lets be realistic here, mercury is not safe by any means at all. Think about that for a moment or better yet sleep on it then tell me your opinion on Autism and vaccines.
The preponderance of the scientific evidence finds absolutely no link between vaccines and autism. Continuing to focus our efforts on this non-existent link is dangerous in 2 very important ways 1. It distracts from finding an actual cause and 2. it could potentially prevent otherwise reasonable people from having their children vaccinated against deadly childhood disease.
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