(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A study published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine uncovers the genetics behind a rare childhood disorder, shedding some light on other, more common disorders.
Researchers examined a condition now known as cortical dysplasia-focal epilepsy syndrome (CDFE). The affected children all experienced frequent seizures in childhood followed by language regression and other characteristics similar to autism. DNA from both the children and their parents, all of whom were Old Order Amish from Pennsylvania, were analyzed. The research uncovered a common mutation to the gene that codes for a protein called CASPR2.
This information, along with the similarities between this condition and autism, led researchers to believe the gene may also be behind the development of autism. They say this is the first step in developing effective treatments for the more common conditions.
Read full article at: http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=13437
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
Friday, March 31, 2006
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Take The Autism Quotient Test for Adults
Take The AQ Test
Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues at Cambridge's Autism Research Centre have created the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, or AQ, as a measure of the extent of autistic traits in adults. In the first major trial using the test, the average score in the control group was 16.4. Eighty percent of those diagnosed with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher. The test is not a means for making a diagnosis, however, and many who score above 32 and even meet the diagnostic criteria for mild autism or Asperger's report no difficulty functioning in their everyday lives.
Take the AQ Test at: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues at Cambridge's Autism Research Centre have created the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, or AQ, as a measure of the extent of autistic traits in adults. In the first major trial using the test, the average score in the control group was 16.4. Eighty percent of those diagnosed with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher. The test is not a means for making a diagnosis, however, and many who score above 32 and even meet the diagnostic criteria for mild autism or Asperger's report no difficulty functioning in their everyday lives.
Take the AQ Test at: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
Device warns you if you're boring or irritating
29 March 2006
NewScientist.com news service
By Celeste Biever
A device that can pick up on people's emotions is being developed to help people with autism relate to those around them. It will alert its autistic user if the person they are talking to starts showing signs of getting bored or annoyed.
One of the problems facing people with autism is an inability to pick up on social cues. Failure to notice that they are boring or confusing their listeners can be particularly damaging, says Rana El Kaliouby of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It's sad because people then avoid having conversations with them."
The "emotional social intelligence prosthetic" device, which El Kaliouby is constructing along with MIT colleagues Rosalind Picard and Alea Teeters, consists of a camera small enough to be pinned to the side of a pair of glasses, connected to a hand-held computer running image recognition software plus software that can read the emotions these images show. If the wearer seems to be failing to engage his or her listener, the software makes the hand-held computer vibrate.
Read full article at:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19025456.500-device-warns-you-if-youre-boring-or-irritating.html
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism--parent-cafe.com
NewScientist.com news service
By Celeste Biever
A device that can pick up on people's emotions is being developed to help people with autism relate to those around them. It will alert its autistic user if the person they are talking to starts showing signs of getting bored or annoyed.
One of the problems facing people with autism is an inability to pick up on social cues. Failure to notice that they are boring or confusing their listeners can be particularly damaging, says Rana El Kaliouby of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It's sad because people then avoid having conversations with them."
The "emotional social intelligence prosthetic" device, which El Kaliouby is constructing along with MIT colleagues Rosalind Picard and Alea Teeters, consists of a camera small enough to be pinned to the side of a pair of glasses, connected to a hand-held computer running image recognition software plus software that can read the emotions these images show. If the wearer seems to be failing to engage his or her listener, the software makes the hand-held computer vibrate.
Read full article at:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19025456.500-device-warns-you-if-youre-boring-or-irritating.html
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism--parent-cafe.com
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Media Advisory
March 29, 2006
Contacts:Wendy Fournier (Portsmouth, RI) 401-632-7523
Rita Shreffler (Nixa, MO) 417-818-9030
National Autism Association Voices Support of Press Conference to Shine Light on Mercury-Containing Vaccines and Autism
Long-time leaders in raising awareness of injected mercury/autism link applaud Autism Society of America’s participation in media event
Nixa, MO – The National Autism Association (NAA) today congratulated scheduled participants in a press conference to highlight growing evidence of a link between mercury-containing vaccines and neurological injuries resulting in diagnoses of autism and related disorders among American children. The media event is scheduled for Thursday, March 30, at the National Press Club, 529 14th St., NW, Washington, DC.
Joining journalists Dan Olmsted of UPI and David Kirby, New York Times contributor and author of the award-winning book Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic, will be Lee Grossman, president and CEO of the Autism Society of America (ASA).
“We are delighted to see another autism organization speak out about environmental health issues and autism spectrum disorders,” said NAA board chair Claire Bothwell. “It is encouraging that more and more parents and advocacy organizations are joining NAA in the realization that repeatedly injecting infants and young children with mercury has led to an unprecedented health care crisis in this country.”
Members of Congress Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and David Weldon, MD (R-FL) will also address the media regarding new legislation to spur relevant research neglected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and to convene a new Institute of Medicine committee to investigate growing evidence of neurological injury caused by injecting mercury into children.
According to a statement earlier this week from Evidence of Harm publisher St. Martin’s Press, Rep. Maloney will announce legislative action to require research comparing health outcomes in vaccinated and unvaccinated populations of children in America. Such studies have been requested repeatedly by families of children suffering various neurological disorders such as autism and ADHD. “The CDC has consistently failed to do even the simplest research to determine the effects of increased use of mercury-containing vaccines, which isn’t all that surprising considering this agency allowed an entire generation of children to be overexposed to a known neurotoxin by injection. Rep. Maloney’s legislation will be a step in the right direction. Congress must now stand up for the children of this country instead of drug companies and negligent government agencies,” commented Ann Brasher, NAA Vice President.
NAA board member Scott Bono will attend the press conference and is available to answer questions from the media at (919) 423-3748.
Visit NAA on the web at www.nationalautism.org
For information, resources and practical strategies please visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism-parent.cafe.com
March 29, 2006
Contacts:Wendy Fournier (Portsmouth, RI) 401-632-7523
Rita Shreffler (Nixa, MO) 417-818-9030
National Autism Association Voices Support of Press Conference to Shine Light on Mercury-Containing Vaccines and Autism
Long-time leaders in raising awareness of injected mercury/autism link applaud Autism Society of America’s participation in media event
Nixa, MO – The National Autism Association (NAA) today congratulated scheduled participants in a press conference to highlight growing evidence of a link between mercury-containing vaccines and neurological injuries resulting in diagnoses of autism and related disorders among American children. The media event is scheduled for Thursday, March 30, at the National Press Club, 529 14th St., NW, Washington, DC.
Joining journalists Dan Olmsted of UPI and David Kirby, New York Times contributor and author of the award-winning book Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic, will be Lee Grossman, president and CEO of the Autism Society of America (ASA).
“We are delighted to see another autism organization speak out about environmental health issues and autism spectrum disorders,” said NAA board chair Claire Bothwell. “It is encouraging that more and more parents and advocacy organizations are joining NAA in the realization that repeatedly injecting infants and young children with mercury has led to an unprecedented health care crisis in this country.”
Members of Congress Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and David Weldon, MD (R-FL) will also address the media regarding new legislation to spur relevant research neglected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and to convene a new Institute of Medicine committee to investigate growing evidence of neurological injury caused by injecting mercury into children.
According to a statement earlier this week from Evidence of Harm publisher St. Martin’s Press, Rep. Maloney will announce legislative action to require research comparing health outcomes in vaccinated and unvaccinated populations of children in America. Such studies have been requested repeatedly by families of children suffering various neurological disorders such as autism and ADHD. “The CDC has consistently failed to do even the simplest research to determine the effects of increased use of mercury-containing vaccines, which isn’t all that surprising considering this agency allowed an entire generation of children to be overexposed to a known neurotoxin by injection. Rep. Maloney’s legislation will be a step in the right direction. Congress must now stand up for the children of this country instead of drug companies and negligent government agencies,” commented Ann Brasher, NAA Vice President.
NAA board member Scott Bono will attend the press conference and is available to answer questions from the media at (919) 423-3748.
Visit NAA on the web at www.nationalautism.org
For information, resources and practical strategies please visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism-parent.cafe.com
Vaccines show sinister side
Health
By Pieta Woolley
Publish Date: 23-Mar-2006
If two dozen once-jittery mice at UBC are telling the truth postmortem, the world’s governments may soon be facing one hell of a lawsuit. New, so-far-unpublished research led by Vancouver neuroscientist Chris Shaw shows a link between the aluminum hydroxide used in vaccines, and symptoms associated with Parkinson’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease), and Alzheimer’s.
Shaw is most surprised that the research for his paper hadn’t been done before. For 80 years, doctors have injected patients with aluminum hydroxide, he said, an adjuvant that stimulates immune response.
“This is suspicious,” he told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview from his lab near Heather Street and West 12th Avenue. “Either this [link] is known by industry and it was never made public, or industry was never made to do these studies by Health Canada. I’m not sure which is scarier.”
Similar adjuvants are used in the following vaccines, according to Shaw’s paper: hepatitis A and B, and the Pentacel cocktail, which vaccinates against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, and a type of meningitis.
Read article at: http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=16717
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit:
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.
www.AutismConcepts.com
By Pieta Woolley
Publish Date: 23-Mar-2006
If two dozen once-jittery mice at UBC are telling the truth postmortem, the world’s governments may soon be facing one hell of a lawsuit. New, so-far-unpublished research led by Vancouver neuroscientist Chris Shaw shows a link between the aluminum hydroxide used in vaccines, and symptoms associated with Parkinson’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease), and Alzheimer’s.
Shaw is most surprised that the research for his paper hadn’t been done before. For 80 years, doctors have injected patients with aluminum hydroxide, he said, an adjuvant that stimulates immune response.
“This is suspicious,” he told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview from his lab near Heather Street and West 12th Avenue. “Either this [link] is known by industry and it was never made public, or industry was never made to do these studies by Health Canada. I’m not sure which is scarier.”
Similar adjuvants are used in the following vaccines, according to Shaw’s paper: hepatitis A and B, and the Pentacel cocktail, which vaccinates against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, and a type of meningitis.
Read article at: http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=16717
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit:
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.
www.AutismConcepts.com
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Independent Living Research Utilization: IDEA Webcast
Independent Living Research Utilization is offering an IDEA Webcast tomorrow:
Wednesday, March 29, 2006, 2:00 PM Central
Special and Not-so-Special: Education in Public Schools: IDEA and 504
presented by Jacquie Brennan, Disability Law Resource Project
You will need RealOne Player or Windows Media Player to view the Webcast.
Prior to and during the Web cast, you are invited to submit questions to: webcast@ilru.org.
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
Wednesday, March 29, 2006, 2:00 PM Central
Special and Not-so-Special: Education in Public Schools: IDEA and 504
presented by Jacquie Brennan, Disability Law Resource Project
You will need RealOne Player or Windows Media Player to view the Webcast.
Prior to and during the Web cast, you are invited to submit questions to: webcast@ilru.org.
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Clinic Reports Dramatic Results Treating Autism, ADD Without Drugs
Clinic Reports Dramatic Results Treating Autism, ADD Without Drugs
3/21/2006 7:00:00 AM
To: National Desk, Health Reporter
Contact: A. Harris of Busystreet Media, 404-876-4570, 404-245-8080
Los Angeles, March 21 /U.S. Newswire/ -- She was a mother without hope. Diagnosed with autism, her six year old son, EJ, bit other children, threw tantrums and chairs. "He had no future," says Beatrice Tan, whose family stopped going to church because it was too risky to put EJ in the nursery.
Now, after several months of specialized, neurofeedback therapy at Drake Institute of Behavioral Medicine -- http://www.drakeinstitute.com -- in Los Angeles, EJ no longer bites: he hugs. He has friends, and "we have hope," says Beatrice, now back in church with EJ and husband, Ronnie.
"We see autistic children coming out of their social comas, it's huge," says Dr. David F. Velkoff, Drake's medical director, "and children with ADHD making big learning breakthroughs" -- all without the kinds of drugs often prescribed to control out of control kids, like Ritalin, and recently called risky by the FDA.
"In the long run, these drugs have not been proven to be safe; they're quick fixes that short-change children," says Dr. Velkoff, a long-time critic of recklessly prescribing drugs like Ritalin and Adderal for learning disorders like ADD. "These drugs should be used cautiously, and only prescribed for children for a limited period of time, and as a last resort. "Of course, there are extreme cases requiring medication," he adds, "but at Drake, our goal is to eliminate the drugs wherever possible, and use our advanced neuro-feedback to help children close their developmental gaps."
A physician with a master's degree in psychology, Dr. Velkoff reports dramatic results for most of the 100 autistic children like EJ that Drake's four clinics have been treating over the last year. "We're excited whenever we can help jump start a child's life without drugs," he says.
