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Appeals court: vaccine does not cause autism

08/28/2010 22:30:00 admin

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A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against the families of autistic children who claimed that vaccination led to autism, a disorder that now affects one in 110 children in the United States.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a ruling against Michelle Cedillo of Yuma, Arizona last year by a special vaccine court. The plaintiff is disabled with autism and autism related diseases like inflammatory bowel disease; she believes vaccination led to her autism.

In 2009, Special Master Denise Vowell, cited by the AP, ruled that "evidence is weak, contradictory and unpersuasive" to suggest that vaccines cause autism. Vowell was cited as saying that the petition that vaccines cause autism was based on bad science conducted to support litigation.

In the Friday ruling, the appeals panel agreed on the opinion of the special vaccine court and said, cited by the AP, that "we have carefully reviewed the decision of the special master and we find that it is rationally supported by the evidence, well-articulated, and reasonable. We, therefore, affirm the denial of the Cedillos' petition for compensation."

The ruling is considered a setback for more than 5,500 families seeking compensation through the federal government's Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which is intended to give such compensation to those whose injury is known to be caused by vaccines.

The link between autism or autistic spectrum disorder and the Measles-Mups-Rubella vaccine or MMR was revealed in a study led by Dr. Andrew Wakefield and published in the Lancet - a prestigious British medical journal. The journal later retracted the study report.

Many studies have suggested that other factors may affect the risk of autism. Even Tylenol was linked in a study to an increased risk of autism.

Recently, Dr. John Cannell, a vitamin D expert and director of Vitamin D Council, and colleagues proposed a theory which suggests that vitamin D deficiency plays a role in the development of autism even though other risk factors may also have an impact.

Parental autoimmune diseases may increase the risk of autism in offspring, according to one study led by Keil A. and colleagues from the university of North Carolina and GlaxoSmithKline and published in the Aug 25, 2010 issue of Epidemiology .

Another study, led by Durkin M.S. and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, published in the Dec 2008 issue of American Journal Epidemiology suggests that advanced parental age may be a risk factor for autism.

Parental psychiatric disorders were also correlated with autism spectrum disorders in their children, according to a study led by Daniels J.L and colleagues from the University of North carolina and published in the May 2008 issue of Pediatrics.

Some studies even found that vaccines may slash the risk of autism.

One case-control study led by Mro?ek-Budzyn D of Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland and colleagues showed that children who received MMR vaccines were actually at a much lower risk of autism. The study was published on Dec 1, 2009 online in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

It's not easy to prove or disprove something in cases of drug safety, a health observer commented, as most studies are sponsored and even directly conducted by drug companies, meaning that there is always some conflict of interest.

By Jimmy Downs and editing by Rachel Stockton

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Comments (10 posted):

Richard H on 08/29/2010 05:07:24

Thank goodness. Let's recall that Doctor Wakefield, who pioneered this whole "let's link autism to vaccines so we can sue pharm companies for mad $$$$" thing, is no longer a doctor due to evidence coming forth that he was otherwise ULTRA SKETCHY.

Like conducting-blood-draws-at-kids'-birthday-parties-sketchy.

Immense behavioral issues are a severe issue, but we can't let our hopes for a solution blind us to the facts.

Traditional Naturopath on 08/29/2010 11:08:51

The real story:
"Theresa and her husband, Mike, say their only child was a happy, engaged toddler who responded to her name, said "mommy" and "daddy" and was otherwise normal until she received a measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine at 15 months. They believe the MMR vaccine, combined with a mercury-containing preservative found in that and other vaccines at the time, drastically altered the course of their daughter's development. Within days of receiving the injection as part of the normal course of vaccinations, Michelle suffered from a high fever, persistent vomiting and problems with her digestion. Worse still, her parents say, Michelle stopped speaking and no longer responded to her name."

If this were an isolated incident, I'd say there is some other cause. However, this is not an isolated incident. Last month I spoke with another mother, who told me the exact same story and have read about thousands of others.

There is a direct link between vaccines and these same exact symptoms. Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical industry has the government on their payroll, literally.

http://www.fda.gov/ForIndustry/UserFees/PrescriptionDrugUserFee/default.htm

Allan on 08/29/2010 15:15:29

Traditional Naturopath, thankfully, people like you, that know nothing, are not running modern medicine. I am so tired of a very vocal minority using fear and lies to forward this nonsensical and baseless idea that vaccines cause autism. Overwhelming evidence shows that the cause is genetic, so why do people like you continue to lay blame on people working to better children's lives?

