Vaccinations - The Darker side.

Vaccinations - The Darker Side

There is a wide spread assumption that vaccinations of the young children against infectious diseases are good thing both for the children themselves and the community as a whole. This leads to further assumption that the vaccination of all children would eliminate these diseases with general increase of health. However a search of medical literature on the subject indicates that there is another side of this.

THE PRINCIPLE OF VACCINATION: By injecting the vaccine directly into body an important part of usual system of building up of an immune response to a foreign material is bypassed. For example a child inhales measles virus in a droplet thrown into air by coughing or sneezing of an infected child, nothing appears to happen during the ten to fourteen day incubation period. But under the surface the virus begins to multiply first in tonsils & adenoids & then in lymph nodes before entering the blood. Hence the virus reaches the spleen, liver, thymus and bone marrow which together form a major part of the immune system. By the time first symptoms of the measles become obvious, the immune system has started to produce antibodies against the virus and these are detectable in blood. When the symptoms reach their peak and the characteristic rash has appeared, the antibodies have also reached their maximum number.

The symptoms represent the body’s efforts to clear the virus from the blood and the virus is coughed out by very route through which it entered.

In this way, the entire immune system is profoundly stimulated and not only will the child who recovers from measles remain immune to it for life but he or she will be able to respond rapidly and effectively to any subsequent infections. It has long been suggested that infectious diseases are necessary for maturation of the immune system in a healthy child.

As a result of injecting vaccine directly into the body, only the antibody response is stimulated, not he generalised inflammatory response and viral elements from the vaccine may persist in body for long afterwards. Due to this vaccinations may actually suppress the immune response in the same way that radiation, cancer, chemotherapy and corticosteroid drugs.

A link between increased incidence of autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and leukemia and increase in vaccinations is also being probed.

Small Pox: - Jenner developed vaccine for small pox in 1796. There are two things of interest around this time of Jenner`s work. First is that James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy initially vaccinated by Jenner in 1796, was

re-vaccinated 20 times, died at the age of twenty.
Second Jenner`s own son, who was also vaccinated more than once, died at the age of twenty-one. Both succumbed to tuberculosis, a condition that some researchers have linked to small pox vaccination.

Another thing of importance is that small pox and other communicable diseases were declining before vaccination programs were enforced. This may be attributed to the sanitary reforms and nutritional teachings instituted around mid 1800s, as other communicable diseases for which no vaccination was available were also declining at the same time.

The interesting thing however is that incidence of small pox actually increased once vaccination programs were instituted. In Jenner`s time, there were only few cases of smallpox in England. After more than fifteen years of mandatory vaccinations, 1860-71 alone more than 23000 people died from the disease. Later, in Japan, nearly 29000 people died in just seven years under a stringent compulsory vaccination and re-vaccination program.

This increase in smallpox cases deaths was associated with a noticeable lack of protection. For example in Germany over 124000 people died of smallpox during the same epidemic. All had been vaccinated. Additionally, hospital records consistently show that about 90 percent of all smallpox cases occurred after the individual was vaccinated.

This lack of efficacy and increase in disease incidence, while other communicable diseases were on decline, led to the refusal of small pox vaccination by some countries. This resulted in drop of the incidence of the disease that is quite remarkable. In Australia, when two children died from smallpox shots, the government terminated compulsory vaccinations. As a result smallpox virtually disappeared from that country.

Polio: This is another disease for which people assume that vaccination has made a difference in incidence. From 1923 to 1953, before the Salk killed virus vaccine was introduced, the polio death rate in USA and England had already declined on its own by 47 percent and 55 percent respectively.

When vaccines became available, many European countries questioned its effectiveness and refused to systematically inoculate their citizens. Yet Polio epidemics also ended in these countries as well.

As with smallpox vaccine, the number of reported cases of polio following mass inoculations with killed virus vaccine were significantly greater than before mass vaccinations.

In 1976, Dr Jones Salk testified that the live virus vaccine, used almost exclusively in USA since early 60`s was “ the principle if not the solo cause ‘ of all reported polio cases in USA since 1960.

Few days back in a popular Indian TV show children of a village were shown. All of them got affected with polio after taking polio drops.

