Hepatitis B Vaccine Triples the Risk of Autism in Infant Boys

I hope people who are spreading information about vaccines are not just focusing on swine flu. ALL vaccines are toxic, and, in my opinion, ineffective and unnecessary. Do your own research, and you may come to the same conclusion.

Mercola.com -

A new study has shown that giving Hepatitis B vaccine to newborn baby boys more than triples their risk of developing an autism spectrum disorder.

The study’s authors used U.S. probability samples obtained from National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) 1997–2002 datasets.

The conclusion states that: “Findings suggest that U.S. male neonates vaccinated with hepatitis B vaccine had a 3-fold greater risk of ASD.”

The authors also noted that an earlier study by them found that hepatitis B vaccination was associated with receipt of early intervention and special education services.

The new study used a different database than their earlier study, and they found same results, suggesting a validation of their findings.

Sources:

Age of Autism September 17, 2009


Annals of Epidemiology September 2009: 19(9); 659

Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Routine use of the hepatitis B vaccine for all newborns began in 1992, despite the fact that there was absolutely NO logical argument for it. It should never have been included in the immunization schedule, and here’s why.

Do Newborns Really NEED the Hepatitis B Vaccine?

Folks, hepatitis B is about as difficult to catch as AIDS. Namely, you nearly always need to have blood or sexual contact of some sort.

That is why the main risk factors are IV drug abusers and those who engage in sex with multiple partners.

In addition, vaccine-derived immunity is thought to be short lived. Up to 60 percent of persons who initially respond will lose detectable antibodies within 12 years. So that means that these vaccines will provide little to no protection to the real risks of acquiring hepatitis B, namely promiscuous sexual behavior and IV drug abuse.

The Vaccine Harms FAR More Children Than it Helps

The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) was developed by the government to report vaccine reactions. Many experts believe that only 10 percent of the adverse reactions are reported though, as reporting is not mandated by law. (Some surveys puts this number closer to ONE percent.)

Even with only 10 percent of the problems being reported, there were nearly 25,000 VAERS hepatitis B reports from July 1990 to October 31, 1998 (prior to adding the Hep B vaccine to the immunization schedule), showing 439 deaths and 9,673 serious reactions involving emergency room visits, hospitalization, disablement, or death.

Now, hepatitis B is a rare, mainly blood-transmitted disease. In 1996 only 54 cases of the disease were reported to the CDC in the 0-1 age group. There were 3.9 million births that year, so the observed incidence of hepatitis B in the 0-1 age group was just 0.001 percent.

Meanwhile, in that same year VAERS received 1,080 total reports of adverse reactions from hepatitis B vaccine in the 0-1 age group, including 47 deaths!

Put in simpler terms: for every child that contracted hepatitis B there were 20 immunized babies that were reported to have severe complications. Let us also remember that only 10 percent of the reactions are ever reported, which means traditional medicine is harming about 200 children to protect one from hepatitis B!

It is simply inexcusable…

The Vaccine-Autism Links

Despite the assertion by conventional health experts that no link has ever been found between vaccines and autism, there are plenty of links, if you know how to look. And as the article in The Age of Autism states, you cannot come to a conclusion on the vaccine-autism issue by looking at studies that examine just one type of vaccine, or one type of ingredient.

Children today receive a whopping 48 doses of vaccines before the age of six. For a chart showing the various types of vaccines included in the childhood vaccination schedule, you can download this flyer from NVIC.org.

According to David Kirby, author of Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy, of the 11 different types of vaccines administered, only the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) shot has actually been studied in association with autism. But where are the studies of all the others in relation to autism?

And where are the rigorous studies demonstrating the cumulative effect of several vaccines administered simultaneously , or within a short time span?

It is illogical, and downright ignorant, to state that the current vaccination schedule is a-okay and vaccines have nothing to do with the rise in autism, based on the studies that have been done so far.

Autism Rates have Risen to New Heights

For a number of years the accepted rate of autism was about 1 in 150, but the most recent statistics suggest that autism rates in the U.S. have now conservatively increased to 1 in 63. And this number is TWO years old.

This is the shocking conclusion from the 2007 survey results from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), which reveals a 100 percent increase in parent-reported cases of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), compared to their 2003 survey.

