Thursday, April 28, 2011

David Kirby: New Study: Hepatitis B Vaccine Triples the Risk of Autism in Infant Boys - AGE OF AUTISM

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David Kirby: New Study: Hepatitis B Vaccine Triples the Risk of Autism in Infant Boys

Dice no yes maybe

By David Kirby (Click HERE to read and comment on the HuffPo version of this post.)

“The science is largely complete. Ten epidemiological studies have shown MMR vaccine doesn’t cause autism; six have shown thimerosal doesn’t cause autism.”
-- Dr. Paul Offit, “Autism’s False Prophets”

“16 studies have shown no causal association between vaccines and autism, and these studies carry weight in the scientific industry.”
-- Dr. Nancy Snyderman, NBC Today Show Medical Editor

Conventional wisdom holds that the autism-vaccine question has been “asked and answered,” and that least 16 large, well-constructed epidemiological studies have thoroughly addressed and debunked any hypothesis that childhood vaccination is in any way associated with an increased risk for autism spectrum disorders.

But there are several critical flaws in such an oversimplified generalization, and they are rarely given close examination by public health experts or members of the media.

To begin with, it is unscientific and perilously misleading for anyone to assert that “vaccines and autism” have been studied and that no link has been found. That’s because the 16 or so studies constantly cited by critics of the hypothesis have examined just one vaccine and one vaccine ingredient. And the studies themselves have critical design flaws and limitations.

The current US childhood immunization schedule calls for 28 injections with 11 different vaccines against 15 different diseases by two years of age. Of those 11 vaccines, only the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) shot has been studied in association with autism, (although a CDC study of an MMR-plus-chickenpox vaccine did show that the risk for febrile seizures in infants was doubled.)

Meanwhile, those 11 vaccines contain scores of ingredients, only one of which, thimerosal, has ever been tested in association with autism.

It is illogical to exonerate all vaccines, all vaccine ingredients, and the total US vaccine program as a whole, based solely on a handful of epidemiological studies of just one vaccine and one vaccine ingredient. It is akin to claiming that every form of animal protein is beneficial to people, when all you have studied is fish.

Now, a new study has shown that giving Hepatitis B vaccine to newborn baby boys more than triples the associated risk of developing an autism spectrum disorder.

An abstract of the study was published in the September, 2009 issue of the respected journal Annals of Epidemiology. In it, Carolyn Gallagher and Melody Goodman of the Graduate Program in Public Health at Stony Brook University Medical Center, NY, wrote that, “Boys who received the hepatitis B vaccine during the first month of life had 2.94 greater odds for ASD compared to later- or unvaccinated boys.” The authors used U.S. probability samples obtained from National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) 1997–2002 datasets.

The conclusion states that: “Findings suggest that U.S. male neonates vaccinated with hepatitis B vaccine had a 3-fold greater risk of ASD; risk was greatest for non-white boys.”

The authors noted that an earlier study by them found that hepatitis B vaccination was associated with receipt of early intervention/special education services (EIS); in probability samples of U.S. children, and that “children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) comprise a growing caseload for EIS.”

The author’s new study used a different database than their earlier study (NHIS vs. NHANES) and they found same thing, suggesting a validation of their findings.

Critics will point out that this sample was limited to boys born before 1999, so the results are only applicable to that U.S. male birth cohort, and that the study’s cross-sectional design limits inferences on causality. Another weakness is that the autism diagnoses were parent reported.

On the other hand, these results are generalizable to US boys age 3-17 born prior to 1999; vaccination status was confirmed through medical records; and there was controlling for confounders that may be associated with care seeking behaviors. (The P-value equaled 0.032)  The full manuscript is currently under review by another journal.

Assuming that the full manuscript is published in a peer-reviewed journal, it will be among the first university-based population studies to suggest an association between a vaccine and an increased risk for autism. And that would be in direct contradiction to all those MMR and thimerosal studies that purportedly found no such link.

Does that mean that Hepatitis B vaccine causes autism? Of course not (though any relative risk above 2.0 is general considered to prove causation in a US court of law).

But there are other studies, both published and greatly anticipated, which might support a hypothesized causal association between HepB vaccine and ASD, at least in boys.
Any day now, data culled from CDC's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring network  (ADDM), is expected to be published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, and the numbers are expected to put the rate of autism at around 1 in 100, or higher.
ADDM researchers examine the education and (when possible) medical records of all eight-year-old children in selected US cities and states. They look only at eight-year-old cohorts to allow time for all diagnoses to be made, reported and counted.

