On Mercury ...

Manufacturers have been asked to remove mercury from vaccines and some states in America have banned all thiomersal containing vaccines.

Recent reports from independent analysers, however, have shown that despite reassurances, mercury is still used in vaccine production and cannot be completely filtered out. (36)

Thiomersal is still found in tetanus, diphtheria/tetanus, influenza, Q fever, Japanese encephalitis and some Hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenza B (HiB) vaccines.

36. 12/8/2004 Health Advocacy in the Public Interest (HAPI) Report.

...Adverse events following immunisation (AEFI's )

"There is a great deal of evidence to prove that immunisation of children does more harm than good."    (47)

...Contra-indications to vaccines

Childhood vaccines are contra-indicated (not to be given) -

•  if the child has suffered a previous anaphylactic reaction to the vaccine

•  in the case of whooping cough, if the child has developed encephalitis (brain inflammation) within seven days of vaccination

•  if you have an allergy to any of the vaccine ingredients

It is not possible to identify allergies in a baby only hours, days or even weeks old prior to vaccination.

...Hepatitis B vaccine

The universal vaccination of infants with Hepatitis B vaccine has raised some alarming concerns -

•  A 1999 study concluded that   "The increase in the number of cases of unexplained neonatal fever seems to be associated with the introduction of routine hepatitis B vaccination on the first day of life". (60)

•  Midwives have found that the birth dose of vaccine can interfere with successfully establishing breastfeeding as a result of common side-effects such as irritability, decreased appetite, fever, pain and persistent crying. (61)

•  In America adverse reactions to Hepatitis B vaccine (including deaths), outnumbered cases of Hepatitis B in children by 14 to 1. This lead to the 1999 Congressional Hearings to investigate its safety.

"An intelligent and conscientious physician might well recommend AGAINST hepatitis B vaccine, especially in newborns, unless a baby is at unusual risk because of an infected mother or household contact or membership in a population in which disease is common."   (62)

60. Linder N., et al, Unexplained fever in neonates may be associated with hepatitis B vaccine, Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed, Nov1999; 81: F206-207

61. Sandra Eales, Hep B Vaccination at birth - just another barrier to breast feeding , Australian Midwifery, December 2003; 16(4): 4&5

62. Statement of the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons to the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources of the Committee on Government Reform U.S. House of Representatives, 1999

....Polio Vaccines

Oral live polio vaccine is being replaced on the childhood schedule in Australia by the inactivated (killed) polio vaccine (IPV) that is given by injection at 2, 4, and 6 months, and then 4 years of age.

In changing the recommendations for polio vaccination it was noted that "the big disadvantage of OPV is that it can cause vaccine associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP)". (70)   VAPP may also occur in a child who receives intramuscular injections (or vaccines) after being given oral polio vaccine and this is called "provocation polio".   (70)

Oral polio vaccine is still recommended for developing countries as "it is cheap and a level of immunisation spreads to contacts" (71) Outbreaks of polio are reported regularly in these countries following mass immunisation campaigns.

70. Bitowski, M, Polio strategy on hold if strain persists , Medical Observer 29 Sept 2000, p47

71. NEJM 1995; 332: 500-6

....Haemophilus Influenzae Type b (Hib) Vaccine

ADRAC reported 1150 adverse events to Hib vaccines up to 2002. These included -

Fever                                  abnormal crying

injection site reaction           hypotonia (floppy episode)

vomiting                              itchy rash

pallor                                  nervousness

Serious reaction reports included 13 deaths.   (79)

79. Choice Magazine April 2002, p.7, Letters

....Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) Vaccine

Women are given MMR vaccine if they have low levels of rubella antibody when tested.   It may be administered either when they are planning to conceive a baby or immediately after the baby has been born.

This practice means babies will be exposed to vaccine strain viruses in the womb or after birth through breast milk and close contact. There is also a danger of the vaccine strain rubella virus causing the disease during pregnancy.

Some research shows that a history of exposure to MMR vaccine viruses via the mother, may increase the risk of children developing   behavioural disorders when they are given MMR vaccine. (89)

89. F. Edward Yazbak, MD, FAAP, Autism: Is there a vaccine connection? Part 1

....Chickenpox (Varicella) Vaccine

Overseas studies have shown that children given the vaccine can develop chickenpox from it and also that recently vaccinated children can infect contacts.(39) ' Breakthrough chickenpox' is often misdiagnosed as insect bites, and children could be putting other people, such as unvaccinated classmates and pregnant teachers, at risk when they attend school with the disease.