A similar British study puts the current U.K. rate at 1 in 83.

Clearly, something is going on; something is going wrong! And to simply dismiss the vaccine link with a blanket statement that has not been verified by rigorous scientific study is unconscionable.

If we want a healthier world, we must all become citizens for sanity and logic, and demand a more rational approach, where safety comes before profits.

After all, just like there were links between smoking and lung cancer long before conventional medicine changed their tune, there’s enough proof today to call a complete halt to our excessive vaccine program, and ban any level of mercury in vaccines.

But just like the case of Big Tobacco, Big Pharma refuses to do what’s right and protect you and your children from unnecessary harm, because it would mean a drastic reduction in profits.

Hepatitis B Vaccine and Increased Risk of Neurological Disorders

Using datasets from 1997 to 2002, this latest study found that newborn boys more than tripled their risk of developing an autism spectrum disorder after receiving the Hepatitis B vaccine.

The increased use of the Hepatitis B vaccine also coincides with the original rise in autism. According to the CDC's National Immunization Survey, 8 percent of infants received the Hep B vaccine in 1992. At the time the ASD rate was 67 in 10,000.

Four years later, at which time 82 percent of infants received the Hep B vaccine, the ASD rate rose to about 100 in 10,000.

At the time, the Hep B vaccine contained 25 micrograms of thimerosal – a mercury-containing ingredient that has long been thought to be a contributing factor to autism due to its potent neurotoxic effects.

According to the FDA, new thimerosal-free pediatric formulations of hepatitis B vaccines were licensed in August 1999, (Recombivax-HB by Merck) and in January 2007 (Engerix-B by Glaxo SmithKline). (For a listing of thimerosal content in current U.S. licensed vaccines, see this link.)

However, despite the fact that the Hep B vaccine no longer contains thimerosal, recent research have shown that the Hepatitis B vaccine can still damage myelin in those with certain genetic factors.

One recent study found that children who received the Hepatitis B vaccine were 50 percent more likely to develop "central nervous system inflammatory demyelination" than children who did not receive the vaccine.

GlaxoSmithKline’s Engerix B brand of the vaccine was shown to be the worst of the bunch, increasing the risk of demyelination by 74 percent. It also nearly tripled the risk of developing multiple sclerosis in genetically susceptible people.

As I mentioned above, Engerix-B was licensed as a thimerosal free version of the vaccine in January 2007. However, all formulations contain approximately 0.5 mg of aluminum per mL of vaccine instead, which may be even worse than mercury…

As you can see, there are likely a wide variety of potential factors involved; not just one vaccine or one ingredient.

We need to know what all of these exposures in combination mean to the health of our children if we ever want to turn this tide of autism around.

The Evidence Against Thimerosal

Again, newer studies dispute initial industry-funded findings that thimerosal is safe to inject. For example, a study published in the journal Toxicological & Environmental Chemistry in June this year, showed that the mercury-based compound used as a vaccine preservative -- known as ‘thimerosal’ -- induces neural damage similar to that seen in autism patients.

According to the study, thimerosal-induced cellular damage led to:

• Concentration- and time-dependent mitochondrial damage

• Reduced oxidative-reduction activity

• Cellular degeneration

• Cell death

Even low concentrations of thimerosal induced significant cellular toxicity in human neuronal and fetal cells. Thimerosal was also found to be significantly more toxic than the other metal compounds examined.

Four years ago, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote a must-read Rolling Stone article exposing the truth about the drug industry's greed, and the secret gathering where a plan was hatched to cover up the dangers of thimerosal.

According to Kennedy’s account, in June of 2000, a group of top government scientists and health officials -- including high-level officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the top vaccine specialists from the World Health Organization (WHO), and representatives from every major vaccine manufacturer -- secretly gathered to discuss the use of thimerosal in childhood vaccines.

Data indicated that the toxic heavy metal appeared to be responsible for a drastic increase in autism and other neurological disorders among children.

However, rather than taking every precaution to protect public health, they spent the majority of the next two days plotting how to protect the industry’s bottom line by getting rid of the troubling data.