Instead, Drake uses advanced biofeedback technology it first developed to treat learning disorders like ADD and ADHD, then modified for autism. Over the last 25 years, Drake has treated more than 5,000 children for attention deficit disorders without drugs, he says, then last year began focusing on children also diagnosed with high-functioning Autism or Asperger Syndrome. In treating their ADD, Drake staff found their autism symptoms dramatically improved as well.
"Like a lot of accidental advances in medicine, we stumbled onto it, but it's working," he says of Drake's medical mystery. "We think it helps these children rewire brain synapses, so life starts to make sense."
To make sense of their surprising progress, Drake cranked up an initial clinical study of 18 patients, all children with autism disorders and poor social skills. After 20-40 neurofeedback sessions, parents reported children were not only responding to peers, but showed a new awareness to the feelings of others, says Dr. Velkoff, whose clinic is planning a joint study with the world-reknowned University of California at Irvine Child Development Center to further document and understand "how and why it's working-and what works best."
"EJ used to ask, 'Mommy, why don't I have friends?'" says Beatrice Tan in a videotaped interview on Drake's website, www.drakeinstitute.com. "I'd say, 'You have to be nicer, talk to them, don't take their toys, share!' It's no longer a problem. "
"Unfortunately, we can't help every child with autism, but we've seen big improvements in three out of four children we treat," says Dr. Velkoff. "Parents tell us they keep getting better even after treatment ends. We hear, 'it's a different child' all the time.' Their lives begin to blossom."
Contact: Busystreet Media; A. Harris; 404-876-4570, 404-245- 8080, harrisa3@bellsouth.net or David F. Velkoff, MD, Medical Director, Drake Institute of Behavioral Medicine & medical associates, 11645 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 745, Los Angeles, CA, 90025, 800-700-4233, drvelkoff @drakeinstitute.com, http://www.drakeinstitute.com
EDITORS: Dr. David Velkoff available for interviews. Detailed background paper also available. B roll/photos available. Video available: hear what parents of autistic kids have to say at http://www.drakeinstitute.com. Also more on autism study.
http://www.usnewswire.com/
-0-
/© 2006 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
3/21/2006 7:00:00 AM
To: National Desk, Health Reporter
Contact: A. Harris of Busystreet Media, 404-876-4570, 404-245-8080
Los Angeles, March 21 /U.S. Newswire/ -- She was a mother without hope. Diagnosed with autism, her six year old son, EJ, bit other children, threw tantrums and chairs. "He had no future," says Beatrice Tan, whose family stopped going to church because it was too risky to put EJ in the nursery.
Now, after several months of specialized, neurofeedback therapy at Drake Institute of Behavioral Medicine -- http://www.drakeinstitute.com -- in Los Angeles, EJ no longer bites: he hugs. He has friends, and "we have hope," says Beatrice, now back in church with EJ and husband, Ronnie.
"We see autistic children coming out of their social comas, it's huge," says Dr. David F. Velkoff, Drake's medical director, "and children with ADHD making big learning breakthroughs" -- all without the kinds of drugs often prescribed to control out of control kids, like Ritalin, and recently called risky by the FDA.
"In the long run, these drugs have not been proven to be safe; they're quick fixes that short-change children," says Dr. Velkoff, a long-time critic of recklessly prescribing drugs like Ritalin and Adderal for learning disorders like ADD. "These drugs should be used cautiously, and only prescribed for children for a limited period of time, and as a last resort. "Of course, there are extreme cases requiring medication," he adds, "but at Drake, our goal is to eliminate the drugs wherever possible, and use our advanced neuro-feedback to help children close their developmental gaps."
A physician with a master's degree in psychology, Dr. Velkoff reports dramatic results for most of the 100 autistic children like EJ that Drake's four clinics have been treating over the last year. "We're excited whenever we can help jump start a child's life without drugs," he says.
Instead, Drake uses advanced biofeedback technology it first developed to treat learning disorders like ADD and ADHD, then modified for autism. Over the last 25 years, Drake has treated more than 5,000 children for attention deficit disorders without drugs, he says, then last year began focusing on children also diagnosed with high-functioning Autism or Asperger Syndrome. In treating their ADD, Drake staff found their autism symptoms dramatically improved as well.
"Like a lot of accidental advances in medicine, we stumbled onto it, but it's working," he says of Drake's medical mystery. "We think it helps these children rewire brain synapses, so life starts to make sense."
To make sense of their surprising progress, Drake cranked up an initial clinical study of 18 patients, all children with autism disorders and poor social skills. After 20-40 neurofeedback sessions, parents reported children were not only responding to peers, but showed a new awareness to the feelings of others, says Dr. Velkoff, whose clinic is planning a joint study with the world-reknowned University of California at Irvine Child Development Center to further document and understand "how and why it's working-and what works best."
"EJ used to ask, 'Mommy, why don't I have friends?'" says Beatrice Tan in a videotaped interview on Drake's website, www.drakeinstitute.com. "I'd say, 'You have to be nicer, talk to them, don't take their toys, share!' It's no longer a problem. "
"Unfortunately, we can't help every child with autism, but we've seen big improvements in three out of four children we treat," says Dr. Velkoff. "Parents tell us they keep getting better even after treatment ends. We hear, 'it's a different child' all the time.' Their lives begin to blossom."
Contact: Busystreet Media; A. Harris; 404-876-4570, 404-245- 8080, harrisa3@bellsouth.net or David F. Velkoff, MD, Medical Director, Drake Institute of Behavioral Medicine & medical associates, 11645 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 745, Los Angeles, CA, 90025, 800-700-4233, drvelkoff @drakeinstitute.com, http://www.drakeinstitute.com
EDITORS: Dr. David Velkoff available for interviews. Detailed background paper also available. B roll/photos available. Video available: hear what parents of autistic kids have to say at http://www.drakeinstitute.com. Also more on autism study.
http://www.usnewswire.com/
-0-
/© 2006 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
Mercury Generation March Update
From the National Autism Association:
A message from Bernard Rimland, Ph.D.
Parents: You can make a difference! You MUST make a difference!
Big Pharma has more paid lobbyists in Washington than there are Senators and Representatives. And they have lots of money and lots of influence.
But we have Right on our side, and sincerity, and dedication. We can’t let Pharma win – the stakes are high – we must win this battle, for our children and for ourselves.Make appointments to see your Senators and Representatives. Tell them:
1. We have no faith in the integrity of the CDC and the FDA. They are doing all they can to protect themselves and Big Pharma from the truth – that the autism epidemic is caused by Big Pharma’s greed and the failure of the CDC and the FDA to do their jobs.
2. Big Pharma must not be allowed to evade its financial liability for the damage their vaccines have caused. Like the tobacco companies in the last century, which kept denying the cigarette-lung cancer link, the drug companies are lying – with the help of the CDC and FDA – about the role of vaccines in causing the autisms epidemic. When the lung cancer cases finally got to court, the truth came out. We parents insist on our right to hold the drug companies liable, in court, for the harm they have caused. The matter must be decided fairly in the legal system, and not by loophole riders exonerating the drug companies that have been added to appropriation bills in the dark of night. The drug companies caused the autism epidemic and they, not the parents nor the public, must pay the costs. They are guilty, they are very profitable and can and should be held accountable.
Very Sincerely,
Bernard Rimland, Ph.D., Director
Autism Research Institute
_________________________________________________
If you are not able to attend The Mercury Generation March, try to schedule a meeting at your representative's local district office and let's let them know we are not going away. It's time to make our children a priority!
Go to www.themercurygenerationmarch.org/lobbying.htm to get instructions on what you can do this week to continue to gain support for your child.
SIGN UP TODAY AT:
http://capwiz.com/a-champ/issues/alert/?alertid=7938006&type=CU
BE THE VOICE OUR CHILDREN NEED. SEE YOU APRIL 6TH IN DC!
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
A message from Bernard Rimland, Ph.D.
Parents: You can make a difference! You MUST make a difference!
Big Pharma has more paid lobbyists in Washington than there are Senators and Representatives. And they have lots of money and lots of influence.
But we have Right on our side, and sincerity, and dedication. We can’t let Pharma win – the stakes are high – we must win this battle, for our children and for ourselves.Make appointments to see your Senators and Representatives. Tell them:
1. We have no faith in the integrity of the CDC and the FDA. They are doing all they can to protect themselves and Big Pharma from the truth – that the autism epidemic is caused by Big Pharma’s greed and the failure of the CDC and the FDA to do their jobs.
2. Big Pharma must not be allowed to evade its financial liability for the damage their vaccines have caused. Like the tobacco companies in the last century, which kept denying the cigarette-lung cancer link, the drug companies are lying – with the help of the CDC and FDA – about the role of vaccines in causing the autisms epidemic. When the lung cancer cases finally got to court, the truth came out. We parents insist on our right to hold the drug companies liable, in court, for the harm they have caused. The matter must be decided fairly in the legal system, and not by loophole riders exonerating the drug companies that have been added to appropriation bills in the dark of night. The drug companies caused the autism epidemic and they, not the parents nor the public, must pay the costs. They are guilty, they are very profitable and can and should be held accountable.
Very Sincerely,
Bernard Rimland, Ph.D., Director
Autism Research Institute
_________________________________________________
If you are not able to attend The Mercury Generation March, try to schedule a meeting at your representative's local district office and let's let them know we are not going away. It's time to make our children a priority!
Go to www.themercurygenerationmarch.org/lobbying.htm to get instructions on what you can do this week to continue to gain support for your child.
SIGN UP TODAY AT:
http://capwiz.com/a-champ/issues/alert/?alertid=7938006&type=CU
BE THE VOICE OUR CHILDREN NEED. SEE YOU APRIL 6TH IN DC!
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
Gift enables Columbia to open brain study center
Tuesday, March 21, 2006; Posted: 9:52 a.m. EST (14:52 GMT)
New York (Reuters) -- Columbia University said Monday it plans to build a center dedicated to studying the brain and behavior using a $200 million gift that is the largest received by the institution.
Read article at: http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/03/21/science.columbia.reut/index.html
For information, resources and practical strategies please visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
New York (Reuters) -- Columbia University said Monday it plans to build a center dedicated to studying the brain and behavior using a $200 million gift that is the largest received by the institution.
Read article at: http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/03/21/science.columbia.reut/index.html
For information, resources and practical strategies please visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
Monday, March 20, 2006
"The Puzzle of Autism" - A Teacher's Guide
To assist educators in their daily work with children who have autism, NEA has produced a new resource in collaboration with the Autism Society of America, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the National Association of School Psychologists.
Teachers and related service providers need this resource. "The Puzzle of Autism" is a succinct informational guide for all education personnel who work with students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This 38-page guide explains common autistic characteristics and suggests effective classroom strategies for improving communication, sensory, social, and behavioral skills.
To receive your complimentary copy email gapsinfo@nea.org. You can also download the PDF at www.nea.org/specialed/images/autismpuzzle.pdf.
For information, resources and information on autism please visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com.
Teachers and related service providers need this resource. "The Puzzle of Autism" is a succinct informational guide for all education personnel who work with students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This 38-page guide explains common autistic characteristics and suggests effective classroom strategies for improving communication, sensory, social, and behavioral skills.
To receive your complimentary copy email gapsinfo@nea.org. You can also download the PDF at www.nea.org/specialed/images/autismpuzzle.pdf.
For information, resources and information on autism please visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com.
The Age of Autism: Mercury creeps back in
By DAN OLMSTEDUPI Senior Editor
WASHINGTON, March 17
(UPI) -- New calculations suggest children today can be exposed to more than half the mercury that was in vaccines in the 1990s, even though manufacturers began phasing it out in 1999.
Adjusted for a child's body weight at the time of the shots, there's virtually no reduction at all, according to this analysis.
The source: Flu vaccines, which have been recommended for millions more kids over 6 months old and pregnant women in the past few years. Most of those shots still contain the mercury-based preservative called thimerosal that some fear is behind a huge rise in autism diagnoses.
"It's been under the radar and it's allowed health officials to say, 'We've taken it out of all the childhood vaccines,'" said Dr. David Ayoub, an Illinois anti-thimerosal activist who put the data together along with Maryland researchers David Geier and Dr. Mark Geier.
"They don't consider influenza one of the mandated childhood vaccines yet," Ayoub said. But because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends flu shots for all pregnant women and all children between 6 months and age 5, doctors routinely give them.
The CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics urged in 1999 that manufacturers remove thimerosal from childhood vaccines amid concerns over mercury exposure from shots including hepatitis B and the diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus combination shot.
