http://www.vacinfo.org/
Current childhood vaccine programs: An overview with emphasis on the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine and of its compromising of the mucosal immune system
Abstract
Both common observation and official statistics confirm that there have been dramatic increases in chronic physical and mental illnesses in Amer-ican children, such as autism, asthma, and allergies since the introduction of the MMR vaccine in 1978. Government health officials have denied a relationship with vaccines, but U.S. Congressional hearings on vaccine safety (1999 to Dec. 2004) revealed a total absence of vaccine safety tests that would meet current scientific standards, so that it can be assumed that many vaccine reactions are taking place unrecognized. Prior to the introduction of vaccines, the Th1 cellular immune system of the gastrointestinal and respiratory systems served as the primary defense systems with the Th2 hu-moral immune system in the bone marrow, serving a secondary role.
There is a school of thought that the “minor childhood diseases” of earlier times, including measles, mumps, chicken pox, and rubella, which involved the epithelial tissues of skin, respiratory, and/or gastrointestinal tracts, served a necessary purpose in challenging, strengthening, and estab-lishing the dominance of Th1 cellular immune system during early childhood. Current vaccines against these diseases, in contrast, being directed at stimulating antibody production in the bone marrow, are bypassing the cellular immune system and thereby tending to reverse the roles of the cellular and humoral systems, with the former suffering from a lack of challenge. In addition, the cellular immune system is being further compromised by the powerfully immunosuppressive effects of the MMR vaccine. The time is overdue to totally rethink and redirect our current childhood vaccine program.
Medical Veritas International, Inc.
Keywords: cellular immunity, humoral immunity, MMR vaccine, immunosuppression, autism, asthma, allergies, autoimmune diseases
1. Concerns about increasing incidence of childhood autism and related disorders
Many years ago in our medical practice we began asking teachers if, during their teaching careers, they had observed a change in children. Without exception, they replied that there had been a dramatic change, most notably since the early 1980s. Steadily increasing numbers of children, they reported, were showing autistic-like behaviors, were restless, impulsive, less focused, less able to concentrate, and therefore less able to learn.
It has been documented that a sharp and persisting rise in the incidence of childhood autism commenced following the 1978 introduction of the MMR vaccine in the U.S.A. [1-2], a time when mercury-laced Hepatitis B and Hemophilus influenza type b vaccines were also introduced.
For a number of years previously the live measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines had been administered separately with negligible increases in autism.
It was only after they were combined that the incidence of autism began soaring with 1 in 150 children up to eight years age, according to U.S. multisite study in 2000 [3], as compared with 1 in 10,000 several generations ago.
According to more recent information, the incidence of autism may be even higher, with 1 in 88 military children in U.S.A. having autism [4], and according to the Vaccine Autoimmune Project (VAP), one in 67 in U.S.A. and 1 in 86 in the United Kingdom having autism [5]. Considering that the incidence of autism in boys is approximately four times greater than in girls, the relative incidence of autism in boys would be even greater.
Finally, as estimated by VAP, the average lifetime cost of caring for autistic children will be about $3.2 million dollars per child.
In addition to the autism epidemic, in 2004 almost five mil-lion children were classified as learning disabled [6], which represents a three-fold increase since 1976-7 according to the Digest of Education Statistics [7]. Comparable increases have taken place in attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), with four and one half million children between ages 3 and 17 being diagnosed with this condition in 2004 [8].
In a bulletin sponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics, January, 2004, entitled “AUTISM A.L.A.R.M.”, in addi-tion to an announcement of the increasing prevalence of autism at that time, it was announced that 1 in 6 American children were diagnosed with a developmental disorder and/or behavioral disorder.
In a similar fashion the incidence of asthma has increased from roughly two and a half million children, ages 0-17 years in 1979 [8] to nine million children 0-17 years in 2004 [8], (rough-ly 12% of that age group), a time period in which this age-group population increased 114% compared to a 360% increase in asthma.
Autoimmune diseases are also increasing, including juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and Crohn’s inflammatory bowel disease. Based on the work of Vijendra Singh, who demonstrated marked elevations of brain antibodies in the form of myelin basic protein antibodies in au-tistic children [9-10], autism itself can be considered an autoimmune disorder…
For today’s parents the Autism Research Institute with headquarters in San Diego, California (www.AutismResearchInstitute.com) has made the following safety recommendations in childhood vaccines:
• Never vaccinate a sick child, even if he or she just has a runny nose.
• Never give more than two vaccines simultaneously.
• Rather than the MMR vaccine, request that these viral vaccines be given separately, preferably six months apart; give measles last; and do not give any other vaccines for at least 1 year after measles. Some compounding pharmacies do provide these individual vaccines.
• Administer vitamins A, D and C before and after vaccines.
• Never allow a vaccine containing any level of the mercurial compound, Thimerosal.
At time of this writing in late 2008, 50 micrograms of Thimerosal is still present in each 0.5-mL dose of vaccine from multi-dose vials of influenza vac-cines and multi-dose vials of tetanus booster vaccines, but not in single dose vials of these vaccines. A total of 17 vaccines formulations are still approved and available for use that contain some level of Thimerosal; 10 of these 17 vaccine formulations contain a preservative level of Thimerosal.
Any overview on vaccines would be incomplete without mention of the work of the highly published immunologist, H. H. Fudenberg, and his work in developing clinical applications of transfer factor, which is a low molecular weight extract of lymphocytes, capable of enhancing or inducing cell-mediated immunity de novo (without immunizations) in an antigen spe-cific fashion [63-64].
Finally, in view of gross deficiencies of vaccine safety test-ings, as documented by the U.S. Congressional Hearings on issues of vaccine safety (1999-December, 2004), the time is long overdue for a total rethinking and redirecting of current childhood vaccine programs. Until the safety of such programs can be assured by thorough and dependable safety testing, any further mandating of childhood vaccines will remain morally and ethically untenable…
[http://www.vacinfo.org/Buttram.pdf, doi: 10.1588/medver/2008.05.00190, 1820 H.E. Buttram/Medical Veritas 5 (2008) 1820-1827;
Harold E. Buttram, MD
Email: [email protected]; http://www.vacinfo.org/]