Congressional Investigation on the link between Autism and
Vaccination On April 6, 2000 Republican Dan Burton convened a congressional
hearing regarding the increasing scientific evidence linking vaccination to the
increasing dramatic rise in Autism in this country.
Some Excerpts:
Mary Megson, MD explained that autistic children have a total deficiency of
Vitamin A as early on as 15 months of age. Her research shows it is directly
related to the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine. Also in her research she
found the Pertussis toxoid found in the DPT shot disrupted certain proteins
needed for retinal formation. This finding accounts for the prevalence of night
blindness and loss of 3 dimensional vision in autistic children.
John O'Leary, Ph.D. in molecular biology found measles virus in the gut of 96%
of autistic children compared to 6.6% of normal children. Dr. O'Leary reports
that the virus did not come from natural sources it came from the MMR vaccine.
He also stated finding the measles virus in 75% of children with Crohn's
Disease.
V. Singh, MD studied over 400 cases of autism and found that these children
experienced an autoimmune episode, in which their bodies where made to attack
their own nervous system. He stated that 55% of the families stated that the
autism appeared after the MMR vaccine and 33% stated autism appeared after the
DPT vaccine was administered.
Andrew Wakefield, MD noted an almost 100% incidence of Lymphoid Nodular
Hyperplasia or swollen lumps throughout the intestinal system of autistic
children. The condition typically follows soon after the MMR shot is
administered. He also found that the intestine of newborns cannot function
properly because of this swollen condition thus allowing undigested toxins to be
stored in the liver.
Kathy Pratt, Ph.D.. stated that ONE in FOUR HUNDRED children in Indiana are
autistic! She stated that autism is now more common than Down's Syndrome.

News Channel 5 reports hundreds of thousands of children
receive the MMR vaccine every year, but now studies show a tiny percentage of
cases may cause autism. Since the MMR vaccine was introduced about 35 years
ago,the incidents of autism in children have increased by 1,000 percent - from
two or three in 10,000 - to one in 500.
Evidence of a possible link between the MMR vaccination and autism came from the
finding of children from villages, within two miles of each other in Scotland,
being diagnosed with autism after MMR inoculation.1 The three children from
different families in Ayrshire were given MMR vaccine at the same health center
within four months of each other. Child neuro-psychologist, Ken Aitken, said
that the cluster of cases in Ayrshire indicated the need for further research
before the MMR vaccine can be declared safe beyond doubt.
"More children are being diagnosed with autism and clusters like these are
deeply worrying", he said. "There is strong circumstantial evidence to point to
the MMR as the reason, but there has to be much more coordinated research to
look into this issue in detail. Research so far hasn't been adequate to address
the questions that are being raised about the possible links and there have been
a lot of queries about the validity of the conclusions which were drawn."
In the 1980s, one in 2500 children in Britain and America were diagnosed as
autistic. Latest figures compiled by researchers revealed a dramatic leap - to
one in 146.
The MMR immunisation was introduced in the UK in 1988 with the first dose aimed
at children of 12-15 months, a the second dose at 3-5 years. It is designed to
protect against measles, mumps and rubella (German Measles) and works by
stimulating the immune system to produce antibodies against the viruses without
causing harm. It was so well received by both parents and doctors that over 90
per cent of children were being immunised by 1992.
Most children received the vaccine with no obvious serious side-effects, but
some became seriously ill within a few weeks. These children began behaving
strangely, stopped talking and became socially withdrawn, staring into space for
hours on end. Many developed a raging thirst, bizarre eating habits, multiple
food allergies, hyperactivity and sleep problems. This was usually accompanied
by abdominal pain, bloating and bowel disturbances. Some children became
incontinent of urine or feces. Their development deteriorated. Thousands of
children now fall into this category of abnormal development only after
receiving the vaccine.
Professor John O'Leary, Director of Pathology at the Coombe Women's Hospital in
Dublin, told the US Congress in April, 2000, that he had produced compelling
evidence of an association between autism and the MMR vaccine. Professor O'Leary
found the measles virus in the guts of 24 out of 25 children who had developed
autism, after an apparently previously healthy infancy.
His research supported the findings of Andrew Wakefield, of the Royal Free
Hospital, London, who claimed there was an etiological implication between
persistent measles virus infection or measles vaccination and inflammatory bowel
disease (IBD), mainly on the basis of epidemiological and immunohistochemical
findings. Dr. Wakefield identified "autistic enterocolitis", an inflammation of
the gut in 150 autistic children who became autistic after receiving the
vaccine.