"Because any potential risk is of concern, the Public Health Service, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and vaccine manufacturers agree that thimerosal-containing vaccines should be removed as soon as possible," they said in a joint statement at the time.
Since then, however, the CDC has significantly broadened its flu-shot recommendations. And the "coverage" rate -- the percent of those who actually get the recommended shots -- is rising as well.
The thrust of the numbers compiled by Ayoub and the Geiers: By 5, children exposed to an all-thimerosal schedule of flu shots would get 53 percent of the mercury the same kids got from all shots in 1999, they concluded.
Ayoub then calculated cumulative weight-adjusted mercury exposures at less than 5 years of age. That shows kids getting 36.34 micrograms of mercury per kilogram of body weight in 1999 -- and 33.2 from the influenza vaccine recommendations in 2006, or only about 10 percent less.
Of course, a lot has happened since 1999. Chiefly, the independent, prestigious Institute of Medicine ruled out thimerosal, and vaccines in general, as a cause of autism and said it wasn't worth the research money to keep exploring.
On the other hand, a University of Washington researcher showed twice as much ethyl mercury that comes from thimerosal gets trapped in the brain as does methyl mercury that comes from fish and pollution, and it stays there indefinitely. And the CDC study most often invoked to show that thimerosal isn't linked to autism was later pronounced a "neutral study" by its principal author, meaning more research is needed.
Plus, the autism rate has started to drop in California since thimerosal was removed. Finally, as we've pointed out, the CDC continues to research whether thimerosal causes autism -- that hasn't been "ruled out," nor has any other cause, a spokesman told us earlier this year.
--
E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Used here with permission.
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com and
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
WASHINGTON, March 17
(UPI) -- New calculations suggest children today can be exposed to more than half the mercury that was in vaccines in the 1990s, even though manufacturers began phasing it out in 1999.
Adjusted for a child's body weight at the time of the shots, there's virtually no reduction at all, according to this analysis.
The source: Flu vaccines, which have been recommended for millions more kids over 6 months old and pregnant women in the past few years. Most of those shots still contain the mercury-based preservative called thimerosal that some fear is behind a huge rise in autism diagnoses.
"It's been under the radar and it's allowed health officials to say, 'We've taken it out of all the childhood vaccines,'" said Dr. David Ayoub, an Illinois anti-thimerosal activist who put the data together along with Maryland researchers David Geier and Dr. Mark Geier.
"They don't consider influenza one of the mandated childhood vaccines yet," Ayoub said. But because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends flu shots for all pregnant women and all children between 6 months and age 5, doctors routinely give them.
The CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics urged in 1999 that manufacturers remove thimerosal from childhood vaccines amid concerns over mercury exposure from shots including hepatitis B and the diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus combination shot.
"Because any potential risk is of concern, the Public Health Service, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and vaccine manufacturers agree that thimerosal-containing vaccines should be removed as soon as possible," they said in a joint statement at the time.
Since then, however, the CDC has significantly broadened its flu-shot recommendations. And the "coverage" rate -- the percent of those who actually get the recommended shots -- is rising as well.
The thrust of the numbers compiled by Ayoub and the Geiers: By 5, children exposed to an all-thimerosal schedule of flu shots would get 53 percent of the mercury the same kids got from all shots in 1999, they concluded.
Ayoub then calculated cumulative weight-adjusted mercury exposures at less than 5 years of age. That shows kids getting 36.34 micrograms of mercury per kilogram of body weight in 1999 -- and 33.2 from the influenza vaccine recommendations in 2006, or only about 10 percent less.
Of course, a lot has happened since 1999. Chiefly, the independent, prestigious Institute of Medicine ruled out thimerosal, and vaccines in general, as a cause of autism and said it wasn't worth the research money to keep exploring.
On the other hand, a University of Washington researcher showed twice as much ethyl mercury that comes from thimerosal gets trapped in the brain as does methyl mercury that comes from fish and pollution, and it stays there indefinitely. And the CDC study most often invoked to show that thimerosal isn't linked to autism was later pronounced a "neutral study" by its principal author, meaning more research is needed.
Plus, the autism rate has started to drop in California since thimerosal was removed. Finally, as we've pointed out, the CDC continues to research whether thimerosal causes autism -- that hasn't been "ruled out," nor has any other cause, a spokesman told us earlier this year.
--
E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Used here with permission.
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com and
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Vaccines the subject of new Congressional investigation
By Jon Brodkin/ Daily News Staff
Friday, March 17, 2006
Congress has asked for a new investigation into a potential link between mercury-containing vaccines and autism, as some lawmakers claim the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has inadequately researched the topic.
"If the federal government is going to have a study whose results will be broadly accepted, such a study cannot be led by the CDC," Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and seven other members of Congress wrote in a letter to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).
A budget appropriation approved by Congress urges the NIEHS to examine the Vaccine Safety Datalink, a CDC database that follows 7 million immunized children from 1990 to the present.
Some lawmakers believe a new review of this database may show a link between autism and thimerosal -- a vaccine preservative containing mercury.
Read full article at: http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=124699
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
Friday, March 17, 2006
Congress has asked for a new investigation into a potential link between mercury-containing vaccines and autism, as some lawmakers claim the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has inadequately researched the topic.
"If the federal government is going to have a study whose results will be broadly accepted, such a study cannot be led by the CDC," Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and seven other members of Congress wrote in a letter to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).
A budget appropriation approved by Congress urges the NIEHS to examine the Vaccine Safety Datalink, a CDC database that follows 7 million immunized children from 1990 to the present.
Some lawmakers believe a new review of this database may show a link between autism and thimerosal -- a vaccine preservative containing mercury.
Read full article at: http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=124699
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
NYS - Information Sessions on NYS Implementation of IDEA 2004
Information Sessions on New York State’s Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 2004
The Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID), New York State Education Department (NYSED), will be presenting information on the State requirements to implement IDEA 2004, with emphasis on new responsibilities for individual evaluations and eligibility determinations, individualized education program (IEP) development and implementation, transition services, discipline, due process and accountability requirements under the State Performance Plan (SPP).
Eleven information sessions* are scheduled throughout the State. Sessions are tentatively scheduled from 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM with sign-in beginning at 8:00 AM. The sessions are open to the public, however those planning to attend must pre-register for the event.
Below is a link to the registration form as well as directions to the site.
http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/idea/regisannounce.htm
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism, please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com and
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com.
The Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID), New York State Education Department (NYSED), will be presenting information on the State requirements to implement IDEA 2004, with emphasis on new responsibilities for individual evaluations and eligibility determinations, individualized education program (IEP) development and implementation, transition services, discipline, due process and accountability requirements under the State Performance Plan (SPP).
Eleven information sessions* are scheduled throughout the State. Sessions are tentatively scheduled from 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM with sign-in beginning at 8:00 AM. The sessions are open to the public, however those planning to attend must pre-register for the event.
Below is a link to the registration form as well as directions to the site.
http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/idea/regisannounce.htm
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism, please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com and
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
The Age of Autism: Pay no attention
By Dan Olmsted
UPI Senior Editor
There's a Steely Dan album called Pretzel Logic that could be the theme song of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as it struggles with concerns over vaccines and autism.
At least in our view, it is a bit twisted -- logically speaking -- to simultaneously spend taxpayer money to keep studying whether a mercury preservative causes autism, yet recommend that pregnant women and children get vaccines containing that preservative. Especially so when alternatives are available that are free of the preservative, called thimerosal.
It is puzzling to urge, as the CDC did in 1999, that thimerosal ought to be phased out as soon as possible from all childhood vaccines used in the United States -- yet successfully fight efforts this year by state legislatures to codify a ban.
It is peculiar to issue an "Autism Alarm," as the CDC did in 2004 -- then publish a 72-page annual report in 2005 that mentions the perils of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, cryptosporidiosis, leprosy and the four people "killed by rabies transmitted through transplanted organs or tissues in 2004," yet never use the word autism, not once. (Check it out at www.cdc.gov/cdc.pdf)
Perhaps the oddest, though subtlest, anomaly is the seeming resistance by the CDC to the idea that the autism rate might be declining.
Our last column reported a new study that suggests it could well be. The study's authors are firmly convinced a drop in autism cases in two separate government databases -- one run by the CDC, the other by the state of California -- proves thimerosal is the big culprit in autism. That's a step we're not ready to take, to the consternation of some in the anti-thimerosal movement.
But wouldn't even tentative signs of a decrease, for whatever conceivable reason, be welcome and hopeful?
Instead, the CDC seems keen to clobber any suggestion that autism might be declining. In Thursday's Boston-area Herald News Tribune, reporter Jon Brodkin quotes Dr. Robert Davis, director of the immunization safety group at the CDC, as saying: "I don't think this study can really be taken to provide any evidence one way or another."
Davis also said one of the databases the study authors used -- the CDC's own Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System -- is unreliable because anyone can report any health problem as a possible vaccine side effect.
Fair enough, but new cases in that database seem to be declining in tandem with new cases in California's special education system. And those California numbers are widely regarded as the most reliable count of full-syndrome, professionally diagnosed autism cases in the United States. P.S.: The most recent figures from the U.S. Department of Education also dropped.
But so what, say the CDC and others who are on record (and, let's face it, on the line) backing thimerosal to the hilt and asserting there is no connection between vaccines and autism.
"The Department of Education numbers are skewed, another official said, because the DOE did not make autism a separate diagnosis until the 1990s," Brodkin reported. "That led to an artificial increase because children who previously had different diagnoses were then considered autistic, said Dr. Marie McCormick, a Harvard professor who chaired an Institute of Medicine committee that dismissed any link between vaccines and autism."
What's intriguing is how all this dovetails with comments made last summer by Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the CDC, at a press conference in Washington set up to defend vaccine safety. Here is the question she was asked: "Can you address the ... California study that basically showed that there was an increase in autism in direct relation to the 1990s when the series of vaccines were increased, and now since thimerosal has been taken out there is a slight decrease in autistic cases?"
Responded Gerberding:
"The California study, as you know, is an ongoing study and they are addressing the estimates of autism prevalence on a quarterly basis, sort of like the stock market bounces around a little bit. The most recent reading from that study is in fact that the rates are increasing, they have not shown a decline."
That's one way to look at it. Here's another, from reporter Thomas Maugh II in The Los Angeles Times on July 13: "The number of newly diagnosed cases of autism in California, which had been skyrocketing for more than a decade, has leveled off and may even be declining, according to new data compiled by the state Department of Developmental Services."
Some parents who listened in on Gerberding's comments did not like comparing the autism rate to the stock market. But the bigger issue is the odd, official resistance to the idea that any autism rate anywhere in the United States might be going down, however slightly, however inconclusively, however briefly.
So the VAERS data don't count, the California numbers are bouncing, the Department of Education stats are unreliable. Is any of this starting to sound like, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain?" And do we all remember who said that?
--
E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Printed here with permission.
For information, resources and practical strategies please visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com and www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com.
UPI Senior Editor
There's a Steely Dan album called Pretzel Logic that could be the theme song of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as it struggles with concerns over vaccines and autism.
At least in our view, it is a bit twisted -- logically speaking -- to simultaneously spend taxpayer money to keep studying whether a mercury preservative causes autism, yet recommend that pregnant women and children get vaccines containing that preservative. Especially so when alternatives are available that are free of the preservative, called thimerosal.
It is puzzling to urge, as the CDC did in 1999, that thimerosal ought to be phased out as soon as possible from all childhood vaccines used in the United States -- yet successfully fight efforts this year by state legislatures to codify a ban.
It is peculiar to issue an "Autism Alarm," as the CDC did in 2004 -- then publish a 72-page annual report in 2005 that mentions the perils of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, cryptosporidiosis, leprosy and the four people "killed by rabies transmitted through transplanted organs or tissues in 2004," yet never use the word autism, not once. (Check it out at www.cdc.gov/cdc.pdf)
Perhaps the oddest, though subtlest, anomaly is the seeming resistance by the CDC to the idea that the autism rate might be declining.
Our last column reported a new study that suggests it could well be. The study's authors are firmly convinced a drop in autism cases in two separate government databases -- one run by the CDC, the other by the state of California -- proves thimerosal is the big culprit in autism. That's a step we're not ready to take, to the consternation of some in the anti-thimerosal movement.
But wouldn't even tentative signs of a decrease, for whatever conceivable reason, be welcome and hopeful?
Instead, the CDC seems keen to clobber any suggestion that autism might be declining. In Thursday's Boston-area Herald News Tribune, reporter Jon Brodkin quotes Dr. Robert Davis, director of the immunization safety group at the CDC, as saying: "I don't think this study can really be taken to provide any evidence one way or another."
