MMR: they are desperate now, cries of a drowing vaccine

john · medicine forum addict Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 92

'Give you children MMR' top doctors appeal

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=392628&in_page_id=1770

27/06/06 - News section

'Give you children MMR' top doctors appeal
Thirty of Britain's top child health doctors last night issued an
unprecedented appeal for an end to controversy over the MMR vaccine.
The leading paediatricians and childhood vaccination experts jointly signed
an open letter warning that further lives would be lost unless the safety of
the triple jab was fully accepted.
The letter calls on politicians, health professionals and the media to 'draw
a line under the question of any association between MMR and autism' in the
light of an 'overwhelming body' of evidence that shows the vaccine is safe.
Among the signatories are Dr Patricia Hamilton, president of the Royal
College of Paediatrics and Child Health, doctors working for the Health
Protection Agency and researchers who have carried out studies supporting
the vaccine's safety.
Last year an analysis of 31 MMR studies by the respected Cochrane Library
found no association between the jab and autism. Confidence in the triple
jab for measles, mumps and rubella plummeted after controversial research by
Dr Andrew Wakefield published in The Lancet in 1998 which linked it with
autism and bowel diseases.
Since then a large number of studies have challenged the research, with
medical experts and the Government repeatedly assuring parents that MMR is
safe. But public confidence is still shaky and a report earlier this year
found, in some parts of the country, as few as one in nine children were
being given the triple vaccination. In March, the Health Protection Agency
released details of the death of a 13-year-old boy, from the travelling
community, who died of measles-related complications.
He was suffering from an underlying lung condition for which he was taking
drugs that suppressed his immunity. The World Health Organisation says 95
per cent vaccination coverage of children is necessary to achieve 'herd'
immunity, where sufficient numbers are protected to prevent outbreaks and
epidemics of disease.
The letter from the child health experts says 'We are now faced with a
potentially serious situation.
'Years of low uptake mean large numbers of unprotected children are now
entering school. Unless this is rectified urgently, and children are
immunised, there will be further outbreaks and we will see more unnecessary
deaths.
'It is not too late to avert this predictable tragedy. It is time that due
weight is given to the overwhelming body of scientific evidence in favour of
the vaccine.
'Misguided concepts of 'balance' have confused and dangerously misled
parents. We all, media, politicians and health professionals, have a
responsibility to protect the health of our children.'The letter comes,
however, after a new study presented at a Canadian autism conference last
month which supported Dr Wakefield's original research by showing that
measles had been found in the intestines of children with a form of autism.
One of the researchers Dr Stephen Walker, of Wake Forest University Medical
Centre in North Carolina, said the findings replicated Dr Wakefield's in
establishing a strong association between measles and autistic children with
bowel disease.
But he warned it did not demonstrate the measles virus was causing either
autism or bowel disease. Jackie Fletcher, founder of vaccination pressure
group JABS, said doctors signing the Open Letter should be re-directing
their energies to investigate the cases of children believed to be damaged
by the vaccine. She said at least 2,000 children were thought to have
problems linked to the MMR or MR (measles and rubella) vaccines.
She said 'They would like to draw a line through these children and pretend
they don't exist.
'Some of these doctors are responsible for epidemiological studies that have
looked at data and concluded MMR is safe. But we have been asking for almost
10 years - and were promised by a former health minister - that there would
be a clinical study of the children, and we're still waiting.
'I would like to see the energies of these doctors put into examining these
children, with a scientific investigation that would finally give the
parents some answers,' she added.

john · medicine forum addict Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 92

SUNDAY EXPRESS 18 June 2006

by Lucy Johnston
HEALTH EDITOR

Can we ever trust MMR?

'The Government has not looked at the whole picture'

Four years ago, the Sunday Express revealed that at least 26 child deaths
have been linked with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. In many cases,
the Government - or leading medical officials - accepted the connection.

Parents were awarded vaccine damage payments of up to £100,000 and, in other
cases, experts drew up post-mortem reports blaming the MMR jab as the most
likely cause of death.

Now, as we report today, two more parents have come forward claiming their
babies died as a result of the jab. And, last month, Vietnamese health
authorities withdrew the MMR jab after the death of one child and
hospitalisation of five others. The World Health Organisation is now
investigating this scare.

Since its launch in 1988, thousands of parents have reported unwanted
reactions to the triple jab, from moderate - rash, headache, temperature -
to severe, including brain damage, autism and convulsions. In 1992, the
Department of Health conceded it got the pre-licence trials wrong when the
chief medical officer announced the withdrawal of two of the three brands of
MMR because they were found to be causing meningitis.

All drugs, including vaccines can have side effects.The Government accepts
this - why else would it make vaccine damage pay-outs of up to £100,000?
But, publicly, it claims no deaths have been associated with MMR. How can it
do this when its own officials and post-mortem reports state otherwise?

Vaccine manufacturers accept there can be serious side effects, and have
informed the Government of this. So why does the Government's publicity
machine continue to insist that the triple jab is entirely safe?

Instead of being open and investigating potential dangers in what appears to
be a minority of children, the Government polarises the debate by implying
there are no risks.The Whitehall propaganda machine really kicked in eight
years ago when the press reported findings of Dr Andrew Wakefield's
explosive paper linking the MMR jab with autism.

At the time, his work was accepted as credible by experts in the field. But,
instead of making stocks of single vaccines available, as Wakefield advised,
policy chiefs made it difficult for parents to obtain them.

MMR uptake continued to fall. With an outbreak of disease on the horizon,
publich health officials panicked. The Department of Health launched a
campaign to rubbish Wakefield's research. He was ostracised by his peers and
forced to resign his post at the Royal Free. The Government risked losing
face if it changed its stance and accepted MMR might cause problems in some
children, but it also stood to lose millions in compensation claims. Action
had also been taken against the drug companies, which is still ongoing.

Dr Wakefield has become the scapegoat for the frenzy over MMR but he is not,
as the Government likes to portray him, a lone maverick. Many other doctors
have concerns, and other scientists have found evidence to support his
findings. But the Department of Health insists that research proves the jab
is safe.

However, the Government has not looked at the whole picture. Instead of
looking at the affected children themselves, the studies it cites are based
on patterns of disease taken from medical records of large populations,
which are unable to detect adverse reactions in small numbers of children.

When Dr Wakefield alerted the Government and vaccine chiefs to his research
before publication, it promised an independent forum into his findings. This
has never happened. Instead, it has called for an investigation into Dr
Wakefield. The General Medical Council is considering whether to charge him
with serious professional misconduct.

Figures released by the Health Protection Agency last week reveal the number
of potentially deadly measles cases seen by doctors since January is five
times higher than during all last year, prompting fears of an epidemic.

As Richard Halvorsen, vaccine expert and central London GP said: "With the
threat of a measles epidemic, the only way many parents will protect their
children is with the single vaccine. By refusing to allow this, the
Government is contributing to the epidemic it seeks to prevent."

One has to ask the question: where does the Department of Health's interests
lie? Is it to protect the nation's health, or to protect officials, and the
pharmaceutical industries' lucrative patents for new combination jabs?

Jeff · medicine forum Guru Joined: 25 Mar 2005 Posts: 1313

The doctors are doing the right thing. The vaccines saves thousands of lives
a year.

Jeff

john · medicine forum addict Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 92

http://www.whale.to/vaccines/elliman_letter.html

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