Autism: Environmental Factors Messing With Our Kids? (STUDY)

The debate about what causes autism continues, with two new studies suggesting there might be more of an environmental component at play than previously thought.

The first, published online Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, suggests that at least half of what the authors call "liability to autism" might be explained by environmental factors.

Researchers considered more than 50 sets of identical twins and 130 sets of fraternal twins, in which at least one child had a diagnosis of strict autism or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Relying on both parental reports and direct observation, they then used existing twin models, which rely on the degrees of shared genetics among fraternal and identical twins to determine how much certain factors are associated with autism risk. They found that only 40 percent of the risk of autism development was owed to genetic heritability, while 55 percent was linked to environmental factors.

"The take home message is that we really have to take more seriously the environmental factors, and how these come together with the genetic factors to play a role in the etiology of autism," said Dr. Joachim Hallmayer, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the Stanford School of Medicine. Environmental factors, he explained, could include anything from a virus to drugs taken during pregnancy.

Medication during pregnancy was the subject of a second study published in the same journal, which suggests that prenatal exposure to certain antidepressants may "modestly" increase the risk of ASD development.

To reach that conclusion, researchers looked at medical records of nearly 300 California-based children and their mothers, comparing them with a control group of more than 1,500 kids and moms.

They found a twofold increased risk of ASD associated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) when mothers took the drugs in the year before giving birth. The earlier a woman took SSRIs, the more pronounced the effect: Researchers reported a threefold increased risk of ASD among women who took SSRIs during their first trimester of pregnancy.

"These two studies are interesting because they're kind of a paradigm shifter in finding there is a much lower genetic contribution [to autism and ASD development]," said Lisa Croen, PhD, director of the Kaiser Permanente Autism Research Program and the second study's lead author. "There is a much larger environmental component at play here than has been understood up to this point," she added. Croen was also an author on the twin pairs study.

She cautioned, however, that people need to be "extremely cautious" about the findings, particularly with regards to autism risk and antidepressant exposure. The new study is only the first to find this possible association, she said, and is not intended to scare people into dropping their treatment.

Dr. Don Mordecai, Director of Mental Health at Kaiser Permanente's San Jose Medical Center added that the findings in no way represented a "smoking gun study." At most, he suggested the study should increase caution in pregnant women who, in concert with their physicians, are weighing the relative risks of continuing taking antidepressant medications versus the risk of their children developing ASD.

"This is always a really hard decision for women," he said. "I worry about people saying 'I'm going to eliminate all these risks and stop treatment.' For women with serious depression and higher anxiety disorders, there are many risks associated with not seeking treatment, too. It's about coming to a conclusion with your physician that's best for you."

WATCH: "Unraveling The Cause Of Autism"

Comments

[John Richard Smith]

04:47 AM on 08/24/2011

Genetics of autism spectrum disorders.
Geschwind DH.

Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

"Several dozen ASD susceptibility genes have been identified in the past decade, collectively accounting for 10-20% of ASD cases. These findings, although demonstrating that ASD is etiologically heterogeneous, provide important clues about its pathophysiology."

----------------------------------------------------

Only 10 - 20 % of ASD is linked to genetics. That's a lot of unexplained aetiology.

[Achieve Beyond]

11:15 AM on 08/12/2011

“The causes of autism is always debated especially in autistic communities. I believe all possible theories should continued to be studied and tested until an evidence based link has been discovered­. To find a correlation to autism occurring in specific environments more than others would be a great starting point for more studies to continue. Completely dismissing the notion may lead to a breakthrou­gh not being discovered­. Autism is affecting more and more kids these days than ever before. Early Interventi­on techniques such as Applied Behavior Analysis therapy have positive impacts on children with autism, but that does not mean we should stop all research on whether environment factors can be contributing more to the cause that thought previously. This testing may take years to get accurate results, but there are enough study results to continue to research the
correlatio­n.

