SICK MONKEYS: RESEARCH LINKS VACCINE LOAD, AUTISM SIGNS

BY DAN OLMSTED

The first research project to examine effects of the total vaccine load received by children in the 1990s has found autism-like signs and symptoms in infant monkeys vaccinated the same way. The study's principal investigator, Laura Hewitson from the University of Pittsburgh, reports developmental delays, behavior problems and brain changes in macaque monkeys that mimic "certain neurological abnormalities of autism."

The findings are being reported Friday and Saturday at a major international autism conference in London.

Although couched in scientific language, Hewitson's findings are explosive. They suggest, for the first time, that our closest animal cousins develop characteristics of autism when subjected to the same immunizations – such as the MMR shot -- and vaccine formulations – such as the mercury preservative thimerosal -- that American children received when autism diagnoses exploded in the 1990s.

The first publicly reported results of this research project come in both oral and poster presentations on Friday and Saturday at the International Meeting For Autism Research in London. Poster presentations must go through a form of peer review before they are presented at the conference; the papers have not yet appeared in a scientific journal.

In addition to Hewitson's oral presentation today, on Saturday in one of two related poster presentations, the researchers also are reporting in their abstract that "vaccinated animals exhibited progressively severe chronic active inflammation [in gastrointestinal tissue] whereas unexposed animals did not. We have found many significant differences in the GI tissue gene expression profiles between vaccinated and unvaccinated animals." Numerous scientific studies, as well as many parents, report severe GI ailments in children with regressive autism.

The results are sure to be controversial, in part because they lend credence to studies first published in 1998 by British pediatric gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, one of Hewitson's co-authors on these findings. He described an unusual inflammatory bowel condition in children who had regressed into autism after they received the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination. Wakefield is currently fighting charges of medical misconduct in Britain over allegations of conflict-of-interest and improper procedures related to that paper. He denies the charges.

In the program for the conference, the 7th Annual International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), there are three separate presentations listed that report results from the overall research program. The first, an oral presentation entitled "Pediatric Vaccines Influence Primate Behavior, and Amygdala Growth and Opioid Ligand Binding" (the "amygdala abstract") was led by Dr. Hewitson and lists 12 co-authors, including five of her colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh and Dr. Wakefield. Other authors are chemists, pathologists and psychologists from the universities of Kentucky, California-Irvine, and Washington.

Hewitson's introductory presentation will be followed by two poster presentations on Saturday; one of the two, "Pediatric Vaccines Influence Primate Behavior, and Brain Stem Volume and Opioid Ligand Binding", was led by Wakefield and includes six additional co-authors.

It focuses on the developmental effect of vaccine exposures on brain growth during infancy. The second, "Microarray Analysis of GI Tissue in a Macaque Model of the Effects of Infant Vaccination," was led by Steven Walker of Wake Forest University and performed gene array analysis on the intestinal tissues of the vaccinated and unvaccinated monkeys.

The studies address – albeit in animals, not children -- one of the major criticisms by parents and scientists concerned about a possible link between the greatly stepped-up immunization schedule in the 1990s, including higher exposure to the mercury preservative, and autism. While the Food and Drug Administration approves individual vaccines as safe and effective, and an advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the childhood immunization schedule adopted by the states, the overall health outcomes from the total vaccine load, versus no vaccinations at all, have never been compared, the authors said.

A bill requiring the government to conduct a study of autism rates in unvaccinated American children is pending in the U.S. House of Representatives, co-sponsored by Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Tom Osborne (R.-Neb.). Just this week, former National Institutes of Health Director Bernadine Healy called for more research into a possible vaccine link to autism and said the question had not been settled, despite repeated assertions to that effect by the CDC, the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

In the abstract for today's oral presentation, the authors noted that macaques, the type of monkey used in the study, "are commonly used in pre-clinical vaccine safety testing, but the combined childhood vaccine regimen, rather than individual vaccines, has not been studied. Childhood vaccines are a possible causal factor in autism, and abnormal behaviors and anomalous amygdala growth are potentially inter-related features of this condition."

