More and more, you can see the terms encephalopathy, autism, and vaccines being put together.
Not because any real link has been found, but rather because encephalopathy is covered by the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP).
A case report that will be published in the September issue of Pediatrics, "Alleged Cases of Vaccine Encephalopathy Rediagnosed Years Later as Dravet Syndrome," revisits a topic discovered by Dr. Samuel Berkovic in 2006 and discussed in the book Deadly Choices by Paul Offit, MD.
In this new case report, researchers looked at "5 cases of alleged vaccine encephalopathy in which the parents of children with developmental delays and medically refractory epilepsy had strong suppositions that their child's chronic encephalopathy was a result of pertussis immunization received in infancy."
They include a:
- 14-year-old mentally retarded boy with autistic features, who was a healthy infant until he got his vaccines when he was 7 months old
- 20-year-old with delayed development and autistic-like features who began having seizures right after getting vaccines at 2 months
- 2-year-old with a mild expressive speech delay who developed seizures after getting vaccines at age 4 months
- 4-year-old with "slowing development" who began having seizures after the six month vaccines
- 3-year-old regressed development and autistic-like features who began having seizures after getting vaccines at age 4 months
Genetic testing eventually led to a diagnosis of Dravet syndrome for all five children.
Dravet syndrome is a rare, genetic cause of encephalopathy that causes seizures that are hard to control and developmental delays.
Since fever is the usual trigger of the first seizure and subsequent seizures, it is important that children with Dravet syndrome get all of their vaccines, since natural infections will cause more fever and put them at risk for more seizures. In another study, "A retrospective study of the relation between vaccination and occurrence of seizures in Dravet syndrome," only 16% of patients with Dravet syndrome had a vaccine related seizure as their first manifestation.
The researchers also state "that although vaccination might trigger an earlier onset of the presenting symptoms of Dravet syndrome, there is no evidence that the outcomes, in terms of subsequent seizure types or intellect, are any different between those patients with Dravet syndrome whose symptoms started within 2 days of vaccination and those whose symptom onset was not related temporally to vaccination."
They suggest testing (SCN1A genetic testing) for patients "with a clinical course suggestive of Dravet syndrome, especially in the context of an onset of symptoms after vaccination, with or without fever."
Their conclusion is that Dravet syndrome "offers an alternative genetic explanation to refute alleged cases of vaccine encephalopathy."
This isn't all about Dravet syndrome though. As Dr. Max Wizniter says in his commentary "Dravet syndrome and vaccination: when science prevails over speculation," the "temporal association between a vaccination and infancy-onset epilepsy does not imply causation." Case reports like this can help spread the word that the same idea applies to the false beliefs that try to associate vaccine side effects with other conditions and which are leading to lower immunization levels.
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Vaccines can change DNA. Who’s to say that Dravet isn’t caused by the vaccine?
As far as I am aware, there is zero evidence of any vaccine “changing DNA.” Could you please provide the source for your assertion?
“The finding that host DNA released from dying cells acts as a damage-associated molecular pattern that mediates alum adjuvant activity may increase our understanding of the mechanisms of action of current vaccines”
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v17/n8/full/nm.2403.html
Homologoous recombinaltion tiniker? I heard of that.
Absolutely!! I agree with asking that question!
And also, who’s to say dravet isn’t present in people who have no seizures of any type. We only test people for dravet if they have a seizure disorder….correct?
Certainly, the last thing I would do is continue to vaccinate a child after a bad reaction to any vaccine, like this article suggests!! What is it with this writer? Geez, I wonder who writes his paychecks ?
@AnneS:
Seriously? I have no patience for this kind of ignorance. That is an absurd assertion without any scientific basis. Come on. Vaccines do not change DNA. And scientific evidence is there to say that Dravet’s isn’t caused by vaccines. You’re just plain wrong, and so is wherever you read that idiotic statement somewhere on teh interwebs. Stop subjecting others to your ignorance.
ERK vaccine ingredients aluminum, ethylmercury and formaldehyde all can cause spontaneous genetic mutation. All are genotoxic. All cause endocrine and thyroid disruption. The Genome Project has quietly stated that autistic children have mutation that did not originate with their parents. They also have different mutations from each other, indicating mutation unique to the individual. First I’ve heard of Dravert’s, but lets just say every researcher wants to name something to become immortal professionally. I’m with AnneS.
Even if you’re right, which I don’t think you are, the amounts of those substances present in vaccines is not nearly enough to cause damage. There is a higher concentration of formaldehyde in your body naturally than the concentration present in vaccines, so technically, a vaccine containing formaldehyde would dilute the concentration of formaldehyde already present in your body naturally. Aluminium is one of the most common substances on earth, present in almost everything. And ethylmercury also is present in the natural world in quantities and substances that expose the body to far higher concentrations of it than are present in vaccines.
Anything can be toxic at high doses. Nothing in a vaccine is at a high enough dosage to be toxic.