Jonathan D.
Achieve Beyond Pediatric Therapy Services
http://www.achievebeyondusa.com

[John Richard Smith]

01:49 AM on 08/12/2011

Nigerians Receive First Payments for Children Who Died in 1996 Meningitis Drug Trial

"The first payments were made Thursday to Nigerian families who lost children during a 1996 trial of an experimental meningitis drug, and Pfizer, which had tested the drug, a new antibiotic, said it was “pleased” that payments were finally being made under a settlement reached two years ago. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/world/africa/12nigeria.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

* "In all, 11 children died in the trial: five after taking Trovan and six after taking an older antibiotic used for comparison in the clinical trial. Others suffered blindness, deafness and brain damage."

* "according to a 2006 Washington Post article, the trial’s certificate of approval from a hospital ethics board was forged, and Pfizer said its own investigation had proved that the certificate was “incorrect.”

* "Last year, a secret 2009 State Department cable exposed by WikiLeaks said that a Pfizer official in Nigeria told American diplomats that the company had hired private investigators to “uncover corruption links” to Nigeria’s former attorney general in order to pressure him to drop the Trovan lawsuits."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Interesting

[nowGo4ward]

01:48 PM on 08/01/2011

Ancestry of pink disease (infantile acrodynia) identified as a risk factor for autism spectrum disorders.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21797771

"The results showed the prevalence rate of ASD among the grandchildren of pink disease survivors (1 in 22) to be significantly higher than the comparable general population prevalence rate (1 in 160)."

Is the heritable factor in the genes or maybe some other perpetuating risk caused by exposure in the family tree?

[JonGH]

12:54 AM on 08/03/2011

NG4W... Thank you! This is a fascinating study from the Swinburne Autism Bio-Research Initiative (SABRI) Brain and Psychological Sciences Research Centre in Australia. Thank you for posting it!

I first heard about this study a few days ago over at Ginger Taylor's (excellent) "Adventures in Autism" blog. There, Jeff C. commented, "What a beautifully thought out hypothesis and test. It is inarguable that mercury caused Pink Disease [infantile acrodynia] as it disappeared almost overnight once the [mercury chloride-containing calomel infant teething] powder was banned. It is also uncontested that the great majority of those that used the teething powder containing mercury did not get pink disease. It has long been settled that those who got pink disease had a genetic predisposition (susceptibility to mercury) coupled with an environmental trigger (mercury from the teething powder). Lo and behold, their decendants have autism (ASD) at 8 times the rate of those without pink disease."

Bingo! The whole putting Hg in infant teething powder (!) - Pink Disease phenomena in the 1950s/60s demonstrates something extremely important. As Jeff C. pointed out above, 'The great majority of infants who used the teething powder containing mercury did --not-- get pink disease.' This clearly demonstrates that there -is- individual variance in the ability of infants to detoxify mercury chloride. Similarly, is there an individual variance in the ability of infants to detoxify ethyl mercury???

I think we all know the answer to that question.

[JonGH]

01:01 AM on 08/03/2011

And this brings us to a critically important hypothesis that several noted researchers (such as Irva Hertz-Picciotto PhD at the University of California MIND Institute and Mady Hornig MD at Columbia University) have been attempting to investigate in recent years.

Is there a subset of the pediatric population that is more susceptible to neurodevelopmental insult/harm from perinatal exposure to subacute doses of ethyl mercury than the general pediatric population?

Hmmm. Let's find out!

[vtmom3]

10:22 AM on 07/22/2011

Reuters today: James Murdoch to remain on GSK's board: Drugmaker says Murdoch has made strong contribution

"James Murdoch was paid 98,000 pounds ($158,000) in shares for serving on GSK's board in 2010. He is member of both the drugmaker's corporate responsibility and remuneration committees."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/15/newscorp-glaxo-idUSL6E7IF1BF20110715

NYT 2009: Harvard Medical School in Ethics Quandary

"In a first-year pharmacology class at Harvard..Matt Zerden grew wary as the professor promoted the benefits of cholesterol drugs and seemed to belittle a student who asked about side effects..[He] later discovered..the professor was not only a full-time member of the Harvard Medical faculty, but a paid consultant to 10 drug companies, including five makers of cholesterol treatments..