So far, ADDM has published data from just two birth cohorts: children born in 1992 (eight-year-olds in 2000) and those born in 1994 (eight-year-olds in 2002). The 1992 cohort revealed an estimated ASD rate of one in 166, or 60-per-10,000. (This has since been revised to 67-per-10,000, or one in 150).

But CDC data for the same six ADDM locations showed an increase in ASD from 6.7 for 1992 births to 7.4 for 1994 births.

And now the total average number expected to exceed 100-per-10,000 for the 1996 birth cohort, born just two years later. The overarching question, of course, will be, "why?"

There are many possible explanations, though a 50% increase in just two years is astonishing, no matter what its cause.

One possible answer is the Hepatitis B vaccine, (which also contained 25 micrograms of mercury containing thimerosal up until 2002). Introduced in 1991, it was the first vaccine ever given on a population basis to newborn babies (within the first three hours after delivery) in human history.

But according to the CDC's  National Immunization Survey, only 8% of infant children received the Hep B vaccine in 1992, when that birth cohort showed an ASD rate of 1-in-150.

By 1994, the number of children receiving Hep B vaccine at birth had reached just 27% --and the same cohort showed a 10% ASD increase in locations where both years were measured.

But by 1996, Hep B coverage rate had risen to 82%. And that is the cohort whose ASD rate rose to around 100-per-10,000 or more.

Correlation, obviously, does not equal causation. But the uptake rate of that particular immunization is at least one environmental factor that did demonstrably change during the period in question.

In addition, some recent studies and vaccine court decisions have supported the contention that Hepatitis B vaccine can damage myelin -- the nervous system's main insulating component -- at least in certain genetically susceptible adults and infants.

A study published last October in the journal Neurology found that children who received the Hepatitis B vaccine series were 50% more likely to develop "central nervous system inflammatory demyelination" than children who did not receive the vaccine.
Most of this increase was due to the Engerix B brand of the vaccine, manufactured by the UK's GlaxoSmithKline. That brand increased the risk of demyelination by 74%, and patients with confirmed multiple sclerosis were nearly three times more likely to develop the disorder.
"Hepatitis B vaccination does not generally increase the risk of CNS inflammatory demyelination in childhood," the authors concluded. "However, the Engerix B vaccine appears to increase this risk, particularly for confirmed multiple sclerosis, in the longer term. Our results require confirmation in future studies."

Let’s hope that future studies of neonatal HebB administration, demyelinating disorders, and ASD are completed as quickly as possible.

David Kirby is author of Evidence of Harm, a founding contributor to Huffington Post and a contributor to Age of Autism.  His next book, Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment will be released within the year and is available now for pre-order at Amazon.


 

Posted by Age of Autism at September 17, 2009 at 8:21 AM in David Kirby, Vaccine Safety | Permalink | Comments (82) | TrackBack (0)

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FWIW - EngerixB allows up to 5% residual food proteins - in the case of HepB that is genetically modified bread yeast with some key protein sequences from the HepB virus spliced in...the other manufacturers only allow u to 2% residual proteins.

I keep saying - look at the FOOD they get injected with.

Posted by: GrammaKnows | April 27, 2011 at 04:07 AM

I have heard that vaccines are linked to child autism and this article is just better proof. I don't want my kids to have immunizations when they are babies. I think there are certain illnesses they need to avoid, but as human beings, our bodies should be strong enough to fight off or handle most sicknesses that we contract. I don't think it's worth the risk of autism just to get shots.

Posted by: jjones444 | January 06, 2011 at 12:52 PM

People deserve very good life time and www.lowest-rate-loans.com or student loan can make it much better. Because freedom bases on money.

Posted by: KimRose27 | June 11, 2010 at 08:53 PM

my friends new born baby got 2 hepatitis B vaccine by mistakly in 2 days interwell. is it serious?

Posted by: jiji | October 05, 2009 at 05:38 AM

Hi, could someone please inform me in case I have missed something here, but where has the abstract been published and where can I read it for myself? I only found out about this today from my doctor and it all seems very interesting, but I would like to read more. If anyone can help me out that would be great. I would also like to say that reading this makes me feel vindicated for making the decision not to vaccinate my child with anything and for putting my foot down when the nurses and midwives tried to bully me into vaccinating my son with Hep B at birth. Thankfully the country I live in works under the system of informed choice, despite the pressure from pharmaceutical companies on the government. Hopefully it will always stay that way.

Posted by: Mel Potter | September 28, 2009 at 11:18 AM

In regards to whether or not the MMR is safe:

No one can make a blanket safety statement for any vaccine since the saftey of vaccines depends in part on the health status of the individual receiving the vaccine.