The study found evidence of both behavioral and biological changes after the 13 macaque monkey infants were administered proportional doses, adjusted for age, of the vaccines recommended between 1994 and 1999. Three monkeys were not given any vaccines.

"Primate development, cognition and social behavior were assessed for both vaccinated and unvaccinated infants using standardized tests developed at the Washington National Primate Research Center." MRI and PET scans looked for brain changes after administration of the MMR.

"Compared with unexposed animals, significant neurodevelopmental deficits were evident for exposed animals in survival reflexes, tests of color discrimination and reversal, and learning sets," the authors reported. "Differences in behaviors were observed between exposed and unexposed animals and within the exposed group before and after MMR vaccination. Compared with unexposed animals, exposed animals showed attenuation of amygdala growth and differences in the amygdala binding of [11C]diprenorphine. Interaction models identified significant associations between specific aberrant social and non-social behaviors, isotope binding, and vaccine exposure."

One of the Saturday abstracts makes the further point that the research "revealed significant differences between exposed and unexposed animals" in the kinds of developmental behaviors a mother might be able to observe, "with delayed acquisition of root, suck, clasp hand, and clasp foot reflexes." They conclude by noting that "This animal model examines the neurological consequences of the childhood vaccine regimen, Functional and … brainstem anomalies were evident in vaccinated animals that may be relevant to some aspects of autism. The findings raise important safety issues while providing a potential animal model for examining aspects of causation and disease pathogenesis in acquired neurodevelopmental disorders."
--
Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of Autism.

Comments

[Elizabeth Hensley]

Is there any place still on the net where I can get to the photos of the guts of kids with this problem? I had them at one time but they have been taken down. I want to show them to folks because I have this problem, am in agony and I want to show to folks what I am going through! Worse a poor kid staying with us right now just had his shots (could hot stop them, no one listens to me: I'm "weird!" :( And now he is in agony from stomach problems! Was talking. Does not seem to be trying to any more! Everyone saying, "oh no. He's fine, just a little cranky." But I know they just did this to him too and he is now in for a life time of agony! I'm 53! And yes I'm Autistic and autism runs in his family too. I just witnessed another one of us being made because no one would listen to me! :(

[Elizabeth Hensley]

Please Raj! Don't keep spreading the myth that Autism is mostly in Males. Females aren't like Male Autists so we miss getting diagnosed to our severe determent. We are just a bit too social with the Doctors. Even with Autism viva la difference. But we need help just as badly if not worse than Males because standards of socialization are higher for Females and while we may pass for normal one on one with a Doctor in a quiet examining room (unfortunately) we sure can't in the outside World! We are often just a little too social with the Doctors to meet Male diagnostic criteria for Autism. I was though I was very bad at it and that just made me come across as weirder so I got misdiagnosed at first with Schizophrenia instead! That happens to us a lot (or we get diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder or Depression or OCD). I personally know several Females who should have Asperger's syndrome diagnoses but did not get them due to being able to handle one on one social situations with the Doctor just fine. But they can't handle long term group situations. End up at bottom of pecking order and just can't handle that many People for long. Need precious solitude! The Doctors aren't picking up on that! A tragedy! One Female desperately needs disability money! Isn't getting it! Her lack of ability to handle social situations means she can NOT work but it not believed by Judge due to lack of diagnoses. They think she's trying to cheat the system! I had to really fight for my classification and only got it because I belonged to a group and the leader could see how I could not tell when to break in and out of conversations with the others. bad social skills when in a group situation. One on one with her alone I was fine! Many Females are OK one on one with just the Doctor, unlike Male Asperergians and that is why we get missed! And/or the myth is so prevalent that this is just a Male problem that Mental health “Experts” aren't even thinking to consider this as a possible diagnoses in a “weird” Female! They consider every other possible diagnoses first instead! :( Why did they think I had Schizophrenia. I like to write fan fiction, believe in God and was also writing a book about Heaven. Made me really all THAT weird? Huh? See what I mean!