Davis also said one of the databases the study authors used -- the CDC's own Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System -- is unreliable because anyone can report any health problem as a possible vaccine side effect.
Fair enough, but new cases in that database seem to be declining in tandem with new cases in California's special education system. And those California numbers are widely regarded as the most reliable count of full-syndrome, professionally diagnosed autism cases in the United States. P.S.: The most recent figures from the U.S. Department of Education also dropped.
But so what, say the CDC and others who are on record (and, let's face it, on the line) backing thimerosal to the hilt and asserting there is no connection between vaccines and autism.
"The Department of Education numbers are skewed, another official said, because the DOE did not make autism a separate diagnosis until the 1990s," Brodkin reported. "That led to an artificial increase because children who previously had different diagnoses were then considered autistic, said Dr. Marie McCormick, a Harvard professor who chaired an Institute of Medicine committee that dismissed any link between vaccines and autism."
What's intriguing is how all this dovetails with comments made last summer by Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the CDC, at a press conference in Washington set up to defend vaccine safety. Here is the question she was asked: "Can you address the ... California study that basically showed that there was an increase in autism in direct relation to the 1990s when the series of vaccines were increased, and now since thimerosal has been taken out there is a slight decrease in autistic cases?"
Responded Gerberding:
"The California study, as you know, is an ongoing study and they are addressing the estimates of autism prevalence on a quarterly basis, sort of like the stock market bounces around a little bit. The most recent reading from that study is in fact that the rates are increasing, they have not shown a decline."
That's one way to look at it. Here's another, from reporter Thomas Maugh II in The Los Angeles Times on July 13: "The number of newly diagnosed cases of autism in California, which had been skyrocketing for more than a decade, has leveled off and may even be declining, according to new data compiled by the state Department of Developmental Services."
Some parents who listened in on Gerberding's comments did not like comparing the autism rate to the stock market. But the bigger issue is the odd, official resistance to the idea that any autism rate anywhere in the United States might be going down, however slightly, however inconclusively, however briefly.
So the VAERS data don't count, the California numbers are bouncing, the Department of Education stats are unreliable. Is any of this starting to sound like, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain?" And do we all remember who said that?
--
E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Printed here with permission.
For information, resources and practical strategies please visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com and www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com.
Advocates, Physicians and Entertainers to Gather for Low Dose Naltrexone Conference
Press Release
Source: Second Annual Low Dose Naltrexone Conference
Advocates, Physicians and Entertainers to Gather for Low Dose Naltrexone Conference
Monday March 13, 9:47 am ET
BETHESDA, Md., March 13 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 7, 2006, physicians, patient advocates and entertainers will gather at the Second Annual Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) Conference (http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org/) to bring awareness to a promising treatment for HIV/AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis (MS), autism and a host of other life-altering autoimmune conditions.
Naltrexone was originally approved by the FDA in 1984 at the 50mg level for narcotics addiction. But around the world, physicians and researchers are discovering that at much lower doses -- most commonly in the 4.5mg range -- the compounded medication, taken nightly, stimulates the immune system and helps the body fight off devastating diseases. LDN has no known harmful side effects, and at an average price of under $50 per month's supply, the compound is extremely affordable.
Still, LDN remains largely unknown in the U.S. - and according to Susan Sedlock, coordinator of the Second Annual LDN Conference, big pharma remains uninterested in LDN, perhaps because of naltrexone's status as a generic drug and LDN's extremely low cost to the patient.
But if Sedlock and the speakers at the Second Annual LDN Conference have anything to say about it, many more patients will soon know about LDN.
The event's theme, "The Future Is Now," reflects the strides made in LDN research and clinical trials in the past year. On the schedule are: Dr. David Gluck, host of last year's conference, with a brief review of the year in LDN; keynote speaker Dr. Jill Smith, professor of gastroenterology at Pennsylvania State University, who will discuss her impressions of the first LDN clinical trial in the U.S., in which she studied the compound's effects on Crohn's disease; Dr. Jacqueline McCandless, who will present her achievements using LDN in treating childhood autism and report findings from parents whose children with bipolar disorder are responding to LDN; Dr. Phil Boyle, a family physician in Ireland, who will discuss some "stunning clinical results"; and Dr. Pat Crowley, also from Ireland, who will show his documentary on LDN treatment.
Singer/songwriter Paul Nicholas, who debuted his hit song "Please Remember Me," now the anthem in the fight against MS, on the Montel Williams Show in June, will perform at the Second Annual LDN Conference. Nicholas, who has MS, recently began taking LDN and has experienced dramatic improvements. As a result, Nicholas has waived his performance fee for the conference in an effort to promote recognition of LDN as a viable treatment for MS.
The Second Annual LDN Conference will be held on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in the Lister Hill Center Auditorium of the National Library of Medicine.
For additional information, visit http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org/.
Contact:
Susan Sedlock
Second Annual Low Dose Naltrexone Conference
703-998-0272
2002eldo@msn.com
http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org
This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com.
Source: Second Annual Low Dose Naltrexone Conference
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism, please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com and www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com.
Source: Second Annual Low Dose Naltrexone Conference
Advocates, Physicians and Entertainers to Gather for Low Dose Naltrexone Conference
Monday March 13, 9:47 am ET
BETHESDA, Md., March 13 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 7, 2006, physicians, patient advocates and entertainers will gather at the Second Annual Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) Conference (http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org/) to bring awareness to a promising treatment for HIV/AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis (MS), autism and a host of other life-altering autoimmune conditions.
Naltrexone was originally approved by the FDA in 1984 at the 50mg level for narcotics addiction. But around the world, physicians and researchers are discovering that at much lower doses -- most commonly in the 4.5mg range -- the compounded medication, taken nightly, stimulates the immune system and helps the body fight off devastating diseases. LDN has no known harmful side effects, and at an average price of under $50 per month's supply, the compound is extremely affordable.
Still, LDN remains largely unknown in the U.S. - and according to Susan Sedlock, coordinator of the Second Annual LDN Conference, big pharma remains uninterested in LDN, perhaps because of naltrexone's status as a generic drug and LDN's extremely low cost to the patient.
But if Sedlock and the speakers at the Second Annual LDN Conference have anything to say about it, many more patients will soon know about LDN.
The event's theme, "The Future Is Now," reflects the strides made in LDN research and clinical trials in the past year. On the schedule are: Dr. David Gluck, host of last year's conference, with a brief review of the year in LDN; keynote speaker Dr. Jill Smith, professor of gastroenterology at Pennsylvania State University, who will discuss her impressions of the first LDN clinical trial in the U.S., in which she studied the compound's effects on Crohn's disease; Dr. Jacqueline McCandless, who will present her achievements using LDN in treating childhood autism and report findings from parents whose children with bipolar disorder are responding to LDN; Dr. Phil Boyle, a family physician in Ireland, who will discuss some "stunning clinical results"; and Dr. Pat Crowley, also from Ireland, who will show his documentary on LDN treatment.
Singer/songwriter Paul Nicholas, who debuted his hit song "Please Remember Me," now the anthem in the fight against MS, on the Montel Williams Show in June, will perform at the Second Annual LDN Conference. Nicholas, who has MS, recently began taking LDN and has experienced dramatic improvements. As a result, Nicholas has waived his performance fee for the conference in an effort to promote recognition of LDN as a viable treatment for MS.
The Second Annual LDN Conference will be held on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in the Lister Hill Center Auditorium of the National Library of Medicine.
For additional information, visit http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org/.
Contact:
Susan Sedlock
Second Annual Low Dose Naltrexone Conference
703-998-0272
2002eldo@msn.com
http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org
This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com.
Source: Second Annual Low Dose Naltrexone Conference
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism, please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com and www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com.
Monday, March 13, 2006
M.I.N.D. Institute Launches Largest Biomedical Assessment of Children with Autism
Source: University of California, Davis, Health System
Released: Thu 09-Mar-2006, 09:00 ET
M.I.N.D. Institute Launches Largest Biomedical Assessment of Children with Autism
Multidisciplinary teams of physicians and scientists at the University of California, Davis, M.I.N.D. Institute have launched the nation's most comprehensive assessment of children with autism to detect the biological and behavioral patterns that define subtypes of the disorder.
Newswise - Multidisciplinary teams of physicians and scientists at the University of California, Davis, M.I.N.D. Institute have launched the nation's most comprehensive assessment of children with autism to detect the biological and behavioral patterns that define subtypes of the disorder.
Called the Autism Phenome Project, the large-scale, longitudinal study will enroll 1,800 children -- 900 with autism, 450 with developmental delay and 450 who are typically developing -- who will undergo a thorough medical evaluation in addition to systematic analyses of their immune systems, brain structures and functions, genetics, environmental exposures and blood proteins.
Children will be 2 to 4 years old when they begin participating in the study, and their development will continue to be evaluated over the course of several years. The first phase of the research is funded by the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute and philanthropic donations."Children with autism clearly are not all the same," said David G. Amaral, research director of the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute and co-director of the project. "The tremendous variation leads us to believe that autism is a group of disorders rather than a single disorder -- several autisms versus one autism. We are determined to provide the specific biomedical and behavioral criteria that accurately define distinct subtypes."
Autism has common hallmarks: difficulties initiating and sustaining social interactions, impaired communication skills and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior. However, these hallmarks vary in severity. In addition, some children with autism can have co-existing conditions such as cognitive impairments, seizures, coordination issues or gastrointestinal difficulties, while others do not. This heterogeneity has been a major obstacle to progress in autism science.
Another obstacle involves access to reliable data. Autism science includes many quality studies on specific aspects of the disorder -- from genetics and immunology to behavior and imaging -- that can be difficult to combine and compare. With the Autism Phenome Project, UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute researchers aim to overcome this limitation.
"We spent two years designing the project so that it would be both comprehensive in scope and fully capable of integrating data across disciplines," said Amaral, a neuroscientist who specializes in brain systems involved in memory, emotion and social behavior. "Our goal is to identify specific types of autism and develop a database of biomedical information that can be shared with the worldwide community of autism scientists. This is crucial to refining our understanding of autism and to developing targeted treatments for a specific `type' of autism as early as possible so children can reach their fullest potential."
According to Thomas R. Insel, a physician who is director of the National Institute of Mental Health, the Autism Phenome Project is an important new direction in autism research.
"Multifaceted biomedical approaches are exactly what is needed right now," said Insel. "This is a monumental task, but one that needs to be undertaken if we are to accurately diagnose and treat people with autism."
While the Autism Phenome Project is ambitious, Amaral believes its successful completion will shorten by decades the road to discovering the causes and treatments of autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder that now affects 1 in 166 children in the United States. The unexplained rise in autism prevalence has frustrated parents and scientists trying to find answers.
"The extraordinary biomedical tools currently available at the M.I.N.D. Institute make it the ideal environment for launching this clinical research effort," he said. "The time is right for us to build a strong database of information that we can all share in order to speed the discovery process and clarify the variability that now plagues autism research. From there, we can more quickly identify causes and treatments, and by adding collaborative partners we will be able to gather as much information as quickly as possible."
The UC Davis M.I.N.D. (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) Institute is a unique collaborative center for research into the causes and treatments of autism, bringing together parents, scientists, clinicians and educators. For further information, go to http://www.mindinstitute.org.
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit: www.AutismConcepts.com and www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
Released: Thu 09-Mar-2006, 09:00 ET
M.I.N.D. Institute Launches Largest Biomedical Assessment of Children with Autism
Multidisciplinary teams of physicians and scientists at the University of California, Davis, M.I.N.D. Institute have launched the nation's most comprehensive assessment of children with autism to detect the biological and behavioral patterns that define subtypes of the disorder.
Newswise - Multidisciplinary teams of physicians and scientists at the University of California, Davis, M.I.N.D. Institute have launched the nation's most comprehensive assessment of children with autism to detect the biological and behavioral patterns that define subtypes of the disorder.
Called the Autism Phenome Project, the large-scale, longitudinal study will enroll 1,800 children -- 900 with autism, 450 with developmental delay and 450 who are typically developing -- who will undergo a thorough medical evaluation in addition to systematic analyses of their immune systems, brain structures and functions, genetics, environmental exposures and blood proteins.
Children will be 2 to 4 years old when they begin participating in the study, and their development will continue to be evaluated over the course of several years. The first phase of the research is funded by the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute and philanthropic donations."Children with autism clearly are not all the same," said David G. Amaral, research director of the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute and co-director of the project. "The tremendous variation leads us to believe that autism is a group of disorders rather than a single disorder -- several autisms versus one autism. We are determined to provide the specific biomedical and behavioral criteria that accurately define distinct subtypes."