Dr. Aitken, based at Edinburgh University, said, "The substantial increase in
cases in the US began about three years after MMR vaccine was introduced and the
same thing happened three years after MMR was introduced in Britain. There has
been a national increase throughout Britain and I find it very surprising that
the change is so tightly linked in time with when triple vaccine was
introduced."
On February 28, 1998, Wakefield reported in The Lancet a possible connection
among inflammatory bowel disease, autism, and viral infection associated with
measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination. The damage from autism is thought
to be provoked by an allergic reaction initiated by the body's reaction to the
vaccine. This auto-immune response may also reduce levels of the dipeptidyl
peptidase (DPP)-IV enzyme, thereby connecting vaccines to the opioid theory of
autism.
Andrew Wakefield did his first colonoscopy on an autistic child, because the
anguished mother begged him to find the reason why her son had such terrible
gastrointestinal problems. Finding some very specific pathology, Dr. Wakefield
proceeded to investigate 11 more autistic children, again finding similar
pathology in all children. These children had lost acquired skills, including
communication, after a period of apparent normality.
Among eight of the children, the onset of behavioral problems had been linked,
either by the parents or the child's physician, with MMR vaccination Five had an
early adverse reaction to immunization (rash, fever, delirium, and seizures in
3). The average interval from exposure to first behavioral symptom was 6.3 days
(range: 1-14 days).
Among the remaining 4 children, one received monovalent measles vaccine at 15
months, after which his development slowed. A striking deterioration then
occurred in his behavior at age 4.5 years, the day after he received an MMR
vaccine. A second child received the MMR vaccine at 16 months, developing at 18
months a combination of recurrent, antibiotic resistant, otitis media, along
with his first behavioral symptoms (lack of interest in siblings and lack of
play). A third child received an MMR at 15 months, experienced recurrent "viral
pneumonia" for the next 8 weeks, and developed behavioral symptoms 4 weeks after
the MMR ( loss of speech development and deterioration in language skills). The
fourth child developed self- injurious behavior 2 month after the MMR.
Urinary methylmalonic acid excretion was significantly raised in all children
tested (8 of the 12). Ten of the twelve children showed lymphoid nodular
hyperplasia of the terminal ileum on endoscopy. The eleventh child had prominent
luteal lymph nodes and the ileum was not reached in the twelfth (who had an
ulcer in the rectum along with chronic colitis).
Wakefield, concluded that a subset of autistic people may suffer brain
inflammation resulting from infections that began in their intestines after they
were inoculated with the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. Theoretically,
this condition could occur after naturally-acquired infection as well. The
pro-vaccine community would argue, if this is true, that vaccination still
reduces the incidence of disease by reducing the number of infections.
Wakefield's studies received enormous press attention in the United Kingdom. The
immediate result of Dr.Wakefield's paper was a vitriolic attack from every
front. A flood of opposing articles appeared in the same issue of The Lancet,
and systematic criticism, nearing persecution, of Dr. Wakefield began, and is
still going on. Rates of vaccination against measles fell to about 85 percent
last year. Epidemiologists have been predicting a measles epidemic to result.
Ireland reported an outbreak of 300 measles cases as of summer, 2000, compared
to only 30for all of 1999. Two of the new cases were infants who had to be
hospitalized with pneumonia complications.
Distraught parents of affected children have become even more confused, because
no one has been able to prove conclusively to them yet, that an MMR
vaccine-Autism connection does not really exist.
We know from data reported before the availability of MMR vaccine, that a subset
of autistic children suddenly regressed at age 15 months, long before the
measles vaccine became available.There have been no safety follow-up studies
looking beyond four weeks post vaccination, and many studies quoted, have been
partially funded by vaccine manufacturers, with obvious commercial interests.
No serious researcher has looked at a large sample - three to nine months post
MMR vaccination, when auto-immune diseases usually would occur. When some
parents in England became vocal, the pro-vaccine authorities in the UK reacted
forcefully, to protect the MMR vaccination program. The single measles, mumps
and rubella vaccines effectively became unavailable, and every effort was made
to prove Dr. Wakefield wrong.