Although thimerosal was eventually removed from the majority of childhood vaccines in 2001, it’s still used in some multi-dose vials, and is present in nearly all seasonal flu vaccines.

Many of the soon-to-be-introduced swine flu vaccines will also contain 25 mcg of mercury.

Another recent study confirming the link between low-level mercury poisoning in children and diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was published in the Journal of Neurological Sciences in September 2008.

It was the first prospective, blinded cohort study to examine children diagnosed with an ASD using urinary porphyrin profile analysis (UPPA) to assess the physiological effects of mercury toxicity. They also used glutathione analysis to assess the children’s susceptibility to mercury poisoning.

Children with severe ASDs were found to have significantly higher levels of mercury intoxication in comparison to participants with mild ASDs. And glutathione -- a key biochemical in your body’s mercury detoxification pathway -- was significantly lower in patients diagnosed with an ASD in comparison with the control group.

I’d like to point out, though, that although this study shows a relationship between lower glutathione levels and greater severity of autism, mercury is not the only toxin that can affect glutathione levels.

There’s a plethora of toxins in your daily environment that contribute to your toxic load, so any number of toxins may be contributing to the problem.

For example, there’s strong evidence suggesting that toxic microbes, endotoxins, environmental chemicals like phthalates, and the influence of electromagnetic fields may be significant contributing factors to autism as well.

And vitamin D deficiency has recently been implicated as an underlying condition.

Moving Forward

It is becoming increasingly necessary to continue to educate yourself and your family on the issues surrounding vaccinations of all kinds. There are so many problems; no one article can possibly cover them all.

For example, if you missed my special report on squalene – yet another dangerous vaccine ingredient – please read it now. You can also search my site as I’ve written countless articles on different aspects of the vaccine issue. I also recommend you familiarize yourself with the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) web site. As a leader for vaccine safety, the NVIC offers information on everything from laws to informed consent to late-breaking vaccine news.

In addition, I'm collaborating with some of the leading experts in autism, including Dr. Klinghardt, and participating in the THRiiiVE think-tank to provide basic resources for those afflicted with autism. During the most recent THRiiiVE summit in October, 2008 we created the “Top 10 Prioritized To Do List” for people with autism. I have detailed the entire list in this past article, so please, if your child or someone you know has autism, take a few minutes to review it.

Another rag nuances CDC's autism statistics, vaccines not suspected

No evidence vaccines are to blame for this "surprising" new data, and those suggesting they are are just a "vocal minority". Instead let's focus on whether these children even have autism, and never address the fact that, even if they are being misdiagnosed at times, these are still children with cognitive dysfunction, and of course play completely dumb about what could possibly be causing it all. Like the explosion in cancer, and alzheimers, it's not really due to anything other than a faulty genealogy; all completely normal. Just shut up and live with it. I guess give credit to Newsweek on this one. The Atlantic story didn't mention vaccines at all; Newsweek gives it a whopping one sentence, if only to attempt to discredit the notion outright.

Sometimes I wish I was still plugged in, so I could just read a simple news story without noticing that every word of it is a lie, including "and" and "the".

Newsweek -

For years the autism community's most powerful public-relations weapon has been a striking statistic: an estimated 1 in 150 children have the diagnosis. Now it appears that estimate is actually too small. According to two new studies, the number of kids diagnosed with autism or a related disorder in the U.S. is closer to 1 in 100.

The new data has everyone who cares about autism abuzz. But, as with so many issues connected to the disorder, no one can quite agree on what it means.

One of the new studies, published in Pediatrics, is based on a survey of more than 78,000 parents. Researchers asked them if doctors had ever diagnosed any of their children with autism or a related disorder on the autism spectrum, such as Asperger syndrome. More than 1,400 of the parents said yes. If those numbers represent the population at large, that means 673,000 American kids likely have a form of autism.

Parent surveys often yield unreliable data because respondents may misremember or misunderstand what doctors have told them. But the Pediatrics study is backed up by a second, more reliable set of data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The full results aren't out yet, but on Friday, CDC researchers reported that one in 100 8-year-olds has been labeled with a disorder on the autism spectrum. That number is based on the same methods that yielded the original 1-in-150 statistic—so using CDC data alone, it's certain that autism diagnoses are on the rise.