[John Fryer Chemist]

Hi Tonya

Yes, its not just vaccines and sadly some vaccines are needed for the MATURE human but not the still-developing baby.

Long before the diphtheria vaccine existed; this was the death rate in London year-after-year.

ZERO, ZERO, ZERO.

Billions of vaccines given ad nauseum for an illness that killed NO ONE, when sanitary conditions were so bad the Thames was an OPEN SEWER.

And it would be nice for someone to explain away ANAPHYLAXIS as the normal reaction to REPEAT vaccines. See work of Charles Richet.

When I was learning science: FACTS were FACTS.

Today you pay the PIPER and call the TUNE.

As for Safety Tests on Hep B for one day infants there isn't even a TUNE. Paid for or not.

The only FACTS about Hep B for one day babies are that it BLOWS heads up and kills them in rather large numbers.

[John Fryer]

Hi

Someone mentions oxygen tents but some autism theories would imply that this extra oxygen actually is toxic.

This is just a statement without any proof either way but I feel uneasy about this treatment without some concrete proof of benefit.

Rather like lupron - rather extreme.

Far better to avoid getting autism but until organomercury is taken out of vaccines and the Hep B vaccines at birth and worse flu shots et al for the pregnant mother, we are lost. I think we see evident harm in the mantra that vaccines can do no harm which is stupid and well meaning amateurs who do not always help.

For me the chelating methods seem best and the fact that standard medical doctors deny this treatment is doubly EVIL.

[Heidi N]

My son, Kyle, who is now recovered could barely suck and had abnormal reflexes until he was recovered. He was born with his symptoms, but I received a tetanus booster when I was 6 months pregnant. Go figure. Anyhow, to recover him I treated him for pathogens and toxins, and gf-cf, organic diet.

[Tammy Swanson]

I read in the book "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon (one of my favorite books!) that using fresh cilantro can help remove peripheral mercury in the system, especially hard to remove areas. It has to be fresh however, there is some active constituent in the fresh cilantro leaves. I don't know the dosage, but it's something to look into if you or someone you know has autism.

[Jo]

Lori, here is the abstract:

http://www.safeminds.org/research/pediatric-vaccines-influence-primat-behavior.html

The study is currently in review and has not been published yet.

[Maggie]

There is a definite reason for regressive autism. "Something" has happened to interrupt the normal development of these children. Vaccination obviously is a possible cause. Why have we not discontinued even the slightest possible culprits until further studies have been accomplished?

Do we really have to reduce our standing from protective parents of these innocent children, to "we the people" (tax payers)?

Ok:

If it's all about the mighty dollar, then how much do these governing agencies predict we will spend in tax dollars to fulfill our obligations to provide free and appropriate education to the disabled when we are adding 1 in 144 to the current disabled population?

And what about their new medical needs? One study shows improvement for certain autistic children who are given a sort of oxygen tent to sit in for a couple of hours a day. This "tent" costs $3000.00 a month to rent or $20,000.00 to own! This is just 1 of the current promising treatments for autistic children.

And what happens when the parents/caregivers of these dependant special needs autistic children grow old and die? Where do they go then, if not to governmentally subsidized institutions? Isn't that going to cost us a hell of allot more than alternative vaccinations procedures and/or further studies?

1 in 144! Isn't that more than we have in criminal institutions? If it's all about the mighty buck, then something better be done soon, or we really will be better off taking our chances unvaccinated!

[Lori]

Could someone please send me a link to the actual peer-reviewed article? I keep looking for it, but it doesn't seem to exist.
Thanks.

[doodle]

Craig,

Check the post again for sarcasm and you'll see what I was saying.