"The school said it was unable to provide annual measures of the money flow to its faculty, beyond the $8.6 million that pharmaceutical companies contributed last year for basic science research and the $3 million for continuing education classes on campus. Most of the money goes to professors at the Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals...

"The reports show 149 with financial ties to Pfizer and 130 with Merck.

"Merck underwrites plenty of work..including the immunology lab run by Dr. Glimcher..who also sits on the board of..Bristol-Myers Squibb, which paid her nearly $270,000 in 2007."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/business/03medschool.html?emc=eta1

To quote JonGH "What a tangled web of blatant COI."

[vtmom3]

09:15 AM on 07/22/2011

From Helsinki TImes:

EMA confirms connection between Pandemrix and narcolepsy
Domestic news - General
Friday, 22 July 2011 14:21
"The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Thursday confirmed that there is a link between the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix and the increased number of narcolepsy cases in Finland and Sweden.

The agency found that children who had received the vaccine had a higher risk of contracting narcolepsy.

However, health officials added that the vaccine alone was not enough to contract the illness, and that genetic factors also play a part."

http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/htimes/domestic-news/general/16101-ema-confirms-connection-between-pandemrix-and-narcolepsy-.html

But in the Sydney Morning Herald, Aussies are reassured by none other than GSK that the vaccine is safe for them and they should start lining up:

"The maker of a swine flu vaccine linked to cases of a rare sleeping disorder in children and teenagers has reassured Australians they are not at risk.

European drug regulators have warned the Pandemrix vaccine should not be given to people under 20 unless no other vaccine is available to protect them against the deadly H1N1 flu virus.

The vaccine's maker GlaxoSmithKline said while Pandemrix had been given to more than 30 million people worldwide, no Australians had been immunised with it."

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/aussies-not-at-risk-from-vaccine-drug-co-20110722-1hs4p.html

[vtmom3]

06:12 PM on 07/21/2011

Perhaps the tide is truly turning. Today at CBSNews.com: "For all those who've declared the autism-vaccine debate over - a new scientific review begs to differ. It considers a host of peer-reviewed, published theories that show possible connections between vaccines and autism.

"The article in the Journal of Immunotoxicology is entitled "Theoretical aspects of autism: Causes--A review." The author is Helen Ratajczak, surprisingly herself a former senior scientist at a pharmaceutical firm. Ratajczak did what nobody else apparently has bothered to do: she reviewed the body of published science since autism was first described in 1943. Not just one theory suggested by research such as the role of MMR shots, or the mercury preservative thimerosal; but all of them.

Ratajczak's article states, in part, that "Documented causes of autism include genetic mutations and/or deletions, viral infections, and encephalitis [brain damage] following vaccination [emphasis added]. Therefore, autism is the result of genetic defects and/or inflammation of the brain."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20049118-10391695.html

[vtmom3]

09:42 AM on 07/22/2011

This story is from March of this year. My bad.

[vtmom3]

08:16 PM on 07/20/2011

Here is what I intended to post.....

Have you seen this article from the Salem [Oregon] News:

"Murdoch and Vaccines - Exposure of Murdoch's Crimes Open Up A Much Larger Story"

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/july172011/murdoch-vaccines-wn.php

[JonGH]

10:33 PM on 07/20/2011

Great article vtmom. Thank you for the link!

"Andrew Wakefield was a respected British gastroenterologist who began research into digestive problems in autistic children in collaboration with other doctors in the UK, after being called by parents seeking help. His work indicated severe digestive issues and he asked for more investigation of the MMR vaccine.

Brian Deer is the reporter who savaged Dr Wakefield from the pages of the Sunday Times, a paper managed by Rupert Murdoch's son James Murdoch who is on the board of GlaxoSmithKline which makes the MMR. Deer researched his case with the help of Medico-Legal Investigations a private enquiry company whose only source of funding is the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. Deer was both the journalist writing on Wakefield and the person to bring a case of fitness to practice medicine to the General Medical Council, and then wrote about the proceedings as well. Parents whose children were treated by Wakefield were denied the right to be heard before a real court on claims against the vaccine manufacturers. The High Court judge who denied them was Sir Nigel Davis, whose brother is an executive board member of Elsevier, publishers of the Lancet which removed Wakefield's paper on the subject, published in 1998, and is on the Board of GlaxoSmithKline."