That, however, is where the certainty stops. In the contentious autism community, two debates are constantly simmering: How many more children actually have autism now than had it in the past? And what are the underlying causes? The new numbers don't just fail to resolve either of these debates—they turn up the heat on both.

A rise in autism spectrum diagnoses doesn't necessarily mean a precisely corresponding rise in actual cases. Doctors may be inflating the numbers inadvertently by diagnosing the disorder more readily than they used to. Many doctors now diagnose autism and related disorders in children they might once have classified differently. Also, they may be more likely to give a child a diagnosis if they think that will help the child's parents obtain special-education services from public schools. Some are even willing to diagnose autism as a co-morbid condition in "people with clearly identifiable genetic disorders, such as Down syndrome—which is something that nobody would have dreamed of doing in the past," says Roy Grinker, a George Washington University anthropologist (and father of a child with autism) who believes the new numbers largely reflect an increase in diagnosis rather than actual illness.

At the same time, there's good evidence that more children actually are suffering from autism. In January, researchers at the University of California, San Diego, analyzed a seven- to eightfold increase in diagnoses in their state since 1990. Fully 56 percent of that increase could be explained by doctors' diagnosing milder cases they might not have diagnosed before, says Irva Hertz-Picciotto, who led the study. Another 24 percent came from doctors diagnosing cases in younger children. But that still leaves 20 percent of the huge increase unexplained—and, says Hertz-Picciotto, that part is real.

Scientists know something about the genetics of autism. They've found genes that are loosely linked to the disorder on practically every chromosome. But they know less about environmental factors, which could include heavy metals, pesticides, flame retardants, or many other culprits. A vocal minority of advocates, of course, is also concerned about vaccinations, although there's no solid evidence that vaccines are linked to autism. "More than ever, environmental factors are being recognized as important," says Cathy Rice, a CDC researcher who led the agency's new study. "But our research tools just are not as good for understanding them."

Many autism research advocates feel that environmental factors have gotten short shrift from the National Institutes of Health, which has largely focused on genetics so far. The new data may help them make their case as the government winds up a review of its research priorities. The new numbers don't explicitly point toward any single environmental factor, but genetics alone can't account for such a steep rise in the number of cases, because genes don't change that quickly.

Still, that's no reason to stop doing genetic research and focus exclusively on the environment. The two types of research can complement each other. If scientists can figure out which genes are turned on or off (or up or down) in autism, they'll be able to narrow their long list of potential environmental villains and focus on those that affect the relevant genes.

Here's where the second debate comes in: if more kids are developing autism-spectrum disorders, what's causing the increase? As with most illnesses,both genetics and environmental factors almost certainly play a role: As the popular analogy goes, genetics loads the gun and the environment pulls the trigger. Kids may be genetically predisposed to autism, but they won't develop it unless they're exposed to outside factors that affect the activity of their faulty genes.

Amidst the controversy over how much of the increase in autism diagnoses is real and what's causing it, there's a third puzzle in the new data that's been generally overlooked: the phenomenon of "lost diagnoses." Why did 38 percent of parents in the Pediatrics study whose children were at one time diagnosed with autism report that their kids no longer had the condition? Geri Dawson, chief scientific officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks, says it's possible that these kids no longer have classic symptoms of autism but continue to have other problems—anxiety disorders, tics, or forms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. "We really don't know how children who lose their diagnosis fare after time," she notes. It's possible that some were misdiagnosed in the first place. It's also possible that there's good news hiding in the Pediatrics study—that many of the kids who started with an autism diagnosis managed to get better, probably after extensive behavioral therapy.

Ultimately, there's only one thing that everyone in the autism community agrees on—the need for more funding. That's something people outside the community seem to agree with, too. In February, the federal government funneled $85 million in stimulus grants toward new autism research at the National Institute of Mental Health. The Health Resources and Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, also has $48 million in new funding for autism research this year. It'll be a long time before any of that money translates into findings that can help kids with autism and send the 1-in-100 number back down. But perhaps new research will tell us how the number got so high in the first place.

