Tuesday 13 October 2009

VACCINES AND AUTISM

Do have a good read of the full article as it is a concern many mothers and grandparents have when considering vaccines.

I will get back to posting about the garden tomorrow all this information is so interesting and could impact on many of our families and friends.

The Huffington Post

A link into a TV interview is on this site.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/is-autism-associated-with_b_316986.html


As Dr. Mikovits explained to a television news program in Nevada, "It is not in the paper and not reported, but we have actually done some of these studies (in ASD children) and found the virus in a significant number of samples that we have tested for. It could be linked to a number of neuro-immune diseases, including autism. It certainly won't be all, because there are genetic defects that result in autism. But there are also the environmental effects; there is always the hypothesis that, 'My child was fine and then they got sick, and then they got autism.'"
According to Dr. Mikovits, XMRV (which admittedly sounds like a satellite radio system for your Winnebago) can lie dormant in people, until it is "turned on or off" by other factors, such as stress hormones like cortisol, or in response to the presence of inflammatory "cytokines," protein molecules secreted by immune cells to help regulate the immune system.
And then Dr. Mikovits dropped a bombshell that is sure to spark controversy.
"On that note, if I might speculate a little bit," she said, "This might even explain why vaccines would lead to autism in some children, because these viruses live and divide and grow in lymphocytes -- the immune response cells, the B and the T cells. So when you give a vaccine, you send your B and T cells in your immune system into overdrive. That's its job. Well, if you are harboring one virus, and you replicate it a whole bunch, you've now broken the balance between the immune response and the virus. So you have had the underlying virus, and then amplified it with that vaccine, and then set off the disease, such that your immune system could no longer control other infections, and created an immune deficiency."
So there you have it - a possible explanation of regressive autism in a significant number of cases associated with immune system deregulation triggered by vaccination.
Of course, much more work is needed to nail down the exact significance of such an association. For example, is the virus implicated in the cause of autism, or do children harbor the virus as a result of autism?
Either way, it is notable that such questions are being asked by mainstream sources such as the University of Nevada, and by extension the NCI and the Cleveland Clinic: Can XMRV infection plus vaccination create the right conditions for regressive autism? That remains to be seen. But it also means that the thousands of parents who claim their children did regress shortly after vaccination may not be so crazy and "fringe" as they have been portrayed by experts such as Dr. Paul Offit of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Dr. Thomas Insel, head of the National Institute of Mental Health and Chair of the federal Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC).
"We certainly are advocating vaccinations and how important those are to the well being of the children," explained Annette Whittemore, founder of the Whittemore Peterson Institute.
"But what we are hoping for is, by finding out whether or not one is positive to XMRV, whether it is in one family member or another, and then looking for it in children, you could alter the immune response in such a way that you can protect the child and still be able to vaccinate and avoid autism in these kids. And again, I don't think ether one of us is sitting here saying, 'Vaccinations cause autism,' but rather a number of factors; a genetic susceptibility to the illness, to the infection itself, and then on top of that you are adding something to that mix that takes that child over the top."
Apparently, the CFS findings have impressed the scientific community. "We presented these data three times: Twice at closed conferences at the NIH, and one at an international meeting a few weeks ago, and you could hear a pin drop in the audience - it's amazement" Mikovits said. "The scientists are excited, everyone is working on it, so we know we are going to get a lot of help. It's just amazement, it's an entirely new field of medicine and everyone who's ever worked in this family of viruses is, now that we've shown it's a human pathogen, is extremely excited."
Whittemore added that researchers hoped to develop a vaccine against XMRV quickly, noting that "It would be easier to find a vaccine against this than HIV, because it is a simple retrovirus."
The discovery raises more questions than it answers. What, exactly, is it about immunization that might switch on XMRV viral expression? Could the effect of heavy metals upon cytokine balances be at play? Where did this retrovirus come from, and how did it apparently become so prevalent in children with autism? Did these children inherit the virus from a parent, or was there some other unexplained route of transmission? Why has the NIH said nothing about XMRV in association with autism, and did Dr. Insel know about these findings without sharing them with the IACC?Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/is-autism-associated-with_b_316986.html

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing...I'm forwarding to my friends.

    God bless,
    Mary

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks again for another informative post. With the swine flu vaccination being out there now there are so many concerns in the states about vaccines and their side effects in general. -Jackie

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is very interesting. The link between autism and vaccines is a growing concern. My sister's son has special needs and several of his friends have forms of autism (they've met through his school). Interestingly none of their parents seem to think their child's autism was triggered by vaccines. I sure hope that this is something that can be solved one day and if it can prevent forms of autism it would be wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ellie those of us with Lyme (Although I am much recovered I am still not able to come off antibiotics without my symptoms returning) have been advised by Lyme literate medical doctors not to have the swine flu vaccine. Having read this article it makes so much sense as lyme parrallels ME/CFS in many ways.

    Catherine you might be interested then in looking at the link on my side bar Autism. It goes into Lyme Autism link as many children have been found to have borrelia lyme disease and treatment has improved their symptoms. Dr Charles Ray Jones and Dr Robert Bransfield have treated many children this way. Dr Bransfield presented at Lyme Disease Action conference last year and I remember him saying that many autistic children had lots of contributary factors chemical, virus and bacterial infections often triggered by vaccines.

    Things are starting to come together and it is brilliant that for some children with autism there have been improvements.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the information Joanne! I'm going to ask my sister if her friends have heard about a link between Lyme disease and autism.

    ReplyDelete