And please, show me where replicable scientific research has provided compelling evidence to believe that vaccines cause genetic mutation. It’s not there, because they don’t. You can hang out with AnneS on the side of idiocy and ignorance. It sounds like you’ll fit in perfectly.
“ERK vaccine ingredients aluminum, ethylmercury and formaldehyde all can cause spontaneous genetic mutation.”
How are they spontaneous if you say they are caused by those ingredients?
“First I’ve heard of Dravert’s, but lets just say every researcher wants to name something to become immortal professionally.”
Dravet syndrome was first recognized in 1978. It has only recently been recognized that some adults and children who were labeled as ‘vaccine damaged’ had Dravet syndrome. Samuel Berkovic published a similar study in 2006.
Genotoxic is generally responsible for cancers, not autism and not Dravet syndrome.
The idea that vaccines change DNA is scifi. If that were the case, so would a bee sting.
The SCN1A genetic testing is a good idea, only I think it should be a test done at birth, not at onset of symptoms.
Ok so this test costs thousands of dollars and is only done at a handful of locations in the US. Who is going to pay for this and how will it get to all newborns ? Kids with no history of seizures are showing up with this gene and a lot do not seem to know it until AFTER they get these immunizations. It is absurd that vaccines are not held as a cause to trigger the illness even if they have the gene. Who knows when a seizure may have happened. Have they done studies to show that some kids who have this recessive gene mutation DO NOT get sick ? It is awful strange to me that these kids get their first occurrence the same day or immediately after a vaccine. I could see if it was a few months later or even prior to the immunization, but same day is just ignorant to say had NO affect. That has to speak for something.
“It is absurd that vaccines are not held as a cause to trigger the illness even if they have the gene.”
This is not the first study about Dravet syndrome. The reason all five had seizures right after vaccines is because this was a case report. The cases were chosen.
In another study that is described in the article “Vaccinations and febrile seizures,” “Of 40 patients, 12 had “vaccine-proximate” seizure onset defined as within 2 days of vaccination and 25 had “vaccine-distant” onset >2 days after vaccination; 3 had onset prior to vaccination.”
“The finding that host DNA released from dying cells acts as a damage-associated molecular pattern that mediates alum adjuvant activity may increase our understanding of the mechanisms of action of current vaccines ”
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v17/n8/full/nm.2403.html
“Nothing in a vaccine is at a high enough dosage to be toxic”
*************
How can you say that when mutagenic properties have never been studied. Every vaccine insert states that within it!
It is also a FACT pharmacokinetic properties have never been studied either in vaccines as every vaccine insert states. How is it possible to know what is toxic and what isn’t with so many unknowns and who is to say the baby A will react the same as baby B with the same schedule. You can’t!
Dont you think it’s important to study the effects of vaccine ingredients within the body and especially in those with known risk factors.
Dont you think it’s important to test the plausability that vaccines do have the potential to mutate genes. I think it would help seal many minds out there on the fence with vaccinating their children and possibly lead to new routes and possibilities of preventive measures.
Failing to do so leads to more non-compliance.
Your not anti-vaccine if you think their is room for improvement in this area. It shows integrity and justification to do so.
“who is to say the baby A will react the same as baby B with the same schedule.”
That would be called genetics, not toxic levels.
Mechanism Of Epigenetic Inheritance Clarified
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080422151826.htm
Mechanism for Stress-Induced Epigenetic Inheritance Uncovered in New Study
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110623130328.htm
Epigenetics: 100 Reasons To Change The Way We Think About Genetics
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090518111723.htm
“Jablonka and Raz cite a study finding that when fruit flies are exposed to certain chemicals, at least 13 generations of their descendants are born with bristly outgrowths on their eyes. Another study found that exposing a pregnant rat to a chemical that alters reproductive hormones leads to generations of sick offspring. Yet another study shows higher rates of heart disease and diabetes in the children and grandchildren of people who were malnourished in adolescence.”
Epigenetics can take us towards a saner future
“THROUGHOUT human history, people have realised that many illnesses are “in the blood”.
More recently, we have established that there is a genetic contribution to psychiatric diseases too. The extent to which the environment acts with our genes to cause illness is still under study, however.
An even bigger question is whether the environment can cause inheritable “epigenetic” changes. These wouldn’t alter the sequence of your DNA one jot but instead leave chemical marks on genes that dictate how active they are, not just in you but in your children and grandchildren.
… we report the best evidence yet that they are heritable in mammals too.
If male mice suffered from depression and social withdrawal because of maltreatment in the first weeks of life, so too did their pups and grand-pups even if they were well looked after from birth. Most tellingly, they bore the same chemical marks on their DNA as their maltreated forebears.
The mouse study is the first evidence that mental health problems can be “passed down” in this way.
Evidence is growing, too, that exposure to environmental cues, from poor maternal diet during pregnancy to taking powerful recreational drugs such as cocaine, can and do alter the chemical markings on key genes that are linked with mental disorders such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and addiction.”
The complexity of the science is sometimes and understandably bewildering. We are now reaching into ‘ecological’ factors never before examined by science and medicine.