Despite the above, Britain's National Health Service's Chief Medical Officer,
Sir Kenneth Calman, felt confident enough to say, "I have concluded there is no
link between MMR immunisation and autism." Questioned in Parliament in 1997 on
the possible link between MMR and autism, then health minister Tessa Jowell
reassured Parliament that: "No vaccine is issued in the United Kingdom unless it
passes the highest standards for quality, and parents should have confidence
that the vaccines that are provided are both safe and efficacious."
In 1999, two studies appeared that the Department of Health claimed "reinforce
the conclusion that there is no link" between MMR and autism. The first, by the
Committee on the Safety of Medicines, involved examining questionnaires sent to
the parents who had suspected MMR as a cause for their child's autism - 1200
questionnaires were distributed and 126 examined in detail. The study concluded:
"It is impossible to prove or refute the suggested associations between MMR
vaccine and autism" - hardly convincing reassurance.
The second study cited by the DOH looked at one area - north London - and found
an alarming increase in autism there. The incidence was running steadily at
between four and eight of the children born there each year between 1978 and
1985. Then came a dramatic increase to just under 50 of the children born in
1992 - the last year studied by Professor Brent Taylor and colleagues at
University College London. Curiously, however, they concluded: "Our analyses do
not support a causal association between MMR vaccine and autism."
The Taylor study was funded by The Medicines Control Agency and The Public
Health Laboratory Service and was published in The Lancet, June 1999. Taylor, et
al. stated that the age of diagnosis was the same before and after the
introduction of the MMR vaccine, and used this finding to conclude that the MMR
vaccine did not have a causative role in autism. Dr. Taylor stated: "For age at
first parental concern, no significant temporal clustering was seen for cases of
core autism and atypical autism, with the exception of a single interval within
six months of MMR vaccine associated with a peak in reported age of parental
concern at 18 months." Taylor, et al. Could not explain the increase in autism
noted in 1992, the last year for which they examined data.
To others, Taylor's failure to explain the massive increase in autism only added
fuel to the controversy. Children who were born in the mid-1980s in Britain and
the 1970s in the United Sates were the first to receive the MMR vaccine. In
California the incidence of autism was running at 150-200 a year until 1980,
when it dramatically rose to reach nearly 600 in 1990.
While Taylor argued that MMR cannot contribute to autism, and Wakefield argued
that it might, both studies may be correct. What Taylor may have missed is the
susceptible child argument. He limits himself to the more typical,
reductionistic, one variable theory of disease. In this theory, one agent causes
a disease. All individuals exposed to this agent have equal probability of
developing the disease.
A more accurate theory of disease posits susceptible individuals who succumb to
the disease after multiple contributory insults. Wakefield worked backwards from
children who definitely had autism with gastrointestinal symptoms. Taylor worked
forward from all children receiving the MMR vaccine. While various authors
question his sampling effort and point out potential bias in how he selected his
subjects, the much more important problem lies in Taylor's type of study posing
no help for the question of whether susceptible children could be more likely to
develop autism after MMR vaccine.
We have only begun to speculate about who is susceptible to autism. We know the
risk is higher if one or more family members have the condition. But what are
the promoting agents that make autism more likely? Not all children with
autistic siblings develop autism. The genetic penetration is not 100%.
Non-genetic factors must play a role. Could vaccines be one of these promoting
agents? Wakefield suggested yes, and Taylor's study did not really address that
question.
Some other investigators have not been able to reproduce Wakefield's findings
[M.A. Azfal and colleagues]. They could not detect measles viruses in the bowel,
brain, or any other tissue of the patients in Wakefield's series.2
Subjectively, we cannot deny that many parents report developmental
deterioration following MMR vaccination. Neurological sequelae following MMR are
also widely reported. Dozens of heart-rending, anecdotal accounts link permanent
neurologic disability or death to vaccine use. One of the leading sites in the
anti-immunization field is the National Vaccine Information Centre (NVIC).
Other studies besides Wakefield's have suggested a link between autism and
vaccination. H.H.Fudenberg reported that the first symptoms of autism among 15
of 20 children developed within a week of vaccination. S.Gupta commented on the
striking association between MMR vaccination and the onset of behavioral
symptoms in all the children he investigated for regressive autism.
The MMR vaccine is all live virus. Disintegrative psychosis is recognized as a
sequela of measles encephalitis. Viral encephalitis can give rise to autistic
disorders, particularly when it occur early in life.