Autism has common hallmarks: difficulties initiating and sustaining social interactions, impaired communication skills and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior. However, these hallmarks vary in severity. In addition, some children with autism can have co-existing conditions such as cognitive impairments, seizures, coordination issues or gastrointestinal difficulties, while others do not. This heterogeneity has been a major obstacle to progress in autism science.
Another obstacle involves access to reliable data. Autism science includes many quality studies on specific aspects of the disorder -- from genetics and immunology to behavior and imaging -- that can be difficult to combine and compare. With the Autism Phenome Project, UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute researchers aim to overcome this limitation.
"We spent two years designing the project so that it would be both comprehensive in scope and fully capable of integrating data across disciplines," said Amaral, a neuroscientist who specializes in brain systems involved in memory, emotion and social behavior. "Our goal is to identify specific types of autism and develop a database of biomedical information that can be shared with the worldwide community of autism scientists. This is crucial to refining our understanding of autism and to developing targeted treatments for a specific `type' of autism as early as possible so children can reach their fullest potential."
According to Thomas R. Insel, a physician who is director of the National Institute of Mental Health, the Autism Phenome Project is an important new direction in autism research.
"Multifaceted biomedical approaches are exactly what is needed right now," said Insel. "This is a monumental task, but one that needs to be undertaken if we are to accurately diagnose and treat people with autism."
While the Autism Phenome Project is ambitious, Amaral believes its successful completion will shorten by decades the road to discovering the causes and treatments of autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder that now affects 1 in 166 children in the United States. The unexplained rise in autism prevalence has frustrated parents and scientists trying to find answers.
"The extraordinary biomedical tools currently available at the M.I.N.D. Institute make it the ideal environment for launching this clinical research effort," he said. "The time is right for us to build a strong database of information that we can all share in order to speed the discovery process and clarify the variability that now plagues autism research. From there, we can more quickly identify causes and treatments, and by adding collaborative partners we will be able to gather as much information as quickly as possible."
The UC Davis M.I.N.D. (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) Institute is a unique collaborative center for research into the causes and treatments of autism, bringing together parents, scientists, clinicians and educators. For further information, go to http://www.mindinstitute.org.
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit: www.AutismConcepts.com and www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
Friday, March 10, 2006
Study links vaccines containing mercury with autism
Roman Bystrianyk, "Study links vaccines containing mercury with autism", Health Sentinel, March 10, 2006,
A 1948 article in the journal Pediatrics opens with, “Inflammatory reactions involving various parts of the nervous system following injections or various sera or vaccines have long been known”. In that paper they discuss 15 instances in children at Boston Children’s Hospital that developed “acute cerebral symptoms within a period of hours after administration of pertussis vaccine.”
During the same time, the 1940s to the 1950s widespread use of the DTP vaccine (Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis – more commonly know as whooping cough) came into use. Analysis of the historical data available shows that the recorded rate of whooping cough slowly fell coinciding with the use of the vaccine. However, using additional historical references from England – which maintained the most accurate historical disease mortality records – shows that before widespread vaccination the death rate from whooping cough had already declined by approximately 98.8 percent from its peak recorded in the 1860s.
A 1996 article in Pediatrics noted that a large controlled study, the NCES or National Childhood Encephalopathy Study, found that, “a significant association exists between the occurrence of acute neurologic illness and DTP vaccination with the preceding 7 days.” In 1994, an IOM (Institute of Medicine) committee concluded that the, “balance of evidence is consistent with a causal relation between DTP and chronic nervous system dysfunction in children whose serious acute neurological illness occurred within 7 days of DTP vaccination.”
However, a 1991 American Academy of Pediatrics report indicated that severe problems were rare. Although half the children were reported to be “fretful” or have fevers, severe neurological problems were reported to be 1 in 140,000 to 1 in 300,000. Seizures were reported to be 1 in 7,500, persistent screaming as 1 in 100, and unusual, high-pitched cry as 1 in 1,000.
Thimerosal is a mercury-containing compound that has been used since the 1930s as a preservative in many vaccines. According to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) website, “Over the past several years, because of an increasing awareness of the theoretical potential for neurotoxicity of even low levels of organomercurials and because of the increased number of thimerosal containing vaccines that had been added to the infant immunization schedule, concerns about the use of thimerosal in vaccines and other products have been raised. Indeed, because of these concerns, the Food and Drug Administration has worked with, and continues to work with, vaccine manufacturers to reduce or eliminate thimerosal from vaccines.”
Autism is a disorder of the brain that impairs communication and social skills. It encompasses a broad range of disorders that may range from mild to severe. Autism, once uncommon, is now more widespread than childhood cancer, diabetes, and Down syndrome. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), 1 in 166 children currently have an autistic disorder, and 1 in 6 children have a developmental and/or behavioral disorder.
A study published in the spring edition of Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, examines the connection between vaccines that contain thimerosal and autism. The authors of the study are David A. Geier, B.A. and Mark R. Geier, M.D., Ph.D. According to the authors the study was thoroughly reviewed prior to publication. “Our manuscript underwent blinded peer-review by three different peer-reviewers including a bio-statistician/epidemiologist prior to its publication.”
A great deal of debate and controversy has surrounded this one ingredient in particular, thimerosal, as being in part responsible for the huge increase in cases of autism. While many parents of autistic children and activists believe that there is a link between vaccines containing mercury, government and other officials have rejected these claims. In 2004, the IOM (Institute of Medicine) stated that, “the committee concludes that the evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism.”
But according to the Milford Daily News a confidential CDC (Centers for Disease Control) study in 2000 actually found that children were 2.5 times more likely to develop autism when they receive 62.5 micrograms of mercury from vaccines at 3 months of age. The study was uncovered by an advocacy group under the Freedom of Information Act. “They're on record saying there's no effect from thimerosal, it's completely safe, even though their own internal studies show it's harmful,” said researcher David Geier. According to Geier’s study, “exposure to mercury has previously been shown to cause immune, sensory, neurological, motor, and behavioral dysfunctions similar to traits defining or associated with autistic disorders, and with similarities in neuroanatomy, neurotransmitters, and biochemistry.” Also that, “recent research that codes children’s behaviors, and toy play from videotapes of the toddlers’ first and second birthday parties demonstrate that the regression associated with autistic disorders clearly manifests between the ages of 12 and 24 months, concurrent with the exposure to thimerosal-containing childhood vaccines (TCVs).”
Citing other research the authors note that several studies have examined the effect of thimerosal. One study examined infant monkeys following injection of doses of mercury comparable to the amount that U.S. children received during the 1990s. These researchers established that, “thimerosal crosses the blood-brain barrier and results in appreciable mercury content in tissues including the brain.” Another study examined mice after similarly being exposed to thimerosal and found that, “autistic symptoms in a susceptible mouse strain that included growth delay, reduced locomotion, exaggerated response to novelty, increased brain size, and significant abnormalities in brain architecture affecting areas subserving emotion and cognition.”
In the late 1980s into the 1990s the CDC expanded the number of TCVs to be given to children. Because of this increase a child could have received as much as 200 micrograms (µg) of mercury during the first six months of life. During the same time epidemic levels of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs) including autism were observed that, “cannot be explained by immigration, changed diagnostic criteria, or improved identification.”
The authors hypothesized that since thimerosal has been removed from many vaccines that this decrease in thimerosal exposure should be accompanied with a decrease in autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. “Assuming a 3- to 4- year lag time between birth and diagnosis of an ND, the peak followed by a decline in NDs would be expected to occur around 2002 if thimerosal had a significant impact on NDs.”
Using the VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) and CDDS (California Department of Developmental Services) databases, the independent researchers analyzed reports of childhood NDs, including autism, before and after removal of mercury-based preservatives.
From the data the authors determine that, “overall, it appears that the increasing and subsequent decreasing trends in the rates of NDs, observed in both the VAERS and CDDS databases, correlate with temporal periods when the cumulative amount of mercury in the childhood immunization schedule expanded and later contracted.” Continuing the authors note that, “the consistency of the effects observed for the spectrum of NDs, including autism and speech disorders, and the agreement between the observations from two separate databases, support the conclusion that the effect is real and not a chance observation.”
Critics charge that the VAERS database cannot be used to draw any conclusions about autism because anyone – including doctors, patients, or lawyers – can submit reports to it. According to Milford Daily News, Glen Nowak, spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that the VAERS data “in and of itself is not a strong signal.”
Responding to that criticism, the authors state that the VAERS is an epidemiological database that was established by an act of the United States Congress and set-up by the CDC to track adverse events reported following vaccination and is jointly maintained by the CDC and FDA. The VAERS has a total of approximately 200,000 adverse event reports that have been reported following more than 1 billion doses of vaccines administered in the United States. This probably makes the VAERS the largest database of adverse vaccine reactions in the world.
Adverse vaccine reactions are by law required to be reported to VAERS with a VAERS group that specifically analyzes and has published numerous peer-reviewed epidemiologic studies based upon examination of the VAERS database. The CDC has made official vaccine policy recommendations based upon epidemiological assessments of the VAERS. For example, the withdrawal of the rotavirus vaccine back in 1999 following numerous reports of intussussception following rotavirus vaccine to the VAERS database.
“It appears that the US CDC can analyze and publish epidemiological assessments of the VAERS database, but when independent researchers such as us, publish conclusions based upon epidemiological assessments of the VAERS database, that the CDC does not agree with, than according to the US CDC the VAERS becomes an unacceptable database to draw epidemiological conclusions from.”
“In quickly examining those who claim to dispute our results and others that have reported an association between Thimerosal and autism, they claim to not understand why autism increased in the US during the 1990s (as Thimerosal was increased in US vaccines), they claim to not understand why autism decreased in the US during the early 2000s (as Thimerosal was decreased in US vaccines), they claim to not understand why when comparing children that received additional doses of mercury from Thimerosal-containing DTaP vaccine in comparison to Thimerosal-free DTaP vaccine those children that received Thimerosal-containing DTaP vaccines were at increased risk of developing autism, and they claim to not understand numerous recent clinical, biochemical, genetic, molecular, etc. studies that support the ability of Thimerosal from vaccines administered in the US to occasion autism.”
“Based upon the fact that all the previous observations have one simple and transparent explanation, namely that Thimerosal was causing autism in the US, and those who purported dispute the link have no cohesive explanation for the phenomena observed, one must seriously considered that Thimerosal was a cause of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders in the US.”
The authors conclude their paper with, “From the data presented here and other emerging data, it appears clear that additional research should be undertaken concerning the effects of mercury exposure, particularly from TCVs.”
According to wikipedia.org, “Mark R. Geier, MD, PhD, is a medical doctor based in Silver Spring, Maryland, who also holds a doctorate in genetics and is board-certified in medical genetics and forensic medicine. He was a researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for ten years, and previously was a professor at Johns Hopkins University. He has studied vaccines for more than 30 years and has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers on vaccine safety, efficacy, contamination and policy. He has authored over 90 publications and has made several presentations to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) on the adverse effects of vaccinations. He and his son, David Geier, are the only independent researchers ever to have been permitted to study the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) database of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).”
US health agencies have uniformly rejected the conclusions of the Geiers' studies, and one of the Geiers' articles was the subject of heavy criticism by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Geier says public health officials are “just trying to cover it up.” On the other hand, “Mercury in Medicine Taking Unnecessary Risks”, a report prepared by the staff of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness, House Committee on Government Reform, Chaired by Dan Burton, was published in the Congressional Record in May, 2003, stated:
“However, the Committee upon a thorough review of the scientific literature and internal documents from government and industry did find evidence that thimerosal did pose a risk. Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines is likely related to the autism epidemic. This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding the lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal and the sharp rise of infant exposure to this known neurotoxin. Our public health agencies’ failure to act is indicative of institutional malfeasance for self-protection and misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry.”
SOURCE: Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons
For information, resources and practical strategies please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com and www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com.
A 1948 article in the journal Pediatrics opens with, “Inflammatory reactions involving various parts of the nervous system following injections or various sera or vaccines have long been known”. In that paper they discuss 15 instances in children at Boston Children’s Hospital that developed “acute cerebral symptoms within a period of hours after administration of pertussis vaccine.”
During the same time, the 1940s to the 1950s widespread use of the DTP vaccine (Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis – more commonly know as whooping cough) came into use. Analysis of the historical data available shows that the recorded rate of whooping cough slowly fell coinciding with the use of the vaccine. However, using additional historical references from England – which maintained the most accurate historical disease mortality records – shows that before widespread vaccination the death rate from whooping cough had already declined by approximately 98.8 percent from its peak recorded in the 1860s.