...What a tangled web of blatant COI.

[Dyson]

07:01 PM on 08/04/2011

Jon, you're too intelligent to swallow that stuff surely?
It's just 6 degrees of separation conspiracy theory, the sort promulgated by John "there's a conflict of interest hiding under the bed" Stone.

Murdoch may have a kangaroo loose in his top paddock, but a News International conspiracy to expose the Wakefield fraud is not credible.

Don't forget, at the end of the day, to what purpose would this serve? If GSK share price correlated with what happened to Wakefield there might at least be a vanishingly unlikely reason to think about discrediting him, but he is such a tiny bit part player in the global vaccine market that I can't imagine anyone even bothering.

[JonGH]

10:46 PM on 07/20/2011

The next paragraph from vtmom's link to the Salem-News.com article above...

"With the London Times given Brian Deer free reign to attack Wakefield, media closed in like shark. Coincidentally, the head of Reuters serves on the Board of Merck, and Miriam Stoppard who writes at the Daily Mirror Newspaper is married to Sir Christopher Hogg, who was Chairman of GlaxoSmith Kline un 2004. Dr Kumar, the Chairman of the GMC Fitness to Practice Panel who ruled against Dr Andrew Wakefield, would not answer questions about his shareholdings in GlaxoSmithKline, and said there was no such thing as vaccine damage as well as saying that any parents who claimed that their children had suffered such, would be treated with scorn and contempt."

...the COI is so deep and pervasive in this whole story it is almost absurd.

[vtmom3]

08:41 AM on 07/21/2011

I haven't read anything about this anywhere else, so I'm treating this with skepticism, but it certainly keeps it interesting.

[vtmom3]

06:10 PM on 07/20/2011

See the link below for info on Chronic Persistent Lyme Disease from the very mainstream NIH. This is not a dubious condition. The only thing dubious is Tsouderos qualifications for writing about this topic. I've cut and pasted part of the NIH Medline page below. There is certainly disagreement about the treatment of Chronic Lyme, not about its existence.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000669.htm

Lyme disease - chronic persistent
Chronic persistent Lyme disease is late stage Lyme disease. Lyme disease is a disease spread through tick bites. The condition is also called Stage 3, or tertiary, Lyme disease.

See also: Lyme disease

Causes
Lyme disease is caused by bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi (B. burgdorferi). Certain ticks carry these bacteria. The ticks pick up the bacteria when they bite mice or deer that are infected with Lyme disease. You can get the disease if you are bitten by an infected tick.

Chronic persistent Lyme disease may develop months or years after you first develop Lyme disease infection.

Symptoms
Chronic persistent Lyme disease can affect the skin, brain, and nervous system, and muscles, bones, and cartilage.

Symptoms include:

Chronic arthritis
Fatigue
Headaches
Joint inflammation in the knees and other large joints
Memory loss
Mood changes
Sleep disorders
Other symptoms that may occur with this disease:

Abnormal sensitivity to light
Confusion
Decreased consciousness
Numbness and tingling

[vtmom3]

08:11 PM on 07/20/2011

I did not intend to post this here. This was a response to another article altogether. I'm feeling just a wee bit embarrassed. Glad someone "liked" it!

[vtmom3]

09:31 PM on 07/20/2011

Ooops! I did not intend to post this here.

[vtmom3]

04:59 PM on 07/20/2011

Have you seen this article in the Salem [Oregon] News?

Murdoch and Vaccines - Exposure of Murdoch's Crimes Open Up A Much Larger Story
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/july172011/murdoch-vaccines-wn.php

[JonGH]

04:37 PM on 07/18/2011

Heather, NG4W, JRS, (everyone)...

Have you guys seen this study published last month (June 2011)?

The lead author is from the Department of Neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute in Israel. And... "This study is part of a bigger research initiative carried out by scientists from the Autism Center of Excellence [and Department of Neurosciences] at the University of California at San Diego." [1]

Anyway, it may help light a way toward developing a biological/biomedical test for autism. This would be tremendously useful. Yes? No?