A genetic association for autism is represented by a null allele of the
complement C4B gene located in the class III region of the major
histocompatibility complex. The C4B-gene is also crucial for protection against
viruses. Affected individuals may not handle certain viruses appropriately -
even the attenuated ones used in vaccines. In an addendum to the paper,
Wakefield, et al. noted that their sample size had increased to 40 children by
Jan 28,1998, with 39 of those showing similar findings. The C4b null allele is
present on chromosome 6.3
These studies support our view that MMR vaccine may trigger a cascade of events
leading to autism in genetically susceptible children, and not affect children
who lack susceptibility. Unfortunately, vaccination among public health and
medical practitioners has become almost sacred. Questioning the wisdom of
vaccination for certain children is seen as professional heresy. Nevertheless,
the possibility cannot be ignored.
Could killed (rather than live virus) MMR accomplish the same task? Should
measles be administered separately from mumps? We know that the combination of
chicken pox and measles dramatically increases the risk for subacute sclerosing
panencephalitis. Perhaps other mixed viral infections are also clinically
significant.
More important is the science we must use to explore this. Simple correlation
analysis and comparison studies will not suffice. If autism is indeed linked to
the MMR vaccine in genetically susceptible individuals, unless these individuals
are selected from the larger pool, the statistical significance will cancel out
in these studies.
Medical research also suffers from a failure to consider interactions and
synergy in the disease process. Simple epidemiology will not suffice either,
since we are not even sure what the potential genetic defect is in autism - or
if autism is one syndrome or many.
The United States' Center for Disease Control (CDC) believes that the current
scientific evidence does not support the hypothesis that MMR, or any combination
of vaccines, cause the development of autism, including regressive forms of
autism.4 CDC argues that the apparent link between MMR and autism is purely
coincidental, based upon the fact that the MMR vaccine is usually given between
the ages of 12 and 18 months, which is also the most common age at which autism
is diagnosed. One could say, "go figure!", or pursue more sophisticated studies.
An extensive study of the evidence was recently conducted in the United Kingdom.
The British Committee on Safety of Medicines convened a "Working Party on MMR
Vaccine" to conduct a systematic review of reports of autism, gastrointestinal
disease, and similar disorders after receipt of MMR or measles/rubella vaccine.
The National Childhood Encephalopathy Study (NCES) was examined to see if there
was any link between measles vaccine and neurological events.
The CDC noted that no researchers in England had found any indication that
measles vaccine contributed to the development of long-term neurological damage,
including educational and behavioral deficits (Miller et al. 1997). A more
recent epidemiological study also found no association between MMR vaccine and
autism (Taylor et al. 1999). This study compared rates of autism between
children who received the MMR vaccine and children who did not. The results
found no difference in rates of autism between the two groups. On the other
hand, such large scale population studies, would not necessarily be expected to
identify a small difference in autistic rates, which, as parents argue, is
crucial to those affected.
The CDC agreed with an expert committee from the UK Medical Research Council (MRC)
who reviewed Wakefield's research and concluded that no link had been
demonstrated between MMR vaccine and inflammatory bowel disease in autism.
Wakefield's study was criticized for:
Using too few cases to make any generalizations about the causes of autism; only
12 children were included in the study. The cases were selected by researchers
and may not be representative of many cases of autism.
There were inadequate groups of control children. As a result, it is difficult
to determine whether the bowel changes were similar to changes in normal
children, or to determine if the rate of vaccination in autistic children was
higher than in the general population.
The study did not identify the time period during which the cases were
identified.
In at least 4 of the 12 cases, behavioral problems appeared before the onset of
symptoms of bowel disease; that is, the effect preceded the proposed cause. It
is thus proposed unlikely, therefore, that bowel disease or the MMR vaccine
triggered the autism.
The CDC argues against any scientific research or data indicating benefit to
separating the MMR vaccine into its individual components. CDC argued that
splitting the MMR vaccine into three separate doses could be harmful because it
would expose children unnecessarily to potentially serious diseases. If the
rubella vaccine were delayed, 4 million children would be susceptible to rubella
for an additional six to 12 months. This would potentially allow otherwise
preventable cases of congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) to occur. Infection of
pregnant woman with "wild" rubella virus is one of the few known causes of
autism. Thus, by preventing infection of pregnant women, rubella vaccine also
prevents autism, asserts CDC.
CDC argues that, due to the general safety of vaccines, and the rarity of
serious vaccine adverse events [Ed: although, see information from the US
government contained in a Database of Vaccine Injury: The Vaccine Adverse Event
Reporting System (VAERS)], it is extremely difficult to study whether a subgroup
(e.g., family members) are actually at increased risk compared with the general
population.
