Some Experts Question Value Of Hepatitis-B Vaccine
http://64.41.99.118/vran/vaccines/hepatitis/hep_info.htm
By Carolyn DeMarco, MD
A universal vaccination campaign is in progress against the
virus causing Hepatitis-B infection. At the same time, some doctors are
seriously concerned about adverse effects of the vaccine.
Almost 95 percent of adults infected with the Hepatitis-B
virus (HBV) will completely recover. Two in a thousand infected will die from
serious liver complications. Anywhere from one to five percent of adults will
become "healthy carriers" having no symptoms, but capable of spreading the
virus. Twenty five percent of these carriers will develop life threatening liver
disease later in life.
However, Hepatitis-B virus is almost always acquired through
infected blood, through an infected mother or through sexual contact. Until
recently, the vaccine was only targeted to persons at high risk, such as IV drug
users, persons with HIV/AIDS, women and men with multiple sexual partners, and
medical personnel.
Now not only children and teenagers have been targeted but
infants as well. Infants born in New Brunswick, Northwest Territories and
Vancouver are now receiving the vaccine. In the United States, infant
vaccination is now officially recommended and in 36 states, children cannot
attend school without the vaccine.
Eighty countries have now followed the advice of the World
Health Organization and added Hepatitis-B vaccine to the expanding list of
vaccines being routinely given to infants.
Edda West, co-founder of theVaccine Risk Awareness
Network (VRAN) argues that parents of newborns are not being told that the
safety and efficacy of this vaccine is unproven; that the incidence of the
disease is extremely low and declining in North America; and that the only
possible justification for the use of the vaccine in newborns is if the mother
is infected with the disease or is a carrier.
According to Health Canada statistics in 1996, there
were only 61 reported cases of Hepatitis-B in Canada in children under 15. West
found out that most if not all of these cases occurred in children who were born
to infected mothers, or who lived in certain Asian immigrant communities where
the infection was endemic. In the U.S. a similar situation exists, with 279
children getting Hepatitis-B in 1996.
The Canadian Hepatitis Working Group noted that the
prevalence of Hepatitis-B infections in children in Canada is low, and confined
to small well defined groups such as infants born to HBV women for whom
prevention programs already exists. Dr. Giles Delage , from the
Canadian Pediatric Society is concerned about adding three more needles to
the infant vaccine schedule. (but vaccines combining hep-B with other infant
vaccines are being developed).
Moreover, a point often overlooked is that the protection of
HBV vaccine lasts for only ten years at the most. Thus the Hepatitis Group
recommended vaccination of the 9 to 13 year group, since the incidence of
infections starts to rise dramatically in the 15 to 19 year group and peaks in
the 20 to 40 year group.
Meanwhile reports of serious side effects in adults given the
vaccine continue to accumulate. In Ottawa, prominent chronic fatigue researcher,
Dr. Byron Hyde and the Nightingale Research Foundation documented
the cases of 57 people, mainly in Quebec, who had suffered disabling injuries of
the central and peripheral nervous system following Hepatitis-B vaccination. The
number of cases reported to Dr. Hyde is now over 100.
In 1990, Dr. Hyde notified Health and Welfare Canada
of the 57 cases, but he became dismayed when he found out that none of the cases
had been adequately investigated beyond a phone questionnaire administered to 17
of these patients. Health and Welfare, says Hyde, is not keeping sufficient or
proper statistics on Hepatitis-B and is thus putting both adult and children's
health in serious jeopardy.
In 1996, Immunology researcher Dr. John Classen
reported a 60 percent increase in the incidence of diabetes following a massive
Hepatitis-B vaccination programme for children under 16 in New Zealand.
In Houston Texas, Dr. Bonnie Dunbar, professor of cell
biology at Baylor College of Medicine, reported the cases of two colleagues who
developed "severe and apparently permanent adverse reactions as a result of
being forced to take the Hepatitis-B vaccine." Her brother, Dr. Bohn Dunbar was
one of these. He developed lupus like syndrome and multiple sclerosis like
syndrome. The other colleague, a medical student went completely blind in one
eye following two injections of the vaccine.
Dr. Dunbar obtained the FDA list of over 8,000
individuals who reported adverse reactions over the last four years for one
vaccine brand. The other vaccine brand is reported to have a list of 15,000
adverse reactions. Adverse reactions include rashes, joint pain, chronic fatigue
syndrome, neurological disorders, neuritis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus like
syndrome, and multiple sclerosis like syndrome.
In France 150 doctors worried about recent reports of MS and
other neurological disorders in vaccinated patients appealed to the French
Academy of Sciences to commission an independent study of the vaccine. In
July 1998, 15,000 French citizens representing 17 associations filed a suit
against the manufacturers of Hepatitis-B vaccine. In addition, France suspended
its vaccination of school children (but not infants).
The current consensus of the medical profession is that the
HBV vaccine is safe and that the benefits outweighs the risks. Unfortunately,
safety data was based on short term studies and follow up of only 4 to 5 days
post vaccine. Since serious sequelae take weeks to months to develop, long term
side effects have not been studied. Nonetheless, a new package insert states
that the vaccine has been associated with MS, lupus, arthritis, and Guillain
Barre Syndrome.
An editorial in the Journal of Midwifery poses some
timely questions. "With the addition of the HBV vaccine to the list of
recommended childhood vaccines, an infant will receive seven immunizations by
the age of eight weeks (two HBV vaccines, one diphtheria, one pertussis, one
polio, and one H-Influenza vaccine) Is there a point at which this infantile
immune system is being asked to take on more that it can handle?... Is it
possible that by attempting to contain one disease, other disease processes are
evolving?... Are our infants being subjected to vaccination because of the
failure of the system to identify and vaccinate the appropriate populations?"
The Vaccination
Risk Awareness Network (VRAN) www.vran.org
(Box 169, Winlaw BC, V0G 2J0), is a watchdog organization that gathers and
distributes information and publishes a newsletter. Membership is $25. You can
send for a free reading list with related net sites.
Other sources for information include:
The Association For Vaccine Damaged Children (204-895-9192)
The National Vaccine Information Center
www.909shot.com
The Immunization Awareness Society www.ias.org.nz
http://64.41.99.118/vran/vaccines/hepatitis/hep_info.htm
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