"This work may have uncovered an early marker of autism that could be used for diagnosis. ... In the meantime, the study of Dinstein et al. reveals an important and early neural correlate of autism that may aid diagnosis and provide new therapeutic endpoints." [2]

"The ability to measure this characteristic during sleep, when task compliance and subject cooperation are not required, suggests its utility as a possible diagnostic measure to aid growing efforts of identifying autism during infancy," they concluded, adding that early identification would lead to earlier intervention." [3]

Dinstein I, et al. “Disrupted Neural Synchronization in Toddlers with Autism.” Neuron.
Volume 70, Issue 6, 1218-1225, 23 June 2011.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627311003722

------------------------------
[1] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110622125658.htm
[2] http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/3/90/90ec104.abstract
[3] http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/Autism/27212

[JonGH]

05:53 PM on 07/18/2011

Here is arguably the most interesting article to describe and comment on this new study by Dinstein et al.

"Think of it like a series of lightbulbs on the same circuit, explained Dr. Gary Goldstein of the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, MD. In the brains of normally developing children and kids with language difficulties, the lightbulbs on the circuits oscillate, that is, all get brighter or dimmer in the right and left hemispheres at the same time. In the kids with autism, the hemispheres are out of sync. The circuits on the left side get brighter as those on the right side get dimmer."

"Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer of Autism Speaks, said the study adds to the evidence that autism may be, at least in part, a "developmental disconnection syndrome." Prior research has also found connectivity problems between different brain regions in autism.

"This helps explain why people with autism have trouble with complex behaviors, such as social interaction and language, which require coordinated activity across several brain regions," Dawson said. "This study suggests that faulty neural connectivity is an early characteristic of autism and helps explain some of the symptoms that emerge in the first couple of years of life. Even early gestures and social games require coordinated activity among several brain regions."

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/brain-and-behavior/articles/2011/06/22/poor-brain-sync-a-possible-sign-of-autism

[JonGH]

06:05 PM on 07/18/2011

"The idea is that our measure would be one of several measures developed over the next few years, which together would give good accuracy in identifying autism in extremely young toddlers," [lead author] Dinstein said. "Having biological measures for diagnosing autism would revolutionize the field."

"Dr. Gary Goldstein said it was unlikely fMRIs would be used to diagnosis autism. Most hospitals don't have the equipment. It's expensive, time consuming, and interpreting the images requires extensive training, he said."

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/brain-and-behavior/articles/2011/06/22/poor-brain-sync-a-possible-sign-of-autism

Hmmm. Interesting/provocative research involving autism, nuerobiology, and neuroimaging.

[JonGH]

08:01 PM on 07/18/2011

The role of the University of California at San Diego in this study.

Ilan Dinstein, Karen Pierce, Lisa Eyler, Stephanie Solso, Rafael Malach, Marlene Behrmann, Eric Courchesne. "Disrupted Neural Synchronization in Toddlers with Autism." Neuron, Volume 70, Issue 6, 1218-1225, 23 June 2011.

"This study is part of a bigger research initiative carried out by scientists from the Autism Center of Excellence at the University of California, San Diego, headed by Professor Eric Courchesne..." [1]

So I googled Dr. Courchesne and the Autism Center of Excellence (ACE) at the University of California at San Diego. Interesting fellow! Interesting team and project!!

"Dr. Courchesne's research focuses on the neurobiology of autism. ... The Courchesne Laboratory has played a significant role in understanding the biological basis of autism. This includes identifying the sites of neuroanatomical abnormality, obtaining evidence regarding the timing of biological onset, identifying neural substrates correlated with specific functional deficits..."