The one exception, they acknowledge, is an increased risk of neurologic events
-primarily febrile seizures - after vaccination with DTP vaccine and
measles-containing vaccines (MCV). The risk increases if any of these have
previously occurred in immediate family members. Considering the rare occurrence
of these events after DTP and MCV vaccination, the generally benign outcome of
febrile convulsions, and the risk of pertussis and measles to unvaccinated
people and the general population, the Advisory Committee on Immunization
Practices concluded that a history of convulsions in siblings or parents should
not be a contraindication to pertussis or measles vaccination.
Special care in the prevention of post-vaccination fever could be warranted in
children with a family history of seizures, they admit. For instance, oral polio
vaccine (OPV) is contraindicated when there is a family member with
immune-deficiency, since OPV can spread to family contacts.
CDC argues for evidence of the benefits of childhood immunization, including
record, or near record, low rates of vaccine preventable diseases in the United
States. Last year, for example, there were fewer than 100 reported cases of
measles - and no deaths - in the US, compared with 27,786 cases and 64 deaths in
1990.
Kawashima, et al.5 reported that measles virus could be present in the
intestines of patients with Crohn's disease. Responding to Wakefield's data on
"autistic enterocolitis (see above), the authors set out to determine if the
virus found in Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and autistic enterocolitis
came from wild strains of measles or from vaccine strains.
To do this, they found measles RNA from peripheral blood mononuclear leukocytes
(PBML) in eight patients with Crohn's disease, three patients with ulcerative
colitis, and nine children with autistic enterocolitis. They used healthy
children and patients with subacute sclerosing pan-encephalitis and human
immunodeficiency virus 1 as controls (eight patients).
RNA was purified from PBML, followed by reverse transcription. The resulting
cDNAs were subjected to nested PCR for detection of specific regions of the
hemaglutinin (H) and fusion (F) gene regions. Positive samples were sequenced
directly, in nucleotides 8393-8676 (H region) or 5325-5465 (from noncoding F to
coding F region).
One of eight patients with Crohn disease, one of three patients with ulcerative
colitis, and three of nine children with autism, were positive. Controls were
all negative. The sequences obtained from the patients with Crohn's disease
shared the characteristics with wild-strain virus. The sequences obtained from
the patients with ulcerative colitis and children with autism were consistent
with being vaccine strains. The results were concordant with the exposure
history of the patients. Persistence of measles virus was confirmed in PBML in
some patients with chronic intestinal inflammation.

Elevated levels of measles antibodies in children with
autism.
Singh VK, Jensen RL.
Department of Biology and Biotechnology Center, Utah State University, Logan,
Utah, USA.
Virus-induced autoimmunity may play a causal role in autism. To examine the
etiologic link of viruses in this brain disorder, we conducted a serologic
study of measles virus, mumps virus, and rubella virus. Viral antibodies were
measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in the serum of autistic
children, normal children, and siblings of autistic children. The level of
measles antibody, but not mumps or rubella antibodies, was significantly
higher in autistic children as compared with normal children (P = 0.003) or
siblings of autistic children (P <or= 0.0001). Furthermore, immunoblotting of
measles vaccine virus revealed that the antibody was directed against a
protein of approximately 74 kd molecular weight. The antibody to this antigen
was found in 83% of autistic children but not in normal children or siblings
of autistic children. Thus autistic children have a hyperimmune response to
measles virus, which in the absence of a wild type of measles infection might
be a sign of an abnormal immune reaction to the vaccine strain or virus
reactivation.
PMID: 12849883 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

From: TAAP <TAAP@AutismAutoimmunityProject.org>
Subject: Medical Facts, Not Politics
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/328/7442/726-a#56748
Medical Facts, Not Politics
While the debate goes on concerning what Dr. Evan Harris did not mention
about the Glaxo Wellcome Fellowship, it is important to comment on what he
did say about the investigations by the Wakefield group at the Royal Free
(1).
Without talking to parents, Dr. Harris suggested that facts had been
misrepresented and that the procedures performed on children were not safe,
beneficial or even indicated. He also endorsed the statement that research,
where there was no likely clinical benefit to children, should not involve
anything worse than a blood test.
As a pediatrician with 34 years of practice and the grandfather of a boy who
was investigated at the Royal Free Unit in June of 1999, I can assure Dr.