Chris MacDonald on 08/29/2010 16:08:13

Traditional Naturopath, anecdotal evidence could also be used to demonstrate that Autism is caused by, say, a full moon (after all, you *will* find parents who can tell you that their kid first showed symptoms during a full moon -- though if you look carefully, you'll find that the incidence rate for that is about 1 in 12.) You'll also find that about 1 in 7 cases of autism first manifest on a Wednesday. And if people are *told* there's a problem with Wednesdays, then suddenly anyone whose kid starts acting oddly on a Wednesday will start showing up at your door...

I gotta say on 08/29/2010 21:52:51

Anecdotal evidence is what medicine evolved out of and to refute it is as ignorant as to rely on it alone. People find it so hard to comprehend that a genetic predisposition to autism coupled with an environmental trigger - such as the MMR vaccine + mercury preservative - is the "cause" of autism. We are so brainwashed that we insist scientific methodology governed by big pharmaceutical companies has the only answer. What about the overwhelming anecdotal evidence? Of course vaccines have triggered autism. Of course studies will continue to fail to make a link. It is a difficult thing to prove given all the other variables in a child's life, let alone that most the people doing the studies have an incentive to negate the link. And if you haven't studied the methodology of the studies, you really shouldn't site them as proof of anything. Likewise, if you haven't experienced an event like your family member regressing dramatically - and permanently - immediately after a vaccination, you have no business discounting the authenticity of it (or comparing it to the likelihood of a link to the full moon - I mean come on: since when has the moon been anything like a proven neurotoxin?) Vaccines do help the majority of the population, as do the doctors that administer them...it's not laying blame to acknowledge the 1% it harms.

AW on 08/30/2010 00:17:27

"The link between autism or autistic spectrum disorder and the Measles-Mups-Rubella vaccine or MMR was revealed in a study led by Dr. Andrew Wakefield and published in the Lancet - a prestigious British medical journal. The journal later retracted the study report."

That's rather sloppy writing, isn't it? I suppose you mean something like this: "The purported link between the MMR vaccine and the development of gastrointestinal disease and autism was advanced by Andrew Wakefield, who had previously erroneously claimed that measles virus (or the MMR vaccine) was responsible for Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and other inflammatory bowel disease; these claims, like his association of the MMR with ASD and GI complaints, turned out to be untrue."

Unsure on 08/30/2010 14:53:49

There's evidence on both sides of the argument. Although this particular ruling sided against the families that brought about the law suit, you have to admit that the vaccine concern is a valid one. Why have the cases of autism increased so greatly in recent years? The vaccines may not be a 100% cause, but they shouldn't be overlooked as a possible contributor to Austism.

Infectious disease immunologist on 08/30/2010 16:40:06

Unsure, No evidence exists to support the argument that vaccinations in general and MMR in specific, thimerosal exposure or multiple vaccinations are a contributing factor to the development of autism. Multiple studies from diverse countries and scientific groups with proper age matched controls that contained hundreds of thousands of children have yet to show any association between autism and vaccination.
Vaccines and autism: a tale of shifting hypotheses.

Gerber JS, Offit PA.

Clin Infect Dis. 2009 Feb 15;48(4):456-61. Review.PMID: 19128068 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

This article effectively summarizes the data from these studies and a copy of the article is free to the public on WWW.pubmed.gov.

Please make sure you understand the issue before spreading untrue and unsubstantiated cause and effect!

CAROLE HARRINGTON on 08/31/2010 15:32:26

The British government says the MMR injured a child labeled autistic and compensated the parents 90,000 pounds. Ironic that Andrew Wakefield was drummed out of the British medical profession for saying vaccines cause autism. My son's father had an autoimmune disease, his family has bipolar illness. multiple members of my family have suffered depression. Certainly there may be a genetic predisposition, but I wonder if my son had not had a shot at one month of age and got a high fever and was vomiting violently, would his predisposition have been triggered? We'll never know for him, as he is 43. But what about all the other children coming along with their 36 shots before age 5.

When my son was young, the medical profession was absolutely SURE parents were the cause by rejecting their children. Now that seems absurd. It made me so angry when I called a psychiatrist to ask for help with my son's waking and screaming at night. At age 4 he was sleeping only four hours a night, and the doctor asked me, "I wonder what's going on between you and your husband?"
I responded, "We're going to kill each other if we don't get some sleep." He finall prescribed a tranquilizer, and we finally got some sleep.

Angela on 09/01/2010 15:42:16

Carole, get it straight, Andrew Wakefield was drummed out of the British medical profession for faulty ethics and shoddy science, because he unnecessary tests on otherwise healthy children. Not for his hypothesis about vaccines and autism. Also he based his science on only 8 subjects and had no control subjects. That is NOT a sufficient number of subjects to make any conclusion.