The effectiveness of the chickenpox vaccine decreases significantly after one year (90) but the injected vaccine strain may become latent and potentially reactivate later in life to cause shingles. (91)

90. JAMA Feb 18 2004; 29(7):851-5

91. Abbas CDC Chief of Biologics in Atlanta, NY Times , April 12, 1999

...Pneumococcal Vaccine

The product information for this vaccine states that children in care, who have ear infections and/or recent antibiotics are at an increased risk of developing invasive pneumococcal disease.

The vaccine contains 7 of the 90 strains of pneumococcal bacteria and each is attached to a diphtheria protein. (As a result it is a very expensive vaccine to produce) This means that babies are now exposed to a lot more diphtheria through vaccines, increasing the risk of life-threatening reactions.

Hypersensitivity to diphtheria or any of the other ingredients (which include aluminium and soy protein) is a contra-indication to having this vaccine.

...Influenza (Flu) Vaccine

The US Institute of Medicine (IOM) investigated a possible link between flu vaccination and the disorder Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) noting that -

"one possible cause is that flu vaccine contains Campylobacter (a bacteria that causes acute intestinal disease) ... the vaccine is made in chicken eggs and 40-50% of chickens are infected with Campylobacter which is difficult to eradicate."   (102)

102. Dr Chen, Communicable Diseases Control Immunisation Safety Branch.

...Diabetes

Harris L. Coulter, Ph.D., reported that the MMR as well as DTP vaccines might be the root causes of diabetes in the US. He found that rubella and rubella vaccine viruses can produce immune complexes that can damage the pancreas, reducing the levels of insulin that it is able to secrete.

"There are now many case reports directly linking the onset of diabetes - sometimes within only a month's time - with receipt of the mumps vaccination"    (127)

Another researcher, Dr. Bart Classen, is concerned that hepatitis B vaccination could lead to diabetes through inflammation of the pancreas. (62) He also concluded that there was likely to be a causal relationship between HiB vaccination and insulin dependent diabetes. (80)

127. April 1997, US House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations

62. Statement of the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons to the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources of the Committee on Government Reform U.S. House of Representatives, 1999

80. Classen, Autoimmunity no 4;2002, p247-253

...AIDS

Scientists suspected as early as the 1950's, and knew by the 1970's that polio vaccines had been contaminated with simian (monkey) viruses. Apart from contamination with SV40 virus, there is evidence that simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) may also have crossed species to humans through contaminated polio vaccines.

More than 320,000 Africans were given experimental live oral polio vaccine in the late 1950's. The vaccine polio virus was cultivated on African green monkey kidney tissue, as it is today.

SIV contamination of the vaccine is said to have provided the opportunity for a monkey-human hybrid known as human immunodeficiency virus or HIV to evolve.   (132)

132. Urnovitz, 8 th Annual Houston Conference on AIDS

Other concerns for parents

•  Worldwide, the 16 billion injections administered either for vaccines or drugs in the developing world each year cause an estimated 21 million cases of hepatitis B, 2 million cases of hepatitis C, and 260,000 cases of HIV, according to the World Health Organization. (133)

•  "Vaccines do not immunise, rather they sensitise (meaning make more susceptible) the recipients to the diseases that vaccines are supposed to prevent and also to a host of unrelated bacterial and viral infections" - Dr Viera Schreibner   (134)

•  "Two chemicals together may be 10 times as toxic as either is separately and 3 chemicals together , 100 times more toxic" (135)

•  Striking increases in chronic illnesses have occurred with mass vaccinations, yet there is no research to follow up early studies that suggest a greater-than-chance association between vaccines and, for example, asthma and diabetes. (62)

133. Wahlberg, Atlanta Journal-Constitution 9/22/04

134. referring to Craighead, J Infect Dis 1975; 131(6):749-54

135. Harold e Buttram MD & Alan R Yurko, Childhood Immunisations and Abrupt Onset Apnea

62. Statement of the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons to the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources of the Committee on Government Reform U.S. House of Representatives, 1999

Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAMs)

In Australia CAM has become a widely used form of healthcare. Government surveys show that 42% of Australians report using CAM treatments even though they have not been promoted or funded through our health system. (149)

Australians use complementary and alternative medicines out of a desire for improved health and to resolve disease, particularly those with chronic (long term) conditions. (150)

Practitioners of complementary medicines differ in their approach to illness and disease to those who practice general medicine. The various therapies aim to -

•  Assist in the elimination of toxins rather than suppress

•  Improve the structure and function of the spinal cord and organs

•  Manage chronic illness by healing the underlying cause

•  Improve the overall well-being of the person being treated

149. Coulter & Willis, The rise and rise of complementary and alternative medicine: a sociological perspective , MJA 2004; 180 (11): 587-589

150. Bensoussan & Lewith, Complementary medicine research in Australia: a strategy for the future , MJA 2004;181(6):331-333