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TEACCH (Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children):
Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (CIDD). TEACCH Founding
Thimerosal - Shots - some articles pro and con
The Debate Continues.......
Thimerosal in vaccines has no link to autism
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Exposure to thimerosal, a mercury-containing chemical previously used as a preservative in vaccines, does not increase the risk of autism, according to a report in the American Journal of Medical Genetics.
"Fierce debate" continues over whether thimerosal exposure raises the risk of autism, the authors point out. In the last two decades, there has been a rise in autism cases, which coincided with increased usage of vaccines containing thimerosal. Although studies have shown no evidence of an association, thimerosal was removed from all routine childhood vaccines in the U.S. in 2002.
The present study involved a telephone survey of 214 mothers of 230 children with autism or a related disorder. Exposure to thimerosal-containing Rh immune globulin, a vaccine administered to some women to avoid pregnancy complications, was compared between this group and the general population.
The researchers found that autistic children were no more likely than unaffected children to have been exposed to Rh immune globulin, lead author Dr. Judith Miles, from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and colleagues report.
These findings provide more evidence that childhood autism is not caused by thimerosal, the authors conclude. They hope this report will encourage all parents to adhere to immunization recommendations. A lack of compliance is known to increase the risk of serious complications and death in children who may contract infectious diseases.
SOURCE: American Journal of Medical Genetics, May 16th online issue, 2007.
Thimerosal Linked To Autism: New Clinical Findings
Main Category: Autism News
Article Date: 30 Apr 2007 - 19:00 PDT
The
Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A: Current Issues, an authoritative journal featuring original toxicological research, has published, "A Case Series of
Children with Apparent Mercury Toxic Encephalopathies Manifesting with Clinical Symptoms of Regressive Autistic Disorders,"
by Geier and Geier (2007).
This new study leaves little doubt there is a direct causal link between mercury exposure
from Thimerosal-preserved biological products (vaccines and Rho(D) products) and mercury poisoning diagnosed as an autism
spectrum disorder (ASD).
Thimerosal (49.55% mercury by weight) is a highly toxic mercury compound used as a preservative
in some OTC and prescription drugs, including most flu shots given to pregnant women, infants, children, adults, and the elderly.
On April 19, 2007, Dr. Larry L. Needham, Chief, Organic Analytical Toxicology Branch, CDC, announced to the US
National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine that Thimerosal was among the "Chemicals Linked to ASD."
Thus, Geier and Geier (2007) provide the first clinical case-series of ASD patients that confirmed this causal
role for Thimerosal-preserved drugs in patients having a regressive ASD diagnosis.
The Geiers describe
a case-series of eight patients who had:
-- a regressive ASD diagnosis,
-- elevated levels
of androgens,
-- excreted significant amounts of mercury after a chelation challenge,
-- biochemical
evidence of decreased function in their glutathione pathways,
-- no known significant mercury exposures except
from Thimerosal-preserved vaccines and Rho(D)-immune globulin preparations, and
-- alternative causes for their
regressive ASDs ruled out.
This clinical study also found a significant dose-response relationship between the
severity of the ASD symptoms and the total mercury dose these children received from Thimerosal-preserved drugs.
Based on differential diagnosis, these patients were exposed to significant mercury amounts from Thimerosal-preserved biologic
drugs during their fetal and neonatal development as well as between 12 and 24 months of age. Thus, these initially normally
developing children suffered mercury toxic encephalopathies that manifested with clinical symptoms consistent with their regressive
ASD diagnosis.
Hence, mercury poisoning should be considered as a cause for those children exhibiting the symptoms
of an ASD in any differential diagnosis designed to assess underlying causes.
Today, any parent or other healthcare
provider can easily confirm whether, or not, a non-chelated autistic child is mercury poisoned by having urinary porphyrin
profile analysis (UPPA) testing run at LabCorp (Test#120980) or Laboratoire Philippe Auguste (Urine Porphyrin Profile).
For additional information on UPPA testing for mercury poisoning, please visit the "UPPA" page on CoMeD's
web site, www.Mercury-freeDrugs.org.
