NBC News

There's barely a bump beneath Jocelyn Robles' gray T-shirt, but she already knows the baby is there - and that the child she's carrying suffers from a rare and fatal birth defect known as anencephaly.

So the 23-year-old farmworker from Yakima, Washington, had questions Tuesday night for the health officials, scientists and other experts gathered to discuss the cause of an alarming local spike in the disorder that leaves babies missing parts of the skull or brain. . . .

Since 2010, at least 30 babies - now 31 - have been diagnosed with anencephaly in a three-county area of central Washington state that includes Yakima and Sunnyside, where Robles grew up. That's a rate of 8.7 per 10,000 births in the region, far higher than the national rate of 2.1 cases for 10,000 births.

The problem has stumped Washington health officials, who say they can find no common link or exposure to explain the rise in the severe defects first noticed by a nurse at a rural hospital in 2012. They say many small clusters of birth defects turn out to be nothing more than coincidence.

I included this story because it reminded me of the attitude of health officials toward regressive autism following vaccination.  I'd be interested in what that 23-year-old farm worker carrying a disabled baby is being exposed to.

ABC News

Autistic adults are much more likely than others to suffer from depression, high blood pressure, obesity and additional health woes that may partly result from their social isolation, new research suggests.

They're also much less likely to smoke and drink alcohol, a paradoxical finding since those habits can contribute to many conditions that disproportionately affect autistic adults. Scientists say that could mean that their biologic makeup contributes to some of the illnesses.

The study is one of the largest, most comprehensive efforts to examine the health of autistic adults and highlights a need for better strategies to treat them, said scientist Lisa Croen, the lead author and director of the autism research program at Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, California. . . .

The study was prepared for release Wednesday at the International Meeting for Autism Research in Atlanta. It's based on medical records for 2,100 adults with autism spectrum disorder, an umbrella term encompassing mild autism and the more classic form of the disorder. They were enrolled during 2008-12 in a Kaiser health plan in northern California. Their records were compared with 21,000 non-autistic Kaiser enrollees.

Comment:

Kaiser Permanente found 2,100 autistic adults? For years parents in the autism community have asked for studies showing an autism rate among adults even remotely close to what we see in our children and no one has ever been able to do that. Now it seems that these researchers have found a large number of adults with autism. There is no information on the ages of these adults. Did Kaiser find adults in their 40's, 60's and 80's? Or we really talking about YOUNG ADULTS aging out of the school system? Adults in their 20's aren't really proof of anything. They're just the first wave of the autism epidemic that no one in mainstream medicine can explain.

Here we're told about "health woes" that include high blood pressure, obesity, and depression. Where are the autistic adults with the same chronic conditions that our children have? I'm talking about autistic adults with bowel disease, sleep disorders, and seizures. These are the HEALTH WOES THAT PLAGUE CHILDREN WITH AUTISM.

USA Today

The Ohio outbreak, like ongoing outbreaks in California and elsewhere, has been linked to unvaccinated travelers bringing the measles virus back from countries where the disease remains common. In Ohio, all of the cases have been among the Amish, health officials say. The outbreak began after Amish missionaries returned from the Philippines. The Philippines is experiencing a large, ongoing measles outbreak with more than 26,000 cases reported, according to CDC .

Comment:

Why is it that the American press continues to blame the unvaccinated for measles? These stories from a prominent Canadian news source, the National Post, make it clear that an AMERICAN EXPERT, DR.

GREGORY POLAND, OF THE MAYO CLINIC, is publicly saying that the measles vaccine DOESN'T WORK IN MANY CASES. IT'S VACCINATED INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE GETTING SICK.

April 1, 2014, Lawrence Solomon: The untold story of measles

May 1, 2014, Lawrence Solomon: Vaccines can’t prevent measles outbreaks

May 8, 2014, Lawrence Solomon: One-size-suits-all vaccines will soon be replaced by safer, more effective ones | Financial Post

Everyday we have health officials in U.S. news stories blaming non-vaccinating parents for outbreaks of disease. Dr. Poland is telling us that we have to make changes in how we vaccinate and that there are plenty of reasons to question the efficacy of the vaccine we have now. Why isn't this reported in the United States?

Daily Kos 

On Thursday May 9, 2014 the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that Christopher Wynn (pdf) could not be compensated through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) -- even if he proved a vaccine injury -- because his mother, Chandra Price, waited too long to pursue his claim. The court ruled against Ms. Price and Christopher on jurisdictional grounds, but also decided that there was no reason to use equitable tolling, a legal doctrine that allows the court to set aside a technical objection for reasons of fairness. . . .

Christopher T. Wynn was born on June 26, 1991. Three years later he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), on June 29, 1994. On February 2008 his mother, Chandra Price, represented by a lawyer, filed a petition in his name with NVICP, claiming that his vaccines caused his ASD. Specifically, “she believed the ASD was caused by the vaccinations ‘being given in back to back increments, and by mercury toxicity.’” The petition filed in 2008 was not complete, but was complete by April 2009.

 

The Dachel Media Update is sponsored by Lee Silsby Compounding Pharmacy and their OurKidsASD brand.  Lee Silsby Compounding Pharmacy is one of the largest and most respected compounding pharmacies in the country. They use only the finest quality chemicals and equipment to prepare our patients’ compounded medications and nutritional supplements. Customizing medication and nutritional supplements for our customers allows them to achieve their unique health goals.

Anne Dachel is Media Editor for Age of Autism and author of  The Big Autism Cover-Up: How and Why the Media Is Lying to the American Public, which goes on sale this Fall from Skyhorse Publishing.