"The Courchesne Lab has a reputation for using state-of-the-art procedures and adhering to exacting standards in patient diagnosis and selection procedures. Characterizations of autism anatomy involve the use of highly sophisticated structural and fMRI technology to detect important anatomical and functional effects." [4]

http://neuroscience.ucsd.edu/2Bpage.php?id=ecourchesne%40ucsd.edu&pb=courchesne%20e

---------------------------
[1] See top post.
[4] http://neuroscience.ucsd.edu/2Bpage.php?id=ecourchesne%40ucsd.edu&pb=courchesne%20e

[Heather XW]

08:11 PM on 07/18/2011

This is my field. I have to say it's not at all as hard or time consuming as he says. It is expensive. The problem here is and the reason why we haven't done this study with our son is; (1) the child cannot be sedating and must hold still for at least 30min and (2) the child must have some minimum auditory directional understanding. My son is seven and still can't meet those requirements. Sure you can go ahead with the study but it would be suboptimal.

What stinks is this would not effect extremely early pickups thus early intervention. This would just confirm clinical diagnosis and give a greater understanding of the affected areas of the brain. It would beef up IEPs and hopefully bring compassion to the diagnosed.

It is fascinating.

[John Richard Smith]

08:12 AM on 07/17/2011

A Population-Based Study of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccination and Autism Masden et al is given as one of the strongest pieces of epidemiological evidence against a connection between autism and MMR vaccine.

The study is found here ....

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa021134#t=articleBackground

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM200303063481016

--------------------------------------------------------------

Summary

1. Retrospective Study (historical) January 1, 1991, to December 31, 1998

2. Comprehensive data from Danish Civil Registration System

3. The MMR vaccine was introduced in Denmark in 1987

4. The MMR vaccine used in Denmark was identical to that used in the USA but not the UK.

5. In Denmark Autism is diagnosed by psychiatrists using DSM I-V / (ICD-10)

6. 537,303 children were included in the cohort.

7. The prevalence rates among eight-year-old children in our cohort were 7.7 per 10,000 for autistic disorder and 22.2 per 10,000 for other autistic-spectrum disorders. 2002

8. The UK prevalence for autism 2005

A survey by the Office of National Statistics of the mental health of children and young people in Great Britain found a prevalence rate of 0.9% for autism spectrum disorders or 90 in 10,000

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Plain English - 100,000 Children

In Denmark they have an ASD prevalence rate of 22.2 children per 10,000 or

222 for every 100,000

In the UK they have an ASD prevalence rate of 90 children per 10,000 or

900 for every 100,000

[John Richard Smith]

09:37 AM on 07/17/2011

Our new findings and understandings about vaccines and it's interplay suggest one possible hypothesis. That the schedule of vaccines may offer either a protective or negative depending on the way you perceive the data.

* No measles vaccine was given in Denmark prior to 1987

* MMR Vaccine was introduced 1987

* Prevalence of autism has risen from - (no other historical figures are available inclusive ASD.)

2.0 / 10,000 (late80's early 90's)

10 / 10,000 (2000) (UK 38.9 2006)

* This seems to indicate a natural rise as diagnostic criteria change / better diagnosis

* Vaccination rose from approx 82% to 92%

* UK followed by Danish Vaccine schedule

DTaP -

2 months 3 months
3 months 5 months
4 months 12 months

MMR

12 months 15 months

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Could a simple delay in the giving of a vaccine shot offer an overall better health outcome ? According to the new understanding this may be so ......

It would be worth investigating.

[Heather XW]

09:45 PM on 07/17/2011

Here is a timeline that I just completed looking at the same data but in the US.

http://interactivetimeline.com/653/causation-timeline/?w=320

[John Richard Smith]

01:34 AM on 07/18/2011

I'd love to have more data and knowledge to proceed further with this hypothesis ... including presenting the findings in graph form and publish it on Huffpost so you can see the trends.

Of course I can only use the available data but I have made a true and honest effort to be objective and I have used at the heart of the hypothesis the very data supplied by those researchers and scientists that tell us there is no link.

I find that last point particualrly interesting. It would be hard to say I was using biased data.

