The First International Public Conference on Vaccination

Issue 86, January/February 1998

The First International Public Conference on Vaccination was held in Alexandria, Virginia, September 13 to 15, 1997. The conference was sponsored by the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a child-advocacy organization that promotes vaccine safety and informed choice. NVIC also offers support and information to parents whose children have been injured by vaccines.

The presenters at the conference included distinguished immunologists, neurologists, gastroenterologists, geneticists, biochemists, and microbiologists, as well as legal experts, ethicists, and accomplished practitioners of alternative and complementary medicine who had experience modifying the severity of vaccine injuries. Highlights of some of the presentations follow.

Mark R. Geier, MD, PhD, is codirector, Genetic Consultants, and director, Institute of Immuno-Oncology; president, Genetic Counseling and Research, Inc.; and director, Molecular Medicine, Inc. Geier is an expert on the biological effects of vaccine-induced infant death. He cited numerous articles in the medical literature, including the National Child Encephalophy Study (NCES) reported in the November 1993 edition of the British Medical Journal, the 1994 Institute of Medicine follow-up study, "Whooping Cough, the Vaccine, and Reducing Vaccine Reactions," and the American Academy of Pediatrics News of November 4, 1994, which all report inherently dangerous neurological problems associated with the whole-cell pertussis vaccine.

According to Geier, 79 percent of all infant deaths under one year of age occur within 28 days of vaccination. Similarly, 71 percent of encephalopathy in infants under one occurs within 28 days of vaccination--as does 92 percent of reported febrile convulsions, 88 percent of nonfebrile convulsions, 66 percent of SIDS, and 99 percent of other neurological symptoms.

Why do some children react to vaccine while others do not? Geier and others suggested that there can be multiple causes of neurological and immunological reactions. Certain genotypes may be involved. Whole-cell vaccines can be more reactive than accellular vaccines. Moreover, the culture medium for the vaccines as well as numerous additives can cause allergic reactions. Some lots of vaccines may contain more toxins. Geier also noted that the rubella vaccination was never tested on adult women, and today we know that one in 50 women who receive rubella vaccine develop arthritis. Questions exist about the long-term effectiveness of both the MMR and the hepatitis B vaccine.

Andrew J. Wakefield, MD, is director of research and chairman, Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study Group, Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London. His published articles include "Is Measles Vaccination a Risk Factor for Inflammatory Bowel Disease?" (The Lancet, 1995). Wakefield is a specialist in Crohn's disease, a disease which was never reported in children before the early 1970s. The Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study Group, of which he is chairman, published more than 60 papers leading up to the testing of the hypothesis that the measles vaccine may be linked to Crohn's disease.

The measles virus causes a rash almost immediately after infection that discharges the disease from the body. In the absence of this discharging mechanism, the measles vaccine may cause persistent infection in the body and delayed chronic disease. Safety and efficacy trials of the measles vaccine were done in the US between 1958 and 1960, and in the United Kingdom in 1960 and 1964. While efficacy studies are being conducted for 31 years, safety studies lasted only three weeks.

Approximately four to seven years after the introduction of the measles vaccine, a rare disease, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) was reported with more frequency. SSPE is characterized by persistent measles infection and cerebral infection. The average time between exposure to the measles virus and the outbreak of SSPE is about seven years; the duration between measles vaccination and disease can be much shorter. One interpretation is that measles vaccination might trigger disease in those who are persistently infected with measles virus and might precipitate immunopathology.

Byron M. Hyde, MD, is chairman of the Nightingale Research Foundation and a physician in general practice in Ottawa, Canada. He is an internationally recognized authority on the clinical and scientific basis of mylagic encephalomyelitis (ME) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), as well as an expert on central nervous system dysfunction following hepatitis B vaccination. Mylagic encephalomyelitis (ME) is better known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and occurs both in epidemics in hospitals and schools and sporadically in the community of pandemics. ME has an incubation period of four to five days and leaves the patient with a chronic encephalopathy and symptoms that include a persistent loss of cognitive and muscular stamina, rapid fatiguability, and slow recovery. ME is often associated with multiple pain syndromes and headaches and symptoms of cardiac irregularity. Although some patients recover, many persist in their illness either continually or in a relapsing manner.