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MMR and autism have become indelibly linked in the public consciousness.
What about MMR and asthma?
A study in the December 1st American Journal of Epidemiology asks if there is an association between receiving the MMR vaccine and asthma in early childhood. 871,234 children were examined; researchers Anders Hviid and Mads Melbye looked at rates of hospitalization in those with asthma diagnoses and (for a subset of the cohort) the use of anti-asthma medications. Significantly larger numbers of children who had received the MMR vaccine were less often hospitalized with an asthma diagnosis and also used anti-asthma medication less than unvaccinated children. Researchers concluded that
these results are compatible not with an increased risk of asthma following MMR vaccination but rather with the hypothesis that MMR vaccination is associated with a reduced risk of asthma-like disease in young children.
Ben Goldacre describes the Hviid and Melbye paper as “significant” in a recent column. Goldacre writes the Bad Science website, a column of the same name for the Guardian, and recently published a book, Bad Science. Goldacre critiques the media for their unbalanced—-distorted, even—-coverage of scientific issues, and perhaps no more so than in regard to the MMR:
On Tuesday the Telegraph, the Independent, the Mirror, the Express, the Mail, and the Metro all reported that a coroner was hearing the case of a toddler who died after receiving the MMR vaccine, which the parents blamed for their loss. Toddler ‘died after MMR jab’ (Metro), ‘Healthy’ baby died after MMR jab (Independent), you know the headlines by now.
On Thursday the coroner announced his verdict: the vaccine played no part in this child’s death. So far, of the papers above, only the Telegraph has had the decency to cover the outcome. The Independent, the Mirror, the Express, the Mail, and the Metro have all decided that their readers are better off not knowing. Tick, tock.
Does it stop there? No. Amateur physicians have long enjoyed speculating that MMR and other vaccinations are somehow “harmful to the immune system” and responsible for the rise in conditions such as asthma and hay fever. Doubtless they must have been waiting some time for evidence to appear.
Goldacre also notes how studies refuting an MMR-autism link (by Afzal et al and D’Souza et al) have been “unanimously ignored by the media.”
And with people claiming links to vaccines and various, numerous diseases (Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and on and on) left and right, it’s perhaps hardly surprising that the hypothesis—urban myth—of a vaccine-autism connection was ever formulated, and that it has lasted so long in the public consciousness, to the point that some (you know who) speak of autism as a “vaccine injury” and there are some treatments (you know which) that are based on the vaccine-autism hypothesis.
Indeed, what seems surprising, at this point, is that vaccines can have beneficial effects, as the Hviid/Melbye study shows. Indeed, it’s starting to seem that many have fotgotten that vaccines were created to improve people’s health, so far have we unfortunately come in talking about how they’re “harmful” and “unsafe.”
And with measles cases increasing, it’s time that we remember vaccines benefits, and that vaccines don’t cause autism.
Kristina said,
Indeed, it’s starting to seem that many have fotgotten that vaccines were created to improve people’s health, so far have we unfortunately come in talking about how they’re “harmful” and “unsafe.”
Thank you.
Dr. Stephen Bustin following up on Ben Goldacre’s column:
Hi
The idea about adverse effects of vaccines-at least mine-is much more complex that the oversimplistic picture that siliconmom presented. Fever is only a part of the situation, and may be very negative for children with undetected mitochondrial issues at the time of vaccination.In fact my son was an undetected , atypical exception under the CDC rules for the MMR vaccine- to begin with-due to the lack of knowledge about how to prevent , and after and if the adverse reactions take place how to test, diagnose and treat adverse reaction to vaccines by the average peditrician.
Even more, the situation that is not presented and discussed is that if the susceptible population was going to be properly detected, the herd immunity not necessarily would be affected. But to detect you should know and first you should research properly about what to test to detect and this has not been done in the rush to defend at any cost the vaccine program. And the situation has been a boomerang.
Even more, with the lack of knowledge about the long term changes aggesive immunization schedules can be introducing the problem of the shift of strains and the lack of efficiency of vaccines is being more and more present.
For many of us, vaccines -at least in my son-s case generated immune problems that opened the door to other infections of non-preventible bacterial/fungal and viral infections. Therefore the situation is much more complicated that the never ending and improductive such as it is “causation discussion as it is going on”-even when causation aspects
are part of the “research that has not been done” beyond epi-partially because of the paradigm in aSD and partially because of lack of knowledge on the human immune system and the mechanisms of impact-positive and or negative- of vaccines-infections and xenobiotics.
I think that what people who are concerned about vaccines argue is that it’s the immune response that the child has to the vaccination – the fever that develops among other things – that triggers the autism. Or at least that’s one theory I’ve heard.
I tend to look more towards genetics as the cause, myself. The bottom line, however, is that my kids are who they are. Autism is part of who they are. They, like so many before them, will learn to make their way in this world, in whatever form that takes.