[vtmom3]

02:25 PM on 07/16/2011

http://www.worldcrunch.com/first-lawsuits-against-controversial-cervical-cancer-vaccine/3446

FIRST LAWSUITS AGAINST CONTROVERSIAL CERVICAL CANCER VACCINE

In response, Sanofi Pasteur sent them to the French Agency for the Safety of Medical Products, which has received 1,700 claims for Gardasil that, like any new medicine registered at the European level, was the subject of a risk assessment plan. These claims concern “essentially the fever during the days just after the injection,” says Bernard Delorme, the person responsible for patient and public information.
Some cases of autoimmune diseases were found, “but not more than for other vaccines,” he adds. “The proportion of undesirable, serious side effects is the same as those that naturally occur in this segment of the population.” In order for these young girls to be compensated, the experts at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry have to establish a link between the vaccine and the symptoms. But as of yet, no doctor has formally discovered this connection.
In Laura Agnès’s case, the hospital at Voiron mentions, nevertheless, a “chronic polyradiculoneuropathic condition, probably due to the Gardasil injection.” Another medical center in Grenoble, after having observed the “chronology of appearance” of the side effects, judged that, “to be prudent, due to the cost/benefit relationship, the third injection of Gardasil [should be skipped].”

[John Richard Smith]

05:10 AM on 07/16/2011

Vaccination status and sequence of vaccinations as risk factors for hospitalisation among outpatients in a high mortality country

"Although vaccines reach most children, many modifications of the recommended schedule are observed in practice. We investigated the association between vaccination status and risk of hospitalisation in Guinea-Bissau."

"Receiving DTP simultaneously with MV (Measles Vaccination) or after MV is associated with increased risk of hospitalisation.

Vaccines have sex-differential effects on the risk of hospitalisation."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What effects does this combination of vaccinations have on the health outcomes of children in the western world ?

What other effects are evident when MMR is combined with DTP ?

When were these type of combinations first put into practice (Vaccine schedule) and was there a rise in any other negative health condition that is aligned to differing combinations or schedules of vaccines ?

What other findings have been made in regards to negative health outcomes and micronutrients (Vitamins) ?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is the length of surveillance undertaken by health authoritites when assessing the safety and efficacy of a vaccine ?

It has been suggested it is as little as 3 - 7 days after injection ?

If epidemiological studies that have been undertaken what are the differing outcomes when they are extended to several years ?

What work has been undertaken to assess the long term outcomes of vaccines and longitudinal studies to confirm or dismiss the clear hypothesis of Non Specific Events in Western countries ?

[nowGo4ward]

02:56 PM on 07/15/2011

The following review looks into the history of twin/autism research:

http://www.ageofautism.com/2011/07/new-autism-twin-study-demolishes-decades-long-belief-in-genetic-causation.html

Blaxill highlights elements of this study that may lead to an underestimation of environmental causation:

Crucially, the low 37-38% number for “A” dramatically overstated the role of heritability, a point the authors conceded in the paper’s fine print, where they acknowledged two major biases.

1. The study design explicitly excluded the possibility of an environmental effect being mediated by genetic vulnerability in a subset of children. In other words, their ACE model excluded the possibility of gene-environment interaction. According to the authors, “The ACE model we used has several inherent assumptions. First, it assumes no gene environment interaction. If such a gene environment effect does exist, it would be confounded with the A parameter in our analysis, implying that as an estimate of pure genetic effect, A may actually be an overestimate.”

cont.

[nowGo4ward]

03:32 PM on 07/15/2011

2. A more subtle bias of the study involved the way their model treated the twins’ environment in the womb. Twins are known to have variable gestational environments but the authors’ model assumed that both identical and fraternal twins faced the same “shared twin environment.” In fact, identical twins share a fetal environment (via a shared placenta or amniotic sac) far more often than fraternal twins (who almost always share neither). To the extent that the ACE model assigned the higher concordance of identical twins to heritability, the authors’ calculations excluded the fact that identical twins not only have identical genes, but a more nearly identical environment as well. The authors point out how this simplifying assumption raises their heritability estimate. “Similarly, a critical assumption in the model is that the shared twin environmental effect is the same for monozygotic [identical] and dizygotic [fraternal] twins. If, in fact, monozygotic twins share the relevant environment to a greater degree than the dizygotic twins, some of the effect included in the parameter A would actually be environmental rather than genetic; again, A may actually overestimate the true genetic heritability.”