Wakefield Responds to Finnish Study in Sacramento
Friday, May 21, 1999
[Directions to Dr. Wakefield's Sunday, May 23 presentation in Sacramento are found below]
Speaking to an auditorium of medical professionals yesterday in Sacramento,California at UC Davis, Dr. Andrew Wakefield addressed the Finnish study, a summary "Autism, bowel disease and (PRO) MMR vaccine" posted here (and again below) last Wednesday, May 19, 1999. This study has been forwarded by opponents of Wakefield's work.
Dr. Wakefield pointed out that three million people were not studied, but rather
only the 31 who came down with GI symptoms within the first 15 days. He indicated that this criteria was meaningless as "no one ever said that such immediate GI symptoms were any kind of indication of anything to do with autism."
Since the premise for selecting the 31 cases was in error, it is not surprising to find the results they came up with: no autism.
Wakefield further said that such dubious short-term studies of vaccines are typical of the types of studies carried out to assess their toxicity in
combination.
Alarmed, Wakefield also warned that the CDC was planning to compound their errors in lumping measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations into same time
administration by adding a chicken pox vaccine to the MMR mix in the near future.
--------- From last Wednesday's Newsletter:
[From the World Health Network Friday, 1 May 1998 (a year ago)]
http://www.healix.net/news/01051998-1.htm
Autism, bowel disease and MMR vaccine (REF: Lancet)
Concern about the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine was raised by a recent paper published by Dr Andrew Wakefield and colleagues from the Royal
Free Hospital in London, that suggested a causal association between the vaccine and a new syndrome of chronic inflammatory bowel disease and autism.
The National Board of Health and National Public Health Institute of Finland launched a long-term vaccination project in 1982 (led by Professor Heikki
Peltola) which aimed at the elimination of MMR diseases from Finland. All children are vaccinated twice, at age 14-18 months and six years. By the end
of 1996, around three million MMR vaccine doses had been given.
The researchers found:
· 31 children developed gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, all except one after the first vaccine dose
· Diarrhoea, frequently with vomiting was the most common symptom (55% , n=17), followed by gingivostomatitis (23%, n=7), vomiting only (16%, n=5)
and abdominal pains (6%, n=2)
· The time from MMR vaccine to onset of symptoms varied from 20 hours to 15 days
· Generally, symptoms subsided within a week, the exception being a one year old boy whose diarrhoea persisted for six weeks. The child recovered and was healthy when checked almost six years later.
Most symptoms and signs of the central nervous system were those one would expect in conjunction with acute GI. No child developed autistic spectrum disorder.
It is noteworthy that, besides GI complaints, many children had similar symptoms (fever, rash, seizure) as those in London.
Professor Peltola and colleagues conclude that '...over a decade's effort to detect all severe adverse events associated with MMR vaccine could find no data supporting the hypothesis that it would cause pervasive developmental disorder or inflammatory bowel disease.'
REF: Peltola H et al. No evidence for measles, mumps and rubella vaccine-associated inflammatory bowel disease or autism in a 14-year prospective study. Lancet 1998; 351: 1327-8