One is beginning to surmise a “Butterfly Effect” in all the actions we take in regards to what we do the complex human body systems.
This is clearer as new understandings are also understood in regards to Non Specific Effects of medications inclusive of vaccines.
All perfectly normal children get vaccinated and within hours they have a seizure…Makes no sense to say the vaccine didn’t help contribute or at least trigger the reaction. The Government needs to stop trying to lay blame on people they are MAKING get these vaccines vs jail time. Everybody has some sort of recessive gene in their body and there are many things to trigger it off. But to say all of these kids get the same reaction in the same time period after getting vaccinated and there is no causation is ABSURD !!! If they had these symptoms prior to getting vaccinated or even months after then maybe not but within HOURS is NOT just coincidence…
“they are MAKING get these vaccines vs jail time.”
Far as I know, not vaccinating does not lead to jail time. Could you please cite relevant laws or regulations that state a person will be jailed for rejecting a vaccine?
“within HOURS is NOT just coincidence”
If, within hours of eating an apple, you develop a rash on your head, which then progresses, over time, down your body, is the apple-rash connection some cause-effect thing or just coincidence?
They are recommended vaccines schedules in the USA. No one goes to jail if they choose not to vaccinate. Now those people on the east coast a few years back who thought they’d rebel the school districts policy, those parents were threatened with jail for their children being truent from school. Big difference.
There is simply no evidence that vaccines cause autism or any other illness. Dealing with each of these ostensible rationales for why they might, possibly, do so because of their aluminum or their formaldehyde or their non-existent ethylmercury is a losing battle, as those who need to believe in the vaccine-autism theory will not be dissuaded–any more than those who believe in Creation at such-and-such a date as opposed to evolution will not be persuaded by a litany of facts showing objective evidence to the contrary. The faith of zealots cannot be fought with facts, but their falsehoods cannot be left uncontested. Scientifically it is impossible to prove a negative: it cannot be PROVEN that vaccines do not cause autism–any more than it can be proven that the sun will rise in the east tomorrow or that it’s safe to drive from New York to Boston. But multiple studies attempting to find a link have failed to find one. Still the myth refuses to go away, and resurgent epidemics of preventable childhood contagions continue to kill and sicken our kids, thanks to these true believers and the complicit media who attract readers and viewers by exploiting baseless fears. G. Ross MD acsh.org
If there is no evidence then why is there a long list of side effects including seizures on the vaccine list ?
Show any medication or drug or vaccine that doesn’t have a list of potential side effects. If people were all robots, it wouldn’t matter, would it? We’d all be the same and react the same to everything.
How can you say vaccines don’t cause any autism or illness? What about first hand information from the parents of a child who reacts immediately after having a vaccine and then quickly loses their ability, to talk, communicate, make eye contact, use the bathroom, etc. How can we not listen to the THOUSANDS of parents out there? Is this really not to be taken seriously?
“In 58% of these patients vaccination-related seizures represented the first clinical manifestation. The majority of seizures occurred after DPT vaccinations and within 72 h after vaccination.
Two-thirds of events occurred in the context of fever. Our findings highlight seizures after vaccinations as a common feature in Dravet syndrome and emphasize the need for preventive measures for seizures triggered by vaccination or fever in these children.”
“Our findings highlight seizures after vaccinations as a common feature in Dravet syndrome and emphasize the need for preventive measures for seizures triggered by vaccination or fever in these children.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21219303
It’s not rocket science … vaccine triggers epilepsy in genetically vulnerable individuals.
It’s clearly vaccine triggered and compensation and recognition should be given to these individuals in law.
Which apparently it has.
“The etiology of about 20% of DS patients remains unknown, and additional genes are likely to be implicated.”
The genetics of Dravet syndrome.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21463275
Taken with …
Genetics of autism spectrum disorders.
“Several dozen ASD susceptibility genes have been identified in the past decade, collectively accounting for 10-20% of ASD cases.”
“These findings, although demonstrating that ASD is etiologically heterogeneous (coming from different points), provide important clues about its pathophysiology.”
As a mother of a child who has Dravet Syndrome whose seizures and complications from this condition did not present themselves until after receiving her first series of vaccinations at 2 months old, I just want to Thank you for sharing this information. My hope is that one day there will be more available screenings for infants prior to vaccinations. There was no way to detect or know before my daughter received her shots that this would trigger the nightmare of health complications she faces everyday now. She was a very healthy and vibrant infant before this happened. It took almost 8 years to get a proper diagnosis.
My daughter also had her first seizure six hours after her first (2month) vaccine…a very slight fever…but probably overheated partly from her unconsolable high pitch screaming. She too, was born a healthy 8 pounds, and normal birth.
We didnt get a diagnoses till this month…..33 years later.
My son also had a seizure after his last round of vaccines. His seizures had been under control for months and immediately after the needle left his arm he had a seizure. He has dravet’s syndrome. I am not convinced that it caused it but I feel it might trigger it, along with fevers.