A 1996 article in Pediatrics noted that a large controlled study, the NCES or National Childhood Encephalopathy Study, found that, “a significant association exists between the occurrence of acute neurologic illness and DTP vaccination with the preceding 7 days.” In 1994, an IOM (Institute of Medicine) committee concluded that the, “balance of evidence is consistent with a causal relation between DTP and chronic nervous system dysfunction in children whose serious acute neurological illness occurred within 7 days of DTP vaccination.”
However, a 1991 American Academy of Pediatrics report indicated that severe problems were rare. Although half the children were reported to be “fretful” or have fevers, severe neurological problems were reported to be 1 in 140,000 to 1 in 300,000. Seizures were reported to be 1 in 7,500, persistent screaming as 1 in 100, and unusual, high-pitched cry as 1 in 1,000.
Thimerosal is a mercury-containing compound that has been used since the 1930s as a preservative in many vaccines. According to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) website, “Over the past several years, because of an increasing awareness of the theoretical potential for neurotoxicity of even low levels of organomercurials and because of the increased number of thimerosal containing vaccines that had been added to the infant immunization schedule, concerns about the use of thimerosal in vaccines and other products have been raised. Indeed, because of these concerns, the Food and Drug Administration has worked with, and continues to work with, vaccine manufacturers to reduce or eliminate thimerosal from vaccines.”
Autism is a disorder of the brain that impairs communication and social skills. It encompasses a broad range of disorders that may range from mild to severe. Autism, once uncommon, is now more widespread than childhood cancer, diabetes, and Down syndrome. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), 1 in 166 children currently have an autistic disorder, and 1 in 6 children have a developmental and/or behavioral disorder.
A study published in the spring edition of Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, examines the connection between vaccines that contain thimerosal and autism. The authors of the study are David A. Geier, B.A. and Mark R. Geier, M.D., Ph.D. According to the authors the study was thoroughly reviewed prior to publication. “Our manuscript underwent blinded peer-review by three different peer-reviewers including a bio-statistician/epidemiologist prior to its publication.”
A great deal of debate and controversy has surrounded this one ingredient in particular, thimerosal, as being in part responsible for the huge increase in cases of autism. While many parents of autistic children and activists believe that there is a link between vaccines containing mercury, government and other officials have rejected these claims. In 2004, the IOM (Institute of Medicine) stated that, “the committee concludes that the evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism.”
But according to the Milford Daily News a confidential CDC (Centers for Disease Control) study in 2000 actually found that children were 2.5 times more likely to develop autism when they receive 62.5 micrograms of mercury from vaccines at 3 months of age. The study was uncovered by an advocacy group under the Freedom of Information Act. “They're on record saying there's no effect from thimerosal, it's completely safe, even though their own internal studies show it's harmful,” said researcher David Geier. According to Geier’s study, “exposure to mercury has previously been shown to cause immune, sensory, neurological, motor, and behavioral dysfunctions similar to traits defining or associated with autistic disorders, and with similarities in neuroanatomy, neurotransmitters, and biochemistry.” Also that, “recent research that codes children’s behaviors, and toy play from videotapes of the toddlers’ first and second birthday parties demonstrate that the regression associated with autistic disorders clearly manifests between the ages of 12 and 24 months, concurrent with the exposure to thimerosal-containing childhood vaccines (TCVs).”
Citing other research the authors note that several studies have examined the effect of thimerosal. One study examined infant monkeys following injection of doses of mercury comparable to the amount that U.S. children received during the 1990s. These researchers established that, “thimerosal crosses the blood-brain barrier and results in appreciable mercury content in tissues including the brain.” Another study examined mice after similarly being exposed to thimerosal and found that, “autistic symptoms in a susceptible mouse strain that included growth delay, reduced locomotion, exaggerated response to novelty, increased brain size, and significant abnormalities in brain architecture affecting areas subserving emotion and cognition.”
In the late 1980s into the 1990s the CDC expanded the number of TCVs to be given to children. Because of this increase a child could have received as much as 200 micrograms (µg) of mercury during the first six months of life. During the same time epidemic levels of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs) including autism were observed that, “cannot be explained by immigration, changed diagnostic criteria, or improved identification.”
The authors hypothesized that since thimerosal has been removed from many vaccines that this decrease in thimerosal exposure should be accompanied with a decrease in autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. “Assuming a 3- to 4- year lag time between birth and diagnosis of an ND, the peak followed by a decline in NDs would be expected to occur around 2002 if thimerosal had a significant impact on NDs.”
Using the VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) and CDDS (California Department of Developmental Services) databases, the independent researchers analyzed reports of childhood NDs, including autism, before and after removal of mercury-based preservatives.
From the data the authors determine that, “overall, it appears that the increasing and subsequent decreasing trends in the rates of NDs, observed in both the VAERS and CDDS databases, correlate with temporal periods when the cumulative amount of mercury in the childhood immunization schedule expanded and later contracted.” Continuing the authors note that, “the consistency of the effects observed for the spectrum of NDs, including autism and speech disorders, and the agreement between the observations from two separate databases, support the conclusion that the effect is real and not a chance observation.”
Critics charge that the VAERS database cannot be used to draw any conclusions about autism because anyone – including doctors, patients, or lawyers – can submit reports to it. According to Milford Daily News, Glen Nowak, spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that the VAERS data “in and of itself is not a strong signal.”
Responding to that criticism, the authors state that the VAERS is an epidemiological database that was established by an act of the United States Congress and set-up by the CDC to track adverse events reported following vaccination and is jointly maintained by the CDC and FDA. The VAERS has a total of approximately 200,000 adverse event reports that have been reported following more than 1 billion doses of vaccines administered in the United States. This probably makes the VAERS the largest database of adverse vaccine reactions in the world.
Adverse vaccine reactions are by law required to be reported to VAERS with a VAERS group that specifically analyzes and has published numerous peer-reviewed epidemiologic studies based upon examination of the VAERS database. The CDC has made official vaccine policy recommendations based upon epidemiological assessments of the VAERS. For example, the withdrawal of the rotavirus vaccine back in 1999 following numerous reports of intussussception following rotavirus vaccine to the VAERS database.
“It appears that the US CDC can analyze and publish epidemiological assessments of the VAERS database, but when independent researchers such as us, publish conclusions based upon epidemiological assessments of the VAERS database, that the CDC does not agree with, than according to the US CDC the VAERS becomes an unacceptable database to draw epidemiological conclusions from.”
“In quickly examining those who claim to dispute our results and others that have reported an association between Thimerosal and autism, they claim to not understand why autism increased in the US during the 1990s (as Thimerosal was increased in US vaccines), they claim to not understand why autism decreased in the US during the early 2000s (as Thimerosal was decreased in US vaccines), they claim to not understand why when comparing children that received additional doses of mercury from Thimerosal-containing DTaP vaccine in comparison to Thimerosal-free DTaP vaccine those children that received Thimerosal-containing DTaP vaccines were at increased risk of developing autism, and they claim to not understand numerous recent clinical, biochemical, genetic, molecular, etc. studies that support the ability of Thimerosal from vaccines administered in the US to occasion autism.”
“Based upon the fact that all the previous observations have one simple and transparent explanation, namely that Thimerosal was causing autism in the US, and those who purported dispute the link have no cohesive explanation for the phenomena observed, one must seriously considered that Thimerosal was a cause of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders in the US.”
The authors conclude their paper with, “From the data presented here and other emerging data, it appears clear that additional research should be undertaken concerning the effects of mercury exposure, particularly from TCVs.”
According to wikipedia.org, “Mark R. Geier, MD, PhD, is a medical doctor based in Silver Spring, Maryland, who also holds a doctorate in genetics and is board-certified in medical genetics and forensic medicine. He was a researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for ten years, and previously was a professor at Johns Hopkins University. He has studied vaccines for more than 30 years and has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers on vaccine safety, efficacy, contamination and policy. He has authored over 90 publications and has made several presentations to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) on the adverse effects of vaccinations. He and his son, David Geier, are the only independent researchers ever to have been permitted to study the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) database of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).”
US health agencies have uniformly rejected the conclusions of the Geiers' studies, and one of the Geiers' articles was the subject of heavy criticism by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Geier says public health officials are “just trying to cover it up.” On the other hand, “Mercury in Medicine Taking Unnecessary Risks”, a report prepared by the staff of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness, House Committee on Government Reform, Chaired by Dan Burton, was published in the Congressional Record in May, 2003, stated:
“However, the Committee upon a thorough review of the scientific literature and internal documents from government and industry did find evidence that thimerosal did pose a risk. Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines is likely related to the autism epidemic. This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding the lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal and the sharp rise of infant exposure to this known neurotoxin. Our public health agencies’ failure to act is indicative of institutional malfeasance for self-protection and misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry.”
SOURCE: Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons
For information, resources and practical strategies please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com and www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Lawmakers Urged To Support Services For Autistic Adults
March 7, 2006 Associated Press
Parents of autistic adults came out in force Monday to urge state lawmakers to pass a bill that would help provide services to their children.
The legislation, championed by House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, would require the Department of Mental Retardation to coordinate services for individuals with autism who are not currently eligible for state services. It would be part of a two-year pilot program, requiring DMR to report to the legislature in 2008.
Amann said Connecticut is one of a few states that do not provide services for adults with autism and autism-related disorders. Many parents said their children could be functioning adults if they had life skills, job skills and independent living skills coaching.
courant.com is Copyright © 2006 by The Hartford Courant
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com and www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
March 7, 2006 Associated Press
Parents of autistic adults came out in force Monday to urge state lawmakers to pass a bill that would help provide services to their children.
The legislation, championed by House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, would require the Department of Mental Retardation to coordinate services for individuals with autism who are not currently eligible for state services. It would be part of a two-year pilot program, requiring DMR to report to the legislature in 2008.
Amann said Connecticut is one of a few states that do not provide services for adults with autism and autism-related disorders. Many parents said their children could be functioning adults if they had life skills, job skills and independent living skills coaching.
courant.com is Copyright © 2006 by The Hartford Courant
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit:
www.AutismConcepts.com and www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
Report: Government knew of autism link
Report: Government knew of autism link
By Jon Brodkin/ Daily News Staff
Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - Updated: 12:25 AM EST
Eight years before the U.S. government decided to remove mercury from most childhood vaccines, federal health officials were already receiving reports linking vaccinations to new cases of autism.
Starting in 1991 after the government set up a database to record adverse reactions to vaccines, doctors, parents and others reported frightening responses to inoculations in children subsequently diagnosed with autism.
Vaccinated children exhibited severe brain damage, high-pitched "hyena" laughs and screams, drunken behavior, senseless babbling, infantile spasms and seizures, "bug-eyed" looks, and the complete loss of abilities like toilet training and language, according to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS).
There were 83 such reports from across the country before the government asked vaccine manufacturers in 1999 to remove thimerosal -- a preservative containing mercury.
Read full article at: http://www.dailynewstribune.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=71064
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit: http://www.autismconcepts.com/ and
http://www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com/.
By Jon Brodkin/ Daily News Staff
Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - Updated: 12:25 AM EST
Eight years before the U.S. government decided to remove mercury from most childhood vaccines, federal health officials were already receiving reports linking vaccinations to new cases of autism.
Starting in 1991 after the government set up a database to record adverse reactions to vaccines, doctors, parents and others reported frightening responses to inoculations in children subsequently diagnosed with autism.
Vaccinated children exhibited severe brain damage, high-pitched "hyena" laughs and screams, drunken behavior, senseless babbling, infantile spasms and seizures, "bug-eyed" looks, and the complete loss of abilities like toilet training and language, according to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS).
There were 83 such reports from across the country before the government asked vaccine manufacturers in 1999 to remove thimerosal -- a preservative containing mercury.
Read full article at: http://www.dailynewstribune.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=71064
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit: http://www.autismconcepts.com/ and
http://www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com/.
Monday, March 06, 2006
US Schools Failing Children With Disabilities
Monday, 6 March 2006, 12:55 pm
Opinion: Evelyn Pringle
Schools Failing Children With Disabilities
By Evelyn Pringle
In 1975, long before the current epidemic of developmental disorders began, Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which requires public schools to identify children with disabilities and provide them with a need specific free education in the least restrictive environment.
Over the past decade, the costs of complying with the IDEA have skyrocketed and local school districts all over the country are scrambling to find money to meet the needs of disabled children in overflowing classrooms.
The nation's schools spent $78 billion to educate special education students in 1999-2000, which amounts to 21.4% of total spending for elementary and secondary education, according to the US Department of Education, Twenty-fourth Annual Report to Congress, What Are We Spending on Special Education Services (June 2004).