Even the Bureau of Immunization warns that "Virus replication after administration of live, attenuated-virus vaccines can be enhanced in severely immunocompromised persons. In general, these patients should not be administered live vaccines", and this bureau has an entire webpage devoted to assessing the risks of various vaccines in immunocompromised persons. http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/imm/immcomp.shtml
So even the Bureau of Immunization states that the MMR is not safe for everyone.

And it may be necessary to point out that many parents of children with autism have reported that their children had a very long health history of chronic infections and illnesses (which can be indicative of immune dysfunction) prior to receiving the MMR (a live, attenuated-virus vaccine) and then regressed into autism after receiving that live vaccine.
In fact, some parents who have written for Age of Autism have even been told that their children have an immune system akin to a late stage AIDS patient, and the Bureau of Immunization warns that "MMR and other measles-containing vaccines are not recommended for HIV-infected persons with evidence of severe immunosuppression".

So for children whose immune systems were compromised at the time they received the MMR vaccine and then subsequently regressed into autism, I would have to say no, it appears the MMR was not safe for those children. And not only did the vaccine appear to cause them harm, those same children still do not have immunity to the measles virus probably also because of their immune system dysfunction.

So that brings us to another question. Why would these children have immune system deficiencies in the first place?
Some reasons listed by the Bureau are:
"Severe immunosuppression not associated with HIV can be the result of congenital immunodeficiency, leukemia, lymphoma, generalized malignancy or therapy with alkylating agents, antimetabolites, radiation, or large amounts of corticosteroids."
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/imm/immcomp.shtml

However, there may be a more logical explanation for so many children with weakened immune systems. Here's 2 possibilities that also have an association with the Hep B vaccination. Mercury and Aluminum interfere with proper immune function:
1. Mercury has been found to cause immune dysfunction:
"The overall vascular effects of mercury include oxidative stress, inflammation, thrombosis, vascular smooth muscle dysfunction, endothelial dysfunction, dyslipidemia, immune dysfunction, and mitochondrial dysfunction."
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17405690
2. Aluminum is added to vaccines specifically because of how it alters the body's normal immune system response.
"aluminum in the vaccines specifically targets the overactivation of TH2 to encourage the body to produce antibodies, any direct or indirect effect of aluminum on the health or maturation of the TH1 or TH3 system is unknown." http://www.devdelay.org/newsletter/articles/pdf/402-aluminum-new-mercury.pdf

So even though the MMR has been on the vaccine schedule since the 1980s, perhaps more children were immunocompromised in the 1990s as a result of receiving many more mercury and aluminum containing vaccines. And then as a result of the immune dysfunction caused by mercury and aluminum, the replication of attenuated live measles virus could have been enhanced in these immunocompromised children. In other words, could the hep B vaccine (and the other mercury and aluminum containing vaccines) have made some children more susceptibile to the live measles virus in the MMR?

Also, the current view on autism is that it's caused by some combination of toxins and infections. So that means children could develop autism either with or without receiving the MMR. The main unifying factors I've seen reported regarding children with autism are lab reports showing very high levels of mercury and aluminum as well as parental reports of chronic illnesses.

To answer another part of Ben's question from earlier, I think looking at the shots in combination with one another is important. I don't think it's a one shot always equals this exact result type of thing. Rather, I think it's a complex variability in initial susceptibilities compounded by environmental insults including vaccines, that eventually results in autism.

Posted by: CM | September 21, 2009 at 02:13 PM

as MSNBC says, must see TV, this is a MUST SEE video

Have at it, and realize, that all vaccines are crapshoots, immune destroyers, and one could never know if their child will be the next victim.

Posted by: Kathy Blanco | September 21, 2009 at 11:32 AM

David, the conclusions are not the question. The question is where and when will it get published. If they can't get this published in a respectable journal, that does indicate the research was of low quality. The conclusions don't mean anything if the research was not done well. Why are you so confident it was done well? Other commenter's on this site have less confidence in journal articles that have made it past more peer review than this.

Posted by: ben | September 20, 2009 at 11:09 PM

Thanks Amy in Idaho! I try to keep my hope at bay usually, but maybe the Office will actually address vaccine safety concerns again since they threw the issue out from the very moment of Pam's announcement. Yet another reason to love the show.

Posted by: ginnie | September 20, 2009 at 08:12 AM

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via ageofautism.com

To begin with, it is unscientific and perilously misleading for anyone to assert that “vaccines and autism” have been studied and that no link has been found. That’s because the 16 or so studies constantly cited by critics of the hypothesis have examined just one vaccine and one vaccine ingredient. And the studies themselves have critical design flaws and limitations.

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