Autism rates skyrocket in America as vaccines target more children

Normally I would have something sarcastic and cynical to add to this, but for serious, we know this. How can this be anything other than obvious? You're injecting mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde, anti-freeze, detergent, etc, into the bloodstream of children with developing brains. What did we think it was going to do to their minds?

NaturalNews.com -

According to a U.S. government survey just published, rates of autism in children have doubled since 2003. Today, an estimated 1 in 91 children are being diagnosed with autism, making this the highest rate in any population in the history of human civilization. Meanwhile, the vaccination push in America continues, specifically targeting children with not just seasonal flu vaccines (which may contain thimerosal), but also the H1N1 swine flu vaccine.

It all begs the question: Is there a link between vaccines and autism?

In defending vaccines, many doctors have blamed autism on a genetic cause. But if it's genetic, why are rates skyrocketing so quickly? The gene pool obviously isn't changing that dramatically. There's no such thing as a "genetic epidemic." If genes caused autism, the rate of autism diagnosis should be holding steady year after year. Clearly, something else is at work, causing the sharp increase in autism.

Autism is a neurological disorder. If you're looking for the cause of autism, it only makes sense to look at causes involving environmental factors that expose children to chemicals linked to neurological disorders. Vaccines immediately come to mind, not only because they contain thimerosal -- a preservative made with methyl mercury that's extremely toxic to the nervous system -- but also because they contain chemical adjuvants like squalene, which directly cause inflammation of the nervous system.

So what happens when a nutrient-deficient child is exposed to more than one hundred vaccines injected with thimerosal, squalene and other chemicals? It's not unreasonable to suspect that vaccines -- which inject these chemicals directly into the body -- might be one of the more obvious causes.

The pharmaceutical industry (which thrives on vaccines) claims there is absolutely no link between vaccines and autism. Well of course they do! The entire future of pharmaceutical profit-making depends on the continued propagandizing of the myth that chemical intervention improves human health. They're no more likely to find fault with their own vaccines than a cigarette company is to admit cigarettes cause cancer.

"Asking the pharmaceutical industry to investigate the safety of vaccines is like asking Big Tobacco to investigate the safety of cigarettes.

What's clear is that rates have autism have paralleled the rise in children's vaccines. Each year we get more vaccines pushed onto children, and each year we see increases in autism. Given that many vaccines contain a neurotoxic heavy metal (mercury) and neurotoxic adjuvants, it only seems reasonable to start looking at vaccines as one of the important contributing factors (if not the main cause) of autism.

Other factors for autism

There are likely other factors involved, and their danger potentially gets multiplied in the presence of methyl mercury from vaccines. Monosodium glutamate (MSG), for example, is a neurotoxin, too, and kids today are eating more and more foods laced with MSG as flavor enhancers. (It's found in canned soups, gravy mixes, salad dressings, snack dips, and virtually all "instant" microwaveable meals.) Look for "yeast extract" on food labels: It's a covert source of MSG that manufacturers use to avoid having to place "MSG" on the ingredients label.

There's also aspartame and diet sodas. Aspartame is a potent neurotoxin that could be making the nervous system especially vulnerable to damage from vaccines. Beyond chemical food ingredients, the human nervous system can also be compromised by pain drugs administered during childbirth, antidepressant drugs or diabetes drugs given to expectant mothers, or even the highly toxic chemicals commonly found in "baby care" products used in hospitals around the world.

Even before they're born, most first-world babies are exposed to a toxic stew of synthetic chemicals. The chemical invasion of a vaccine injection might be the one final blow that sends the nervous system in a downward spiral of destruction.

The facts cannot be denied: Our children are being neurologically poisoned by chemicals, and vaccines are one of the most worrisome sources of chemical suspects. In my opinion, any parent subjecting their child to vaccines today is directly putting their child in harm's way. They are risking their child's life in order to comply with a highly unethical, profit-focused vaccine push that has but one objective: To sell more dangerous pharmaceutical chemicals to children who don't need them.

There will be a day in the future, I'm sure, when injecting a child with a neurotic chemical will be considered a felony crime, punishable by years in prison. Until that day comes, this same criminal act is innocuously called "administering a vaccine."

Sources for this story include:

ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMo...