Currently in the US, 42 states have made it a legal requirement that children get vaccinated before they can enter grade school. To further the debate, the House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources held a hearing recently under the banner “Hepatitis B Vaccine: Helping or Hurting Public Health”. Parents concerned about the link between the vaccine and multiple sclerosis, SIDS, autism, diabetes and a host of other autoimmune diseases aired their views and questioned whether widespread enforced immunisation was really about health or profits.

Many experts also testified, reiterating the official line that the vaccine was a totally safe and relevant way to protect “all children and all communities”. This, of course, ignores the fact that hep B is largely a sexually transmitted disease from which children are not at risk (JAMA, 1999; 282: 15-16).

More than 100 cases were recorded in the US last year, and a new group of victims has been reported in Norway.

Researchers are still looking into the reasons why so many incidents should suddenly occur, particularly as tens of millions of grams have been administered without any apparent problems.

Researchers from Norway believe the outbreak among 20 patients was caused by contaminated stock.

To reach this conclusion, Spanish researchers studied the prevalence of HCV in 134 consecutive SLE patients and compared this with HCV prevalence in healthy controls. Eleven per cent of the SLE patients had antibodies to HCV compared with only 1 per cent of the controls.

In addition, the researchers found that, when found together, the diseases seemed to have modified each other. For example, HCV infection in SLE patients involves more liver symptoms and immunological disorders than in non-SLE subjects. Also, SLE patients with HCV show fewer skin symptoms and a different DNA profile.

What remains unclear is whether there is a link between HCV and SLE or whether HCV can, under

certain circumstances, mimic SLE. Although small, this study represents one of the largest studies ever done into the association between SLE and HCV. Currently, however, it raises more questions than it answers (Arthritis Rheum, 2000; 43: 2801-6).

Researchers from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigated 60 cases reported since 1984. Of these, 46 had been given the hepatitis B vaccination, and the majority of cases involved women, including young girls.

They estimate that up to 50,000 Americans suffer from alopecia after immunization every year.

Women seem to be at greater risk of developing alopecia.

The FDA decided to investigate the link when a concerned mother telephoned them in 1994 about her daughter, who lost virtually all of her hair after being given a second and third dose of the hepatitis B vaccine.

In most cases the hair grew back, although the recovery period varied from patient to patient. Of the 60 cases investigated, nine patients had reported previous allergies to medication (JAMA, 1997; 278: 1176-8).

For more information see WDDTY’s Vaccination Bible.

The practice of giving a few millilitres of blood/plasma to underweight or pre term babies was common in Italy and elsewhere several decades ago. To find out if this practice correlated with recently diagnosed cases of hepatitis C, Italian researchers examined paediatric department transfusion records of 1968 to 1974.

They identified 613 children transfused within the first year of life. Of the 57 who were traceable, half are now positive for antibodies to HCV, and 17 received at least one transfusion from the same donor who is also positive.

Some 30-50 per cent of people with HCV have no known risk factors for the disease. However, risk factor assessment is usually based on what the patient can remember. This intriguing study shows that, when assessing risk factors, digging deeper into the documented medical history of the patient may prove enlightening (Lancet, 2000; 356: 1572-3).

Those found to have the virus will be asked to have their children immunized within 24 hours of birth. (See WDDTY Vol 3 No 4 about side effects of the hepatitis B vaccine.) The vaccine for babies, called Engerix B, will be available in the UK from the 20 July.

The precise date when the universal screening programme will be announced once the DOH has secured adequate funds.

Perhaps the most celebrated concerns the sudden death of Alan Joe Yurko, whose father is serving a life sentence after being convicted of violently shaking his child.

The father mentioned that Alan had just been given a combination of six vaccines, but it was a comment never followed up – so medical researcher Dr Harold Buttram has done just that.

He reviewed 25 cases of supposed shaken baby syndrome (SBS), and found in all the cases that the babies had been vaccinated around 12 days earlier. The babies had fatal brain injuries, but Buttram believes this was a result of vaccine-induced encephalitis. He points to reports of intracranial pressure being observed after the DPT vaccine, while the hepatitis B vaccine is being linked to brain hemorrhage.

Is Dr Buttram’s study conclusive? Far from it, but vaccinations should be part of the enquiry when parents are next accused of murdering their child.

(Source: Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients, October 2003; 243: 72-8).

According to Arie Zuckerman of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Viral Diseases in London, the vaccine may be losing its efficacy. Moreover, it is apparently producing different mutations of HBV as well (Lancet, 2000; 355: 1382-4).

As evidence, he cites data from several countries where vaccination is carried out on a large scale. In Taiwan, the prevalence of the mutated virus rose from 7.8 per cent when the vaccine was introduced in 1984 to 19.8 per cent in 1989 and to 28.1 per cent by 1994.

The prevalence of HBV mutations was higher among those who had been fully immunised than among the unvaccinated. Findings in countries such as the Gambia and Singapore suggest that these mutations are not merely the result of vaccine failure (Lancet, 2000; 356: 769-70).

As many as 10 per cent of vaccinated adults produce no antibodies to the virus and, within seven years, as many as 50 per cent of vaccinated people lose detectable antibodies.

At least six cases of hepatitis related to the drug have been reported to the UK’s drug regulator, the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM). Doctors at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital also have reported one case of a 54-year-old woman who developed chronic hepatitis after being on the drug for 17 months (BMJ, 1997; 314: 1387). Her liver had functioned well before starting treatment, and it eventually returned to normal after the drug was withdrawn.

This development should come as no great surprise, as liver problems have been associated with the drug for some time. At least 54 cases have been reported to the CSM, and warnings have been included both in the UK Compendium of Data Sheets and the American Physicians’ Desk Reference.

It seems to be a hard drug to tolerate. In several studies, up to 20 per cent of patients had to come off the drug because of some side effect. Common side effects – occurring in at least 5 per cent of all users, and at least twice that of placebo – include nausea, somnolence, sweating, tremor, dry mouth, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, dizziness, constipation, diarrhoea, and decreased appetite.

Rare side effects reported in early trials have included mania, seizures, suicidal tendencies and abnormal bleeding.

As with most antidepressants, paroxetine should not be taken with a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI). When they have been taken in combination, the effects can sometimes be fatal, and include hyperthermia and extreme agitation, leading to delirium and coma.

A large scale study conducted by the National Institutes of Health in America of more than 7,000 people over 65 concluded that smokers were about twice as likely to die from cardiovascular disease than non smokers and two and a half times more likely to die of cancer.

The good news was that as soon as someone quit smoking their risks of heart attack or stroke diminished to the level of the never smokers, although their cancer risks remained the same as before even after they’d stopped.

Look to your iron and vitamin C intake if you’re trying to get pregnant without success.

When 113 women were given iron and vitamin C tablets to treat hair loss, seven women who’d had trouble conceiving all got pregnant during treatment.

“In some women [blood iron levels] below 40ng/ml seems to be associated with fertility difficulties and iron could prove beneficial in such patients,” said researchers from Portsmouth Polytechnic.