In answer to Laura:
I don’t think you will find a one size fits all answer for the cause of every single case of autism.I think it’s going to be like mental retardation,and medical treatments for each,if any,will depend on the cause,AND the medical problems that coexist along with the autism.I also think it is as,if not more, dangerous to subject children to chelation,and some of these DAN! treatments,on the basis of the theories of some questionable doctor,who has set up a website,to peddle his even more questionable treatment.Especially children who only have autism.Look at this and explain how this “ACE pathway” “treatment” is anything but quackery.
http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/09/stealth-viruses.html
Seizures are a big part of autism,vaccines or no vaccines,but I am very interested in what you say about:
“dying in their sleep or after a minor fever” could you provide some more details ?
There are those who say those who say there was no such thing as autism before the MMR vaccine, and have never heard of Leo Kanner,or Bruno Bettleheim.However,those who were children before the late 1980s,who were autistic,but not retarded,and who were verbal,were routinely labeled as having “childhood schizophrenia”, without any regard to developmental problems.I know.I was one of those children.I had to get properly diagnosed,as an adult,with atypical autism.
I was diagnosed,after I regressed,again…as an adult.This happened after a recurrence of acute meningitis,the same infection I had as a five month old baby.The same infection that I believe triggered my autism in the first place.
Infection.Not vaccines.
Let me give you a brief health history here.As I said,I have recurring meningitis.The first time I had meningitis,I was five months old.There were pulmonary complications.I have had acute meningitis twice since.I had pneumonia five times,by age twenty-one.I was retroactively told I had children’s interstitial lung lung disease.I have had inflammatory bowel disease,since at least age three.I have only found relief recently with high dose circumin.I have had idiopathic arthritis continually since the age of ten. This was a direct result of one of those “mysterious flu like illnesses” you hear about.I have a history of heart failure,mitral valve prolapse,chicken pox with heart complications,and rheumatic fever.I have recurring labyrinthitis.(An especially bad bout at age fourteen,caused me to lose many teeth,after it spread to my mouth.)In the past few years,I have had three bouts of shingles.The most recent,involved carditis,cerebral vasospasms or ”stroke like episodes” as they say. Infections for me have always been long,drawn out affairs, lasting from three weeks to six months,they still are.As an adult,fevers of 105 are still quite common.I have come very close to death four times.Twice from meningitis,once from heart failure,and once from pneumonia.I have been tested for every possible primary immune deficiency,and I don’t have any of them.All tests for autoimmune disease have been normal,too.I am looking into mitochondrial disease as a possible cause.
My point is,I have the autism,and I have all of these unexplained medical problems,and I have not had an MMR vaccine,or a lot of the others kids get nowadays.I got the polio,the DTP,and the older separate measles,and rubella,and I think that was it.
This is why I believe the studies that say vaccines do not cause autism.
I think people need to think about the social ramifications that their decision to not vaccinate has on the community they live in, locally and globally, health wise and economically.
Take measles for example. One of the arguments that I’ve often heard is “Measles doesn’t kill anyone”. That’s a fallacy. Measles can lead to pneumonia, encephalitis, and in some cases meningitis. Because you are vaccinated, your infant has immunity, you’re correct. But what if they’re not immunized? What happens to their child? It becomes at risk.
And what happens if your child develops measles? They have to be quarantined. And it is not only your child who has to be quarantined, but anyone who has come in to contact with your child who is not immune. The incubation period is 10-12 days prior to the onset of the first symptoms, which most people would take for the common cold or flu and the infectious period is 4 days prior to the rash appearing and then 4 days after. How many people do you and your child come in to contact with in 4 days? At the store? At your child’s school? Their playgroup or music class or other activity? Their church/temple/mosque/etc.? At a restaurant? All of those people are at risk for exposure. How many people do *they* come in contact with? And it’s not just immediate contact – measles can still be present in a closed area (clinic, office, classroom) for up to 2 hours after the infected person was present.
If measles exposure occurs in a health care facility or a school, any child or adult who is susceptible, either because of lack of vaccination or unwillingness to be vaccinated following exposure, must be excluded from those places from 18-21 days following the *last reported case* – not your child’s case, but the last person in the exposure chain who develops the rash. Think of how many people that might be. Which means that those teachers, health care workers, professionals, your partner, your friend, your neighbor may not be able to return to work for months at a time. That is the way it would need to be to ensure society’s safety. What effect would that have on the economy? Could you or your partner take that much time off of work? What if you were the primary supporter of your family?
Now, fortunately, enough people are vaccinated at this time that the above scenario would probably not be that extreme. But what about in our children’s generation? Their children’s? The more people who are not vaccinated, the greater the risk of a pandemic developing. And so someone’s choice not to vaccinate doesn’t just affect them, it affects us all. Just something to think about.