More than 6.4 million children, or 13.4%, of the public school enrollment receive special education services through IDEA, according to the US Department of Education, Digest of Education Statistics 2003, Table 54 (December 2004).
The Fiscal Year 2006 Budget Summary, released by the Department of Education on February 7, 2005, shows payment for overall spending on education breaks down by percentage to Federal 8.2%, State 45.7%, Local 37.2%, and all other at 9%.
The Budget Summary, contains $11.1 billion for the Grants to States program, which is authorized under the IDEA, and makes formula grants that help States pay the additional costs of special education and related services to children with disabilities aged 3 through 21 years. This level of funding would provide an estimated average of $1,599 per student for about 6.9 million children.
That said, for years, federal funding to the states has proven to be wholly inadequate. According to the Department of Education's Twenty-fourth Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the IDEA (2002), the vast majority of spending is paid for by state and local governments. In 1999-2000, for example, school districts received only $3.7 billion in federal assistance, or about $605 per student. This amounts to only 10.2% of the added costs imposed by IDEA.
The most expensive special education belongs to the disorder of autism, an incapacitating, lifelong disorder that affects a child's ability to interact with the outside world. As parents cope with the diagnosis, the major challenge they face is finding the right services for their children. Beginning at age 3, public schools are required to provide a free and appropriate education to autistic children.
What is the definition of appropriate? Under the IDEA, the "free appropriate public education" must include "special education and related services tailored to meet the unique needs of a particular child."
Parents of course want the best for their children, while schools often provide adequate services only. It's a constant source of conflict in schools all over the country today.
The IDEA also contains a "mainstreaming" component, which requires states to establish "procedures to assure that, to the maximum extent appropriate, handicapped children . . . are educated with children who are not handicapped."
To comply with IDEA, school districts must establish an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for each student. An IEP is a written statement that is developed through a collaborative process by a team including teachers, school administrators, and the child's parents.
If parents believe that an IEP is inadequate, they may challenge it by requesting a "due process hearing. " If parents are unhappy with the outcome of that proceeding, they may bring a civil action.
Courts are empowered under the IDEA "to order school authorities to reimburse parents for their expenditures on private special education for a child if the court ultimately determines that such placement, rather than a proposed IEP, is proper under the Act."
Prior to filing a lawsuit, parents have a right to challenge the educational services a school may or may not be providing a child in a due process hearing. Hearings are growing in number. For instance, in Pennsylvania, the Central Bucks school district had 19 of due process hearings in 2004 and North Penn district had 13.
Nationwide, in 2000, there were more than 3250 hearings, according to Project FORUM, National Association of State Directors of Special Education, Due Process Hearings: 2001 Update (April 2002).
On average, schools spend between $8,160 and $12,200 for each due process hearing or mediation according to Jay G Chambers, et al, What Are We Spending on Procedural Safeguards in Special Education, 1999-2000 (May 2003).
The average cost of a hearing in some states is higher such as California where the cost is $18,600, according to the GAO Report No 030-897, Special Education "Numbers of Formal Disputes (2003). A hearing officer alone on average costs $9000.
If parents are unhappy with the outcome of the due process proceeding, they may bring a civil action. In a 2004, Utah case that involved the provision of a preschool program for an autistic child, the parents declined a public school's recommendation to place their autistic child in a public school because the child was doing well in a private preschool with the additional use of a supplementary aide and an at-home Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) program, which the public school did not offer.
The child's ABA program was provided by five different therapists and was structured as follows: (1) ten hours per week at the mainstream preschool with an assistant as her aide; (2) ten to twenty hours per week with an assistant as part of her at-home, one-on-one ABA program; (3) an average of five to ten more hours on at-home, one-on-one ABA instruction with her other therapists; (4) in the summer approximately seven to ten hours per week on peer play with a tutor who observed her interactions and redirected her behavior when needed; (5) starting in the next summer, two and one-half to three and one-half hours per week in a play group with tutors who observed and redirected her conduct.
The parents sought reimbursement from the school district for the costs of the ABA program and supplementary aide and after exhausting the administrative procedures without success, the parents filed a lawsuit asking for reimbursement.
Evidence in the case showed the child's supplementary aide and ABA program had cost between $50,000 to $63,800 per year, while the school's entire preschool budget was only $360,000 to $400,000 per year.
The breakdown of the costs of the ABA program included: (1) forty hours per week of ABA services; (2) seven and one-half hours per week of preparation time for ABA therapists to plan for individual sessions; (3) two and one-half hours per week for a team meeting with the child's five ABA therapists; (4) one day per month for an ABA consultant to train the five therapists; (5) materials for ABA program; (6) one hour of speech therapy per week; and (7) occupational therapy as needed.
The court ruled in favor of the parents and found they were entitled to reimbursement for the reasonable costs of the ABA program and the aide's services, and were also eligible for reasonable attorneys' fees and litigation costs.
In a 2001 lawsuit involving a Toledo Ohio day care center, the symptoms of the child's autism that were relevant to the difficulties that arose with the child in day care included repetitive activities, movements such as flapping his hands, pounding his chest, pounding his head, and running into walls.
If noises or other stimuli overloaded the child, he would cry, run in circles, or run to hide from the noise. The child also exhibited violent and destructive behavior when he became extremely frustrated, including hitting himself, other children, and a counselor, and biting other children, cursing, throwing objects, chasing children, and urinating on the floor.
The day care facility did not have staff specifically trained to handle the needs of an autistic child and after 20 months, the center sent the parents a letter stating the child would be terminated due to their inability to handle the child.
In the end, the court ruled in favor of the parents and ordered the day care center to reinstate the child in the program and send staff members to specialized training to teach them how to handle the autistic child.
In a 2005, State of Virginia case that involved a preschool program, the autistic child was easily frustrated, which often led to disruptive behaviors such as crying, biting, slapping, kicking, and sweeping items off a table.
Like many autistic children, the child in this case would engage in self-stimulatory behavior, referred to as stimming, which consists of repetitive patterns of behavior such as flapping of the hands, rocking back and forth, or repeating a word or a sound.
The child engaged in several different forms of stimming, including humming and wiggling long slender objects between his fingers while staring at them out of the corner of his eye. Without intervention, the child would engage in constant stimming all day long.
After the child was diagnosed with autism, his parents enrolled him in the private Faison School right before his third birthday because it used the ABA approach in teaching autistic children.
The Faison School has four masters-level teachers for each student and an assistant is assigned to each student and is always with that student. The child and his assistant work in a private classroom much of the day and move into group sessions for certain activities.
The child in this case attended Faison six hours a day, five days a week, thus receiving 30 hours of one-on-one instruction each week. His parents and older sister all received training in ABA methods, and used the ABA methods with the child at home.
After attending Faison for 8 months, the child could stay on task independently for about five minutes and could quietly wait unattended for approximately 30 seconds.
The parent's primary concern about sending the child to the public preschool was that the class size would prevent the child from receiving the amount of one-on-one instruction required to keep him focused and on task, since the school did not guarantee the child a full-time aide. The parents therefore rejected the plan, choosing instead to leave the child at the Faison School.
The parents then sought reimbursement for the cost of the Faison School and after a due process hearing, the hearing officer found that the child has a very limited ability to work independently and that he "aggressively engages" in self-stimulating activity when not attended to in a one-on-one situation and when he is engaged in self-stimulatory behavior, he is "so engaged in the activity that his ability to learn is precluded."
The officer determined that given the number of other children in the pubic school, the requirement to work independently, the natural distractions at the school and the child's lack of communication skills, social behavior, inability to stay on task for more than a few minutes, his fear of other children and his severe propensity to self stimulate and his inability to learn when self stimulating, the child's ability to access the curriculum offered at the school would be so impaired as to deny him educational benefit.
The hearing officer also found that the plan did not provide the child with a free appropriate education because it did not include extended school year services.
The hearing officer concluded that the Faison School was an appropriate placement for the child and that the School Board was therefore obligated to pay for the cost of his placement at the school.
The school board filed an appeal in Federal court and won the next round and the parents appealed that ruling. The high court determined that the hearing officer's rulings were correct and stated, "Because we conclude that the district court erred by failing to give deference to the decision of the state hearing officer, we reverse the district court's order and we remand for reconsideration consistent with the principles set forth in this opinion."
The school board appealed the decision in the US Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which ruled in favor of the board. The parents appealed that decision and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals' ruled in favor of the child and remanded the case back to the district court with instructions for further proceedings.
When schools fail to comply with the IDEA, subsequent litigation costs can be massive, as evidenced by an editorial in the May 4, 2005, Chattanoogan, from angry Tennessee tax payer, John T Dixion titled, "Outraged Over School Spending In Autism Case."
"As a county homeowner and taxpayer," he wrote, "I'm outraged at the discovery that the school system has spent $2,280,000 plus in attorney fees and court costs, etc. on a lawsuit to fight with a family rather than provide what the student needs to finish his education."
"According to County Commissioner," Mr Dixon said, "this whole matter could have been settled (and the family compensated for out of pocket expenses) to the tune of $150,000 (a mere 6.5% of what has been spent to date)."
"The school system doesn't need more money, it needs people in charge who know how to be good stewards of what they are already getting," he concluded.
*************
For more information for injured parties at Lawyers and Settlements
http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/school_disability.html
By Evelyn Pringle evelyn.pringle@sbcglobal.net
Printed here with permission of the author.
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit:
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
www.AutismConcepts.com
Opinion: Evelyn Pringle
Schools Failing Children With Disabilities
By Evelyn Pringle
In 1975, long before the current epidemic of developmental disorders began, Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which requires public schools to identify children with disabilities and provide them with a need specific free education in the least restrictive environment.
Over the past decade, the costs of complying with the IDEA have skyrocketed and local school districts all over the country are scrambling to find money to meet the needs of disabled children in overflowing classrooms.
The nation's schools spent $78 billion to educate special education students in 1999-2000, which amounts to 21.4% of total spending for elementary and secondary education, according to the US Department of Education, Twenty-fourth Annual Report to Congress, What Are We Spending on Special Education Services (June 2004).
More than 6.4 million children, or 13.4%, of the public school enrollment receive special education services through IDEA, according to the US Department of Education, Digest of Education Statistics 2003, Table 54 (December 2004).
The Fiscal Year 2006 Budget Summary, released by the Department of Education on February 7, 2005, shows payment for overall spending on education breaks down by percentage to Federal 8.2%, State 45.7%, Local 37.2%, and all other at 9%.
The Budget Summary, contains $11.1 billion for the Grants to States program, which is authorized under the IDEA, and makes formula grants that help States pay the additional costs of special education and related services to children with disabilities aged 3 through 21 years. This level of funding would provide an estimated average of $1,599 per student for about 6.9 million children.
That said, for years, federal funding to the states has proven to be wholly inadequate. According to the Department of Education's Twenty-fourth Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the IDEA (2002), the vast majority of spending is paid for by state and local governments. In 1999-2000, for example, school districts received only $3.7 billion in federal assistance, or about $605 per student. This amounts to only 10.2% of the added costs imposed by IDEA.
The most expensive special education belongs to the disorder of autism, an incapacitating, lifelong disorder that affects a child's ability to interact with the outside world. As parents cope with the diagnosis, the major challenge they face is finding the right services for their children. Beginning at age 3, public schools are required to provide a free and appropriate education to autistic children.
What is the definition of appropriate? Under the IDEA, the "free appropriate public education" must include "special education and related services tailored to meet the unique needs of a particular child."
Parents of course want the best for their children, while schools often provide adequate services only. It's a constant source of conflict in schools all over the country today.
The IDEA also contains a "mainstreaming" component, which requires states to establish "procedures to assure that, to the maximum extent appropriate, handicapped children . . . are educated with children who are not handicapped."
To comply with IDEA, school districts must establish an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for each student. An IEP is a written statement that is developed through a collaborative process by a team including teachers, school administrators, and the child's parents.
If parents believe that an IEP is inadequate, they may challenge it by requesting a "due process hearing. " If parents are unhappy with the outcome of that proceeding, they may bring a civil action.
Courts are empowered under the IDEA "to order school authorities to reimburse parents for their expenditures on private special education for a child if the court ultimately determines that such placement, rather than a proposed IEP, is proper under the Act."
Prior to filing a lawsuit, parents have a right to challenge the educational services a school may or may not be providing a child in a due process hearing. Hearings are growing in number. For instance, in Pennsylvania, the Central Bucks school district had 19 of due process hearings in 2004 and North Penn district had 13.
