case study in doctors gone wild - Hepatitis B shot at birth

georgia · medicine forum Guru Joined: 06 May 2005 Posts: 505

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-2006060
9-16232400-bc-ageofautism.xml

Science Daily
Jun 9, 2006

The Age of Autism: Gardasil vs. Hep B
By Dan Olmsted

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- This week the Food and Drug
Administration approved a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer in women.
In an
odd way, the announcement highlights what may be wrong with government
policy on another vaccination, the very first one children receive.

The FDA`s approval of Gardasil is intended to block human
papillomavirus, or
HPV, the most common sexually transmitted disease and one that causes
almost
all cases of cervical cancer. The agency approved the vaccine for girls
beginning at age 9 to protect them before they become sexually active.

Some cultural conservatives oppose making the shots mandatory for
public-school attendance because of what they fear is an implicit
endorsement of pre-marital sex. That`s an issue an advisory committee
of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- and ultimately, each of
the 50
states -- will have to grapple with.

Regardless, the decision to wait till the cusp of adolescence to give
the
shot seems sensible -- and drives home the contrary approach that the
CDC
has taken with the hepatitis B vaccination mandated for every newborn
child.

To listen to some public-health officials, you`d think the nation was
in the
grip of an incipient Hep B epidemic lurking in the nation`s
hygienically
challenged daycare centers -- an epidemic contained solely by
vaccination on
the day of birth.In fact, hepatitis B is overwhelmingly a disease of
sexual
contact and intravenous, illegal drug use. Except in cases where the
mother
tests positive for Hep B, the risk to children vs. the risk of such an
early
vaccination seems questionable in the eyes of many critics of CDC
immunization policy.

Over the course of the past year, as I`ve reported on concerns that
vaccines
may be linked to a huge increase in autism diagnoses beginning in the
1990s,
the hepatitis B vaccination at birth stood out; the vaccination was
first
recommended in 1991.At least two doctors tell me their faith in the
government`s entire childhood immunization schedule was shattered by
the
CDC`s insistence that every newborn needs a Hep B shot as an urgent
matter
of public health.

'It is universally accepted that such mandate was forced upon our
children
only because they were `available,` while efforts to vaccinate
high-risk
adults had repeatedly failed,' Dr. F. Edward Yazbak testified in 2001
before
the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
'The continued mandate of this vaccine with all its problems may result
in
parents losing faith in vaccine programs in general, and opposing all
vaccinations, many of which we know are necessary and effective,' he
said.

The National Vaccine Information Center, which supports parental choice
and
awareness of immunization hazards, raises similar issues. 'Unlike other
infectious diseases for which vaccines have been developed and mandated
in
the U.S., hepatitis B is not common in childhood and is not highly
contagious,' the NVIC says. "Hepatitis B is primarily an adult disease
transmitted through infected body fluids, most frequently infected
blood,
and is prevalent in high risk populations such as needle using drug
addicts;
sexually promiscuous heterosexual and homosexual adults; residents and
staff
of custodial institutions such as prisons; health care workers exposed
to
blood; persons who require repeated blood transfusions and babies born
to
infected mothers."

Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, medical director of the family-practice Homefirst
Medical Services in Chicago, told the Illinois Legislature in 1997 that
mandating Hep B for newborns was absurd. 'The idea of giving this
vaccine to
a one-day old baby, a newborn, is preposterous. There is no scientific
evidence for this. In fact, I called up the manufacturer and I had (a
representative) come to St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital, where I am
Chairman
of the Department of Medicine, and I asked him: `Show me your evidence
on
one-day old infants as to side effects (from the hepatitis B vaccine)`
-- we
have none. Our studies were done on 5 and 10 year olds.

"'As a father, grandfather, a physician, as a lawyer, I want the option
of
not giving it to my children unless I believe the scientific evidence
is
there."

Yet waiting until genuine risk looms -- via sexual activity,
intravenous
drug use or a healthcare job -- has been rejected out of hand. That
view was
confirmed earlier this year by both the CDC and the American Academy of
Pediatrics, whose members administer the vaccines. 'The Academy has
endorsed
CDC recommendation for hepatitis B vaccine, `A Comprehensive
Immunization
Strategy to Eliminate Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus Infection in
the
United States,`' the AAP said in a news release.

'The CDC recommends that all newborns receive a birth dose of hepatitis
B
vaccine before leaving the hospital unless a physician provides a
written
order to defer the birth dose. Compare that to waiting till age 9 for
the
new Gardasil vaccine.

While the reasonable concerns of some parents are yet to be resolved,
this
already stands in stark contrast to the public health establishment`s
hepatitis B hammerlock on the nation`s newborns. True, the
mercury-based
preservative thimerosal that some believe is behind the rise in autism
has
been removed from Hep B and other routine childhood vaccines. But the
issue
of whether children are getting an unnecessarily early and heavy load
of
vaccines -- and whether that could explain the rise in autism or
chronic
illnesses like asthma -- remains squarely on the table, at least to
this
observer.

In years to come, I suspect, the Hep B shot at birth may be regarded as
a
case study in doctors gone wild.

lipanz · medicine forum addict Joined: 19 Jun 2005 Posts: 62

georgia wrote:

Google