Dr. King
4-17-07
Autistic Children Clinically
Proven Mercury Poisoned
Main Category: Autism NewsArticle Date: 16 Apr 2007 - 9:00 PDT
|Recent peer-reviewed scientific/medical studies by Nataf et al. (2006) and by Geier and Geier (2006) leave little doubt that many autistic children are indeed mercury poisoned. These studies utilized urinary porphyrin profile analysis (UPPA) to assess the body-burden and magnitude of physiological effects of mercury in children.
UPPA is a highly accurate, inexpensive, non-invasive, and routinely available method for estimating body-burden and toxicity of mercury. Numerous peer-reviewed scientific/medical papers published over the past 40 years, many of them supported by the US NIH, have proven the validity of using UPPA to identify mercury poisoning.
UPPA profiling, unlike attempts to directly measure mercury in the blood, urine or feces, or in tissues (e.g., hair and nail), is a proven indirect method for assessing mercury toxicity.
Using UPPA, Nataf et al. (2006) studied the urinary porphyrin patterns in French children using the results reported by Laboratoire Philippe Auguste. Similarly, Geier and Geier (2006) studied the patterns in US children using the results reported by the Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp).
Both published studies:
-- Clearly demonstrated that non-chelated autistic children had porphyrin patterns indicative of clinical mercury toxicity, while normal children and normal sibling controls did not.
-- Found that the more severely affected the ASD children were the higher their evidence of mercury toxicity.
-- Established that treating autistic children with chelating agents resulted in lower mercury-specific urinary porphyrins, which tracked the apparent reduction in mercury body-burden in these children.
Many other physicians who take care of ASD patients have ordered UPPA testing and confirmed the observations made by Nataf et al. (2006) and Geier and Geier (2006).
Thus, urinary porphyrin profile testing is being successfully used to:
-- Demonstrate the role of mercury in populations of autistic children,
-- Identify those children and adults who are mercury poisoned, and
-- Track the progress of the removal of mercury from mercury-poisoned individuals.
For the past several years, there has been a raging controversy as to whether or not the mercury in medicines, especially in vaccines, has caused the dramatic rise in the rate of children diagnosed with an ASD. Many experts have insisted ASDs are caused by some yet-to-be-identified genetic cause. A paper recently published in Nature Genetics described the results of multi-million-dollar genetics study (which studied a thousand-plus families with at least two autistic children using in-depth genetic screening). Tellingly, the authors reported, "None of our linkage results can be interpreted as 'statistically significant'…"(The Autism Genome Project Consortium, 2007). This makes it unlikely that purely genetic aberrations are the root cause of most ASD cases.
With the current porphyrin study results, public health officials should now publicly admit what they have been saying in their private transcripts and memos all along: Mercury from Thimerosal-containing vaccines and other medicines has been a major cause of ASD cases, which, according to recent CDC estimates (CDC 2007), may exceed a rate of one in 94 children (in NJ).
Today, any healthcare provider or parent can easily confirm whether a non-chelated autistic child is mercury poisoned by having UPPA testing run at LabCorp (CLIA-certified, test#120980) or Laboratoire Philippe Auguste (ISO-certified, 119 Philippe Auguste Avenue, Paris, France 75011).
CoMeD's web site, www.Mercury-freeDrugs.org contains:
-- Further information on the two study laboratories conducting these tests,
-- Full copies of the Nataf et al. (2006) and Geier and Geier (2006) papers, and
-- Some of the many published papers validating the UPPA test.
Newly Released Canadian Data Links Vaccines With Pervasive Developmental Disorder
Article Date: 08 Mar 2007 - 0:00 PST|
New findings presented yesterday at a National Autism Association meeting bolster claims that vaccines may play a role in the development of autism spectrum disorders. David Ayoub, MD presented data suggesting a correlation between mercury- containing vaccines and rates of pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), a form of autism, in Montreal. The peak rate of one in 87 children diagnosed with PDD occurred following the period of greatest exposure to the mercury- based vaccine preservative thimerosal. A flattening of the rates studied is now emerging as mercury-containing vaccines have been gradually eliminated from the routine schedule.