Nationwide, in 2000, there were more than 3250 hearings, according to Project FORUM, National Association of State Directors of Special Education, Due Process Hearings: 2001 Update (April 2002).
On average, schools spend between $8,160 and $12,200 for each due process hearing or mediation according to Jay G Chambers, et al, What Are We Spending on Procedural Safeguards in Special Education, 1999-2000 (May 2003).
The average cost of a hearing in some states is higher such as California where the cost is $18,600, according to the GAO Report No 030-897, Special Education "Numbers of Formal Disputes (2003). A hearing officer alone on average costs $9000.
If parents are unhappy with the outcome of the due process proceeding, they may bring a civil action. In a 2004, Utah case that involved the provision of a preschool program for an autistic child, the parents declined a public school's recommendation to place their autistic child in a public school because the child was doing well in a private preschool with the additional use of a supplementary aide and an at-home Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) program, which the public school did not offer.
The child's ABA program was provided by five different therapists and was structured as follows: (1) ten hours per week at the mainstream preschool with an assistant as her aide; (2) ten to twenty hours per week with an assistant as part of her at-home, one-on-one ABA program; (3) an average of five to ten more hours on at-home, one-on-one ABA instruction with her other therapists; (4) in the summer approximately seven to ten hours per week on peer play with a tutor who observed her interactions and redirected her behavior when needed; (5) starting in the next summer, two and one-half to three and one-half hours per week in a play group with tutors who observed and redirected her conduct.
The parents sought reimbursement from the school district for the costs of the ABA program and supplementary aide and after exhausting the administrative procedures without success, the parents filed a lawsuit asking for reimbursement.
Evidence in the case showed the child's supplementary aide and ABA program had cost between $50,000 to $63,800 per year, while the school's entire preschool budget was only $360,000 to $400,000 per year.
The breakdown of the costs of the ABA program included: (1) forty hours per week of ABA services; (2) seven and one-half hours per week of preparation time for ABA therapists to plan for individual sessions; (3) two and one-half hours per week for a team meeting with the child's five ABA therapists; (4) one day per month for an ABA consultant to train the five therapists; (5) materials for ABA program; (6) one hour of speech therapy per week; and (7) occupational therapy as needed.
The court ruled in favor of the parents and found they were entitled to reimbursement for the reasonable costs of the ABA program and the aide's services, and were also eligible for reasonable attorneys' fees and litigation costs.
In a 2001 lawsuit involving a Toledo Ohio day care center, the symptoms of the child's autism that were relevant to the difficulties that arose with the child in day care included repetitive activities, movements such as flapping his hands, pounding his chest, pounding his head, and running into walls.
If noises or other stimuli overloaded the child, he would cry, run in circles, or run to hide from the noise. The child also exhibited violent and destructive behavior when he became extremely frustrated, including hitting himself, other children, and a counselor, and biting other children, cursing, throwing objects, chasing children, and urinating on the floor.
The day care facility did not have staff specifically trained to handle the needs of an autistic child and after 20 months, the center sent the parents a letter stating the child would be terminated due to their inability to handle the child.
In the end, the court ruled in favor of the parents and ordered the day care center to reinstate the child in the program and send staff members to specialized training to teach them how to handle the autistic child.
In a 2005, State of Virginia case that involved a preschool program, the autistic child was easily frustrated, which often led to disruptive behaviors such as crying, biting, slapping, kicking, and sweeping items off a table.
Like many autistic children, the child in this case would engage in self-stimulatory behavior, referred to as stimming, which consists of repetitive patterns of behavior such as flapping of the hands, rocking back and forth, or repeating a word or a sound.
The child engaged in several different forms of stimming, including humming and wiggling long slender objects between his fingers while staring at them out of the corner of his eye. Without intervention, the child would engage in constant stimming all day long.
After the child was diagnosed with autism, his parents enrolled him in the private Faison School right before his third birthday because it used the ABA approach in teaching autistic children.
The Faison School has four masters-level teachers for each student and an assistant is assigned to each student and is always with that student. The child and his assistant work in a private classroom much of the day and move into group sessions for certain activities.
The child in this case attended Faison six hours a day, five days a week, thus receiving 30 hours of one-on-one instruction each week. His parents and older sister all received training in ABA methods, and used the ABA methods with the child at home.
After attending Faison for 8 months, the child could stay on task independently for about five minutes and could quietly wait unattended for approximately 30 seconds.
The parent's primary concern about sending the child to the public preschool was that the class size would prevent the child from receiving the amount of one-on-one instruction required to keep him focused and on task, since the school did not guarantee the child a full-time aide. The parents therefore rejected the plan, choosing instead to leave the child at the Faison School.
The parents then sought reimbursement for the cost of the Faison School and after a due process hearing, the hearing officer found that the child has a very limited ability to work independently and that he "aggressively engages" in self-stimulating activity when not attended to in a one-on-one situation and when he is engaged in self-stimulatory behavior, he is "so engaged in the activity that his ability to learn is precluded."
The officer determined that given the number of other children in the pubic school, the requirement to work independently, the natural distractions at the school and the child's lack of communication skills, social behavior, inability to stay on task for more than a few minutes, his fear of other children and his severe propensity to self stimulate and his inability to learn when self stimulating, the child's ability to access the curriculum offered at the school would be so impaired as to deny him educational benefit.
The hearing officer also found that the plan did not provide the child with a free appropriate education because it did not include extended school year services.
The hearing officer concluded that the Faison School was an appropriate placement for the child and that the School Board was therefore obligated to pay for the cost of his placement at the school.
The school board filed an appeal in Federal court and won the next round and the parents appealed that ruling. The high court determined that the hearing officer's rulings were correct and stated, "Because we conclude that the district court erred by failing to give deference to the decision of the state hearing officer, we reverse the district court's order and we remand for reconsideration consistent with the principles set forth in this opinion."
The school board appealed the decision in the US Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which ruled in favor of the board. The parents appealed that decision and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals' ruled in favor of the child and remanded the case back to the district court with instructions for further proceedings.
When schools fail to comply with the IDEA, subsequent litigation costs can be massive, as evidenced by an editorial in the May 4, 2005, Chattanoogan, from angry Tennessee tax payer, John T Dixion titled, "Outraged Over School Spending In Autism Case."
"As a county homeowner and taxpayer," he wrote, "I'm outraged at the discovery that the school system has spent $2,280,000 plus in attorney fees and court costs, etc. on a lawsuit to fight with a family rather than provide what the student needs to finish his education."
"According to County Commissioner," Mr Dixon said, "this whole matter could have been settled (and the family compensated for out of pocket expenses) to the tune of $150,000 (a mere 6.5% of what has been spent to date)."
"The school system doesn't need more money, it needs people in charge who know how to be good stewards of what they are already getting," he concluded.
*************
For more information for injured parties at Lawyers and Settlements
http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/school_disability.html
By Evelyn Pringle evelyn.pringle@sbcglobal.net
Printed here with permission of the author.
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism please visit:
www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com
www.AutismConcepts.com
Autism Rates Drop After Mercury Removed From Childhood Vaccines
03 Mar 2006
from Medical News Today
An article in the March 10, 2006 issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons shows that since mercury was removed from childhood vaccines, the alarming increase in reported rates of autism and other neurological disorders (NDs) in children not only stopped, but actually dropped sharply - by as much as 35%.
Using the government's own databases, independent researchers analyzed reports of childhood NDs, including autism, before and after removal of mercury-based preservatives. Authors David A. Geier, B.A. and Mark R. Geier, M.D., Ph.D. analyze data from the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and the California Department of Developmental Services (CDDS) in "Early Downward Trends in Neurodevelopmental Disorders Following Removal of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines."
The numbers from California show that reported autism rates hit a high of 800 in May 2003. If that trend had continued, the reports would have skyrocketed to more than 1000 by the beginning of 2006. But in fact, the Geiers report that the number actually went down to only 620, a real decrease of 22%, and a decrease from the projections of 35%.
This analysis directly contradicts 2004 recommendations of the Institute of Medicine which examined vaccine safety data from the National Immunization Program (NIP) of the CDC. While not willing to either rule out or to corroborate a relationship between mercury and autism, the IOM soft-pedaled its findings, and decided no more studies were needed. The authors write: "The IOM stated that the evidence favored rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal and autism, that such a relationship was not biologically plausible, and that no further studies should be conducted to evaluate it."
Excerpt from article at: http://nbc15.madison.com/news/headlines/2407501.html
For information, resources and practical strategies please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.
from Medical News Today
An article in the March 10, 2006 issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons shows that since mercury was removed from childhood vaccines, the alarming increase in reported rates of autism and other neurological disorders (NDs) in children not only stopped, but actually dropped sharply - by as much as 35%.
Using the government's own databases, independent researchers analyzed reports of childhood NDs, including autism, before and after removal of mercury-based preservatives. Authors David A. Geier, B.A. and Mark R. Geier, M.D., Ph.D. analyze data from the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and the California Department of Developmental Services (CDDS) in "Early Downward Trends in Neurodevelopmental Disorders Following Removal of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines."
The numbers from California show that reported autism rates hit a high of 800 in May 2003. If that trend had continued, the reports would have skyrocketed to more than 1000 by the beginning of 2006. But in fact, the Geiers report that the number actually went down to only 620, a real decrease of 22%, and a decrease from the projections of 35%.
This analysis directly contradicts 2004 recommendations of the Institute of Medicine which examined vaccine safety data from the National Immunization Program (NIP) of the CDC. While not willing to either rule out or to corroborate a relationship between mercury and autism, the IOM soft-pedaled its findings, and decided no more studies were needed. The authors write: "The IOM stated that the evidence favored rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal and autism, that such a relationship was not biologically plausible, and that no further studies should be conducted to evaluate it."
Excerpt from article at: http://nbc15.madison.com/news/headlines/2407501.html
For information, resources and practical strategies please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.
New Treatment For Autistic Children Comes to Madison
Updated: 2:41 PM Mar 6, 2006
Zac Schultz
Dr. Steven Gutstein agrees, "The assumption was you couldn't treat the autism itself, so you had to learn to live with it and give you whatever abilities you could have given the fact your brain was developing in this way."
Dr. Gutstein doesn't accept that answer anymore, so he created the Relationship Development Intervention program. "We're saying we believe it's possible to change the way the brain is developing so that we're not just treating people with autism, we're treating the autism itself."
Dr. Gutstein says people with autism don't develop the ability to solve problems or develop relationships–and that's why they rarely learn to live independently or develop lasting friendships.
The RDI system is pretty basic. "We slow things down, we amplify things so they can start to become more effective in teaching their child how to think about the world, how to make decisions, how to solve problems," says Dr. Gutstein.
Excerpt from article at: http://nbc15.madison.com/news/headlines/2407501.html
For information, resources and practical strategies please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.
Zac Schultz
Dr. Steven Gutstein agrees, "The assumption was you couldn't treat the autism itself, so you had to learn to live with it and give you whatever abilities you could have given the fact your brain was developing in this way."
Dr. Gutstein doesn't accept that answer anymore, so he created the Relationship Development Intervention program. "We're saying we believe it's possible to change the way the brain is developing so that we're not just treating people with autism, we're treating the autism itself."
Dr. Gutstein says people with autism don't develop the ability to solve problems or develop relationships–and that's why they rarely learn to live independently or develop lasting friendships.
The RDI system is pretty basic. "We slow things down, we amplify things so they can start to become more effective in teaching their child how to think about the world, how to make decisions, how to solve problems," says Dr. Gutstein.
Excerpt from article at: http://nbc15.madison.com/news/headlines/2407501.html
For information, resources and practical strategies please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.
Friday, March 03, 2006
Voucher Plan Not Right, Public School Advocates Say
By Deirdre Fernandes, The Virginian-Pilot
A major battle is brewing over legislation that aims to give parentsof children with disabilities money to attend private schools.
Fearing that the measure would be the first step toward vouchers that would siphon resources from public school divisions, educators from across the state have sent e-mails and made phone calls to their lawmakers, and railed against the proposal in public meetings.
Read full article at: http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=100445&ran=98303
For information, resources and practical strategies please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.
A major battle is brewing over legislation that aims to give parentsof children with disabilities money to attend private schools.
Fearing that the measure would be the first step toward vouchers that would siphon resources from public school divisions, educators from across the state have sent e-mails and made phone calls to their lawmakers, and railed against the proposal in public meetings.
Read full article at: http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=100445&ran=98303
For information, resources and practical strategies please visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.
The Age of Autism: Less is beautiful
By Dan Olmsted
UPI Senior Editor
Whatever the reason, a big decline in autism diagnoses would be welcome news to anyone who cares about the nightmarish prevalence of the disorder