MMR: When this vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella was launched in 1988, it was implied that a single dose would provide life long protection against all three diseases. Yet if we look further at just one component of this vaccine – Rubella, there is little evidence to show that vaccine induced immunity to disease is complete or as long lasting as immunity acquired by having the disease.

Rubella is generally mild in childhood but may damage the unborn child if a woman contracts the disease in early pregnancy.

In USA, where MMR Vaccine has been available for more than 10 years, a number of studies have shown that a proportion of children have no evidence of immunity to rubella in blood tests taken four to five years after vaccination.

A Danish study has shown that when measles has been suppressed in childhood by vaccination so that the typical rash was not shown but antibodies were made, there was a predisposition to develop arthritis, dermatitis and bone diseases later in life. A 1991 study by Marvin Krober revealed that even a simple coryza could neutralize the vaccine.

The information supplied to doctors by the manufacturers of MMR Vaccine lists the following – Immediate allergic reactions, Febrile convulsions, Swelling of lymph glands, Temporary arthritic symptoms, transient disturbance of nervous system including one sided paralysis, deafness and encephalitis. Some of these symptoms may not develop until several weeks after the injection.

DPT: The major controversy over the use of Peruses (Whooping Cough) vaccine has been the possibility of Brain damage. Data published form Glasgow in 1977 showed that the vaccine offered little protection to infants under the age of six months, the most dangerous time to get this disease and the majority of the older children who suffered the disease had been fully vaccinated.

Known effects are: Sudden death of an previously completely healthy child (Sudden infant death syndrome); inconsolable crying, more or less severe brain damage appearing within a given time period after inoculation;

Localized redness, swelling, induration and pain at the site of vaccination; Exceptionally high fevers, pronounced sleepiness, strabismus, epileptic seizures, hemiplegia, paraplegia and epileptoid convulsions. These are the effects for which the children may suffer for the rest of their lives and which are remarkably resistant to therapy. A number of less obvious damages are hyperactivity beginning for the time of vaccination, learning disabilities, dyslexia, reading disorders, character flaws appearing in the aftermath.

Due to these harmful side effects the US congress passed the “National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Act ” for the children who were damaged by the side effects of the vaccines.

Measles Vaccine: Measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, yet in US and

England, from 1915 to 1958, a greater than 95 percent decline in measles death rate had already occurred. In addition, the death rate from measles in Mid 1970`s i.e. several years after vaccine had been introduced remained as same as in early 1960`s i.e. several years before the vaccine was introduced.

According to a study by WHO, chances are 14 times greater that those vaccinated against the disease than those who are not vaccinated will contract measles.

It has been determined that the measles vaccine may cause ataxia, learning disabilities, retardation, aseptic meningitis, seizure disorders, paralysis and death. It has also been investigated as a possible cause for multiple sclerosis, blood clotting disorders and juvenile onset diabetes.

Another additional harmful effect is that the disease has changed form and now affects primarily a different age group. The peak incidence of measles no longer occurs in children but in adolescents and young adults.

Also before the vaccine was introduced, it was extremely rare for an infant to contract measles. However by 1993 more than 25% of all measles cases were occurring in babies under a year of age. This is attributed to the growing number of mothers who were vaccinated during the last 30 years and therefore have no natural immunity of their own to pass on to their children.

BCG: This vaccine is used as preventive against tuberculosis. Few weeks back in all major newspapers a report from Indian Council of Medical Research said that this vaccine is a failure and it has actually lead to an increase in the number of tuberculosis patients.

There is no scientific evidence so far that mass vaccination can be credited with eliminating any childhood infectious disease. The incidence of diphtheria was already declining before vaccine started in 1940`s. Some, once common diseases have become less widespread and serious through

increased standards of hygiene and nutrition. Scarlet fever is now rare disease and yet a vaccine has never been developed against it.

Where a vaccine offers only a limited protection against a disease, changed symptoms may appear causing difficulty with diagnosis and treatment.
For example, some vaccinated children have been shown to have whooping cough, although the traditional whoop was absent.

As WHO maintains, “ The best vaccine against common infectious diseases is an adequate diet”. By active promotion of good health through varied diet containing plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables, a child is less susceptible to disease and when it does occur, he or she is in a good position to deal with it effectively.

Dr Dushyant Kamal Dhari

09-01-2000 Daily Excelsior.