This new data points out flaws in a 2006 study published in the journal Pediatrics by Eric Fombonne, MD, et al, which found PDD rates continued to increase even when rates of MMR vaccination and use of mercury-containing vaccines decreased. The study population consisted of a single Montreal school board that was an Autism Center of Excellence, suggesting an over- ascertainment of regional diagnoses. Dr. Ayoub and co-authors Monica Ruscitti, BA, and F. Edward Yazbak, MD broadened the data to include all five Montreal school boards.
The earlier study also reported PDD rates in children from Montreal, but MMR coverage data was taken from Quebec City located 265km from Montreal. The researchers confirmed MMR coverage rates actually increased in Montreal along with PDD, noting a sharper rise in rates after the number of required MMR shots doubled.
The Pediatrics paper claimed there was no exposure to mercury from vaccines post-1996 although several mercury-containing vaccines were administered well beyond 1996. "It's irresponsible that such flawed data was published in a medical journal. This new information confirms a relationship between vaccines and autism that can't be explained by better diagnosing or changing diagnostic criteria," said Karen McDonough, NAA -- Chicago president.
Drs. Ayoub and Yazbak detailed the Fombonne study flaws in letters to Pediatrics which the journal declined to publish. Editor Jerold F. Lucey, MD stated in a reply, "I believe the evidence of no link between MMR and Autism is sufficient. It's not worth publishing more on this subject."
"This dismissal of legitimate concerns regarding data affecting those suffering with autism is a disgrace," commented Ms. McDonough.
National Autism Association
http://www.nationalautism.org
CDC's Vaccine Committee Whitewashed Toxic Vaccine Component, Says National Autism Association (NAA)Main Category: Autism NewsArticle Date: 24 Feb 2007 - 0:00 PST Parents and health advocates are expressing outrage over the recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) that pregnant women, infants and children continue to be exposed to mercury contained in the flu vaccine despite recommendations from the Institute of Medicine that mercury not be injected into these sensitive populations since 2001. Dr. Jay Lieberman was assigned to present on "Thimerosal, Reviewing the Evidence." A plethora of peer-reviewed published data documenting the harmful effects of thimerosal on the immune, metabolic and nervous systems in humans and animals is widely available with a simple PubMed data search. But none of this information was mentioned by Dr. Lieberman. Instead, the discussion centered on epidemiological studies which have been highly criticized due to their inability to identify any such harmful associations. In fact, one such study presented by Dr. Lieberman was found by the National Institute of Health (NIH) in October of 2006 to contain several serious flaws that were "judged to reduce the usefulness of an ecologic study design using the VSD (Vaccine Safety Database) to address the potential association between thimerosal and the risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders." Dr. Lieberman has been a consultant to Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sanofi-Pasteur and is on the speakers' bureau for all three vaccine-makers, who have used, and currently use, thimerosal in their products. "We have been very concerned about Dr. Lieberman's conflicts of interest," commented Executive Director Rita Shreffler of NAA. Shreffler says that NAA requested that a counterpoint speaker without ties to drug companies be allowed to present current, peer-reviewed toxicological data and the request was denied. "To leave this presentation in the hands of those who have profited from, and continue to use thimerosal in some of their products is consistent with the CDC's history of concealing the consequences of injecting mercury into humans," said Shreffler. While most routine childhood vaccines are currently available in mercury- free or reduced mercury versions, the majority of flu shots still contain 25 micrograms of mercury, an amount considered unsafe under government agency guidelines for anyone weighing less than 550 lbs. The CDC now recommends flu shots for pregnant women and children ages six months through five years. "It's obvious this committee's ties to the drug companies are dictating what will come to light regarding the use of mercury in vaccines," said Claire Bothwell, NAA board chair. "When it comes to discussing thimerosal, it's hard to tell where the pharmaceutical industry leaves off and where the CDC begins. The blurring of these lines is not in the best interests of public health." National Autism Association http://www.nationalautism.org  |