Harris and everyone, that the benefits were well worth the small risk we took
and of which we were fully informed. We begged to have our boy included in
the Wakefield study and patiently waited for nine months for our turn. When
his diagnosis was confirmed, we placed him on a liquid formula for 2 months,
progressed him to a gluten-free/casein-free diet and started him on the
appropriate medications with prompt and sustained improvement of his
gastro-intestinal findings, his speech, his social competence and his immune
system. Our targeted therapy was selected and proved successful only because
we knew the specific pathology he had.
We never felt the investigations were aggressive and we are grateful to this
day, for having been included. We believe that the only aggression inflicted
on our boy was from the virus that ruined his life, and ours, forever. My
grandson has evidence of measles genomic RNA in his gut wall.
Hundreds of endoscopies and colonoscopies are performed on children in order
to pinpoint the diagnosis and to formulate the right therapies. A spinal tap
in experienced hands is an easy and safe procedure. Much more aggressive
investigations are actually performed on infants and children every day and
it is safe to state that if the Royal Free program is reinstated, families
will be lining up until Hampstead Park.
Dr. Harris is evidently dedicated to the health and welfare of his
constituents and of the population at large. There is no doubt that he would
be thoroughly distressed if 1 in 100 children died or developed obscure
illnesses. Unfortunately, he has not appreciated that a whole generation is
being lost and that regressive autism may actually be worse than death, for
the children, their families, the communities and the Country. Dr. Harris
should realize that sometime, somewhere, he must find the huge funds that are
needed for the care that these poor individuals will require for the rest of
their lives.
Our children are not simply "autistic" and they do not suffer from a hopeless
psychiatric genetic illness that is effectively an Act of God. They have
Regressive Autism, a multi-system disease with intestinal, neurological,
endocrine and immune manifestations that is precipitated, in all probability,
by environmental causes. It is only when that distinction is finally made,
that the real causes of this epidemic will be adequately investigated; it is
only then that the therapies and educational modalities necessary to limit
the damage and improve the prognosis, will be supported.
"Vaccinology" has existed for two centuries; Immunology is a very recent
science. Now that more is known about immune disorders and vaccine damage, we
should candidly find out where we went wrong.
Maybe indeed, 1+1+1 does not equal 3, when it comes to live viruses and small
children?
Maybe in fact, Andrew. Wakefield is right?
Maybe we should look for the truth instead of shooting the messenger?
Reference 1. Ferriman, A. MP raises new allegations against Andrew Wakefield.
BMJ 2004; 329:726
Competing interests: Grandfather of a boy with regressive autism

Doctor-Mom Warns of Depakote Use for Treatment of Epilepsy
My nearly 9 year old with post-MMR regressive autism has chronic
progressive complex partial epilepsy which has been treated with Depakote
since 2/02. It was never discontinued despite lack of efficacy. Despite
additional drugs and IVIG, the epilepsy was progressive. Finally he
underwent epilepsy surgery last July and we breathed a sigh of relief: 85%
improvement with clinical improvements as well.
Because we were not able to completely relieve the epilepsy, however,
the anticonvulsants (Depakote and Keppra) were continued. Six months
later, the epilepsy is back.... I just came across this correspondence and
felt sick. Adam has measles virus F gene in his CSF--significant counts. We
took a trip to the ER 41 days after the MMR for high fever and combativeness
(very out of character) with no real 'explanation' clinically. He has
autistic enterocolitis. So, although I have been assured by 'experts' that
it must be a 'false positive' or 'just genetic material hanging around' (5
1/2 years after the one and only MMR?), it's real and I am sure alive and
well--especially since it is very likely we have been 'feeding' it with a
first-line, inexpensive anticonvulsant: Depakote. In vitro, Depakote
increases replication of measles virus. It also increases CMV and HIV. I
wouldn't be surprised if it increases replication of other viruses. We
simply don't know.
I do not think our kids have SSPE, but I do think some of the kids with
autism have measles living and replicating in their little bodies.
There are many options for AEDs available. As an organic acid,
valproic acid may be more likely to increase viral replication than the newer
anticonvulsants. Please post this correspondence and alert parents of
children with epilepsy (especially complex partial epilepsy) and gut disease
who think the MMR was the 'bullet' for their child. Even if their
neurologist doesn't want to believe any of this, he or she may be
uncomfortable prescribing an anticonvulsant that supports measles
replication. Thanks. Correspondence below.
Debbie Darnley, M.D.
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