I don’t find most vaccines themselves “harmful” or “unsafe.” I do find the schedule EXTREMELY harmful and unsafe. The one size fits all schedule is only out of convenience and not at all considering the actual safety, need or family or individual medical history of each child. My newborn, not being born to a mother with Hepatitis B, not being placed in daycare or preschool has absolutely NO need to receive three hepatitis B shots, beginning at birth. And yet, I’m a bad parent for attempting to refuse what’s “recommended” and somehow through intimidation and terminology is made to sound very mandatory. Long term safety studies have not been done on the varicella vaccine and yet I’m supposed to give that to my six month old. The HPV vaccine has caused multiple deaths and other very serious side effects and yet the line is continued to be repeated like some zombie mantra: “correlation does not imply causation!” Tell that to the mothers and fathers that lost their pre-teen daughters to the HPV vaccine or the parents who watched their child seize and lose all developmental skills after a variety of vaccinations in the first two years.
What really bothers me is how much I hear “vaccines don’t cause autism” and not NEARLY enough of “we will work our fingers to the bone to discover why our children are losing all previously held skills, why they are seizing, why they are dying in their sleep or after a minor fever.” It seems as if everyone is much more concerned with convincing the general public of the safety and need for so many vaccines, so early in life and then again throughout the adult life, without testing titers, without looking at family history and concerns of contraindications, allergies, etc. and much less concerned about working tirelessly to discover why the skills loss or unexpected deaths are happening so frequently.
I’m fine with believing vaccines don’t cause anything and are perfectly safe (except I’m asked to sign a form that says I won’t hold the doctor liable if something does happen to my child) but I would like someone to work VERY VERY hard on finding out why perfectly healthy children are losing all skills or are dying at random and I’d love to be hearing about their tireless research. These deaths and skills loss concern me very much and should be what concerns the medical community very much. The fact that they would rather spend the time convincing me to vaccinate myself and my kids and spend very little time talking about what they are doing to prevent loss of skills and death is very bothersome and causes more mistrust than any kind of power people think Jenny McCarthy or other parents’ personal stories hold over the random parent’s decision to vaccinate…while it is still their decision and not completely mandatory.
It is known that certain viral/bacterian infections decrease the likehood of allergic diseases;
Allergol Immunopathol (Madr). 2006 Jul-Aug;34(4):146-9. L
Frequency of allergic diseases following measles.Kucukosmanoglu E, Cetinkaya F, Akcay F, Pekun F.
Department of Pediatrics, Medical Faculty, Gaziantep University Istanbul, Turkey.
OBJECTIVE: Viral and bacterial infections in childhood decrease the likelihood of allergic diseases in later life. The frequency of allergic diseases in patients with a history of measles has been reported to be low but some studies still suggest that measles can increase the frequency of allergic diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of allergic diseases following measles in childhood. METHODS: Fifty-two children hospitalized in our clinic with measles were compared with 51 children without measles. Allergic diseases were investigated in both groups by using the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire. In all children, allergy skin tests were performed with the four most common allergens. RESULTS: Sensitivity to Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus was less frequent in children with measles than in those without (p < 0.05). A history of nebulized salbutamol use in the emergency room in the previous 12 months was also less frequent in the measles group (p < 0.05). Inhaled corticosteroid use was more common in the group without measles (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that findings of allergic disease are less frequent in children with a history of measles. These children were less sensitive to D. pteronyssinus.
Under this point of view, the results related to asthma are not surprising, but
Now, there are different findings with full immunizaiton status
Aust N Z J Public Health. 2004 Aug;28(4):336-8. Links
Asthma and vaccination history in a young adult cohort.Benke G, Abramson M, Raven J, Thien FC, Walters EH.
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Central and Eastern Clincal School, Alred Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria.
BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that childhood vaccinations may be associated with the onset of asthma. We investigated the association between asthma, atopy and vaccination history in a cohort of young adults living in Melbourne, Australia. METHODS: Subjects were aged between 22 and 44 years and were surveyed by an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Questions were asked about vaccinations to measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), triple antigen (DTP), hepatitis B and Sabin polio vaccine (OPV). Atopy was assessed by skin prick testing to common aeroallergens. RESULTS: There was no significant association observed for subjects diagnosed with asthma who had received measles or MMR vaccinations compared with those who did not receive measles or MMR vaccinations (RR 1.33, 95% CI 0.98-1.80). Non-significant associations were also observed for OPV and hepatitis B vaccinations (RR 3.27, 95% CI 0.50-21.3 and RR 1.08, 95% CI 0.83-1.41, respectively). However, subjects reporting full immunisation were found to be at higher risk to asthma (RR 1.52, 95% CI 1.09-2.11) but not atopy . CONCLUSIONS: Our results show relatively weak support for the hypothesis that childhood vaccinations may lead to increased risk of asthma, but caution is advised due to possible recall bias.
The results on asthma has been different considering ONLY MMR, ONLY DTaP or the full immunization status.
I do think that it is really unfortunate how once and again urban myths arguments and DOnt´s for sure are used without the needed equilibrated and full view analysis that is required in the complexity of the consideraion of the development of the first 3 years, exposures to xenobiotics, genetics and epigenetics interactions and autoimmunity/immune impacts of infections
http://www.jimmunol.org/cgi/content/abstract/174/12/7481
Not done with the needed approach in ASD , yet. And no, epidemiology is not going to solve these questions.
That’s a great finding!