(Stop if you've heard this before . . .) Do Vaccines cause Autism?

Like the bad guy in a horror movie that keeps coming back to life, the controversy over vaccines and autism was back in the news last week—again!

The big news involved a decision by the Vaccine Court. What’s that? Here’s an Q&A to help understand the latest events:

What is the Vaccine Court?

    The United States Court of Federal Claims created a National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in 1988 to give no-fault compensation to people who were injured or died due to vaccination. Over the years, families have never been awarded compensation for children who have autism due to vaccination.
    In June 2007, the federal court began processing about 4800 claims by families who believe their child’s autism was caused by vaccination. This is being called the Omnibus Autism Proceeding. To expedite this process, certain individual claims will be  “Test Cases” first to get a court opinion on the arguments. The 4800 claims are divided into three main arguments or “theories of causation” from the plaintiffs:

1) Did thimerosal (mercury) preservative in vaccines cause the child’s autism?

2) Did the combination MMR vaccine cause the child’s autism?

3) Did the thimerosal preservative and the MMR vaccine cause autism?

    Cases have already been heard, but no formal conclusions will be available until the entire legal process (including appeals) are completed.

What happened in the case that we’ve been hearing about on the news?

    Hannah Poling is a 9 year old girl whose case was reviewed by the vaccine court as a possible test case. After the court reviewed the child’s medical history, it was determined that her situation was NOT appropriate to be a test case by which to judge one of the theories of causation for vaccines causing autism.
    She was born with an underlying mitochondrial disorder, which predisposed her to neurological deterioration. This case is not a typical of other children with autism. The court (not a scientific study) determined that her neurological deterioration may have been aggravated by being vaccinated and settled her case.

What are mitochondria?

    Mitochondria are the powerhouses of our cells, in charge of energy production.

What is a mitochondrial disorder (MD)?

    MD’s are actually a group of several disorders. Many children do not show any symptoms until the body is stressed and requiring extra energy. Some children will have low muscle tone. They may have several episodes of deterioration and recovery. Some disorders affect only body organ, some affect several. Because of that, kids with MD’s can have different symptoms.
    Hannah Poling had an abnormality in the DNA (genetic makeup) of her mitochondria. This type of MD is something you are born with, not something that you develop later in life.

Did the court decide that vaccines triggered a child to have autism?

    No, what the federal vaccine court said was that the vaccinations may have stressed a child who had an underlying disease—this disease predisposed her to have deterioration of her brain and nervous system. Bottom line: Being born with a genetic mitochondrial disorder like Hannah Poling’s is like being born with an aneurysm. It’s a time bomb, waiting to be set off.

Did the court think the vaccines caused the mitochondrial disorder?

    No. The mitochondrial disorder Hannah Poling has is present at birth and it may not manifest any symptoms until the body is stressed. A stomach virus with dehydration, a high fever…any stress that requires body energy may be the tipping point that causes the deterioration.

If a child has a mitochondrial disorder, should he be vaccinated?

    Yes. Neurologists recommend vaccinating even kids with known MD’s because the stress of having the vaccine preventable disease—chickenpox or flu could be far more devastating, and likely more of a problem than the stress of getting vaccinated.

Could mitochondrial disorders explain the rise in children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders?

    No. Mitochondrial disorders are rare. There is not any significant data to show that the rate of mitochondrial disorders is any higher in children with autism than in the general population.

Can parents request to do a screening test for Mitochondrial Disorders at birth?
   
    We know what the next natural question is… why not just test every child for mitochondrial disorders before vaccinating them?
    Some tests on the state newborn metabolic screens do test for a few mitochondrial disorders (MCAD, LCHAD, VLCAD disorders).
    But, the gold standard tests for diagnosing many of the MD’s are invasive, and require muscle biopsies and spinal fluid. You can’t just do a simple screening blood test for MD before vaccinating all kids.
    And, remember, even if a child has a mitochondrial disorder, the recommendation is still to vaccinate.

Will this case change the vaccine recommendations?

    No, in fact, Dr Julie Gerberding, who heads the Centers for Disease Control, commented that Hannah’s case was a very special situation and that nothing from this case could be generalized to all children.

Why do we give a number of vaccines at the same time?

    There is a method to our madness. Giving several shots at one time is not just a matter of convenience. While doing them all at one office visit will save parents time and co-payments (most insurance companies charge a co-payment for each visit, even if it is just for a nurse to administer a shot), there are three good reasons why:

1. Vulnerability. The children most vulnerable to serious consequences from vaccine-preventable diseases are the youngest. For instance, a two month old with whooping cough, is much more likely to be hospitalized or die from it than a two year old. So, we try to give as many vaccines as we can, as early as we can, as safely as we can, to protect the youngest. We want kids to be protected as soon as possible. Otherwise, it’s just rolling the dice.

2. Insurance issues. While it is fine to give one vaccine or two vaccines at a time and return next week for a couple more, some families don’t have that luxury. They may have health insurance this week and not again for six months. Having a very staggered schedule leaves more risk of kids missing much needed shots.

3. Separation requirements for live vaccines. While some vaccines can be given one week apart, others cannot. Live vaccines must be separated by at least four weeks. Those are measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, flumist, rotavirus. If you decide to separate those out, you have to space them by at least four weeks each time—thus delaying protection until the series can be completed.

Whew! We know this is a bit much to digest—but the important message here is that vaccines do NOT cause autism. And vaccines save lives.

Comments

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Just writing to point out your title says "Austim." (BTW, I love the books, but totally disagree about the safety of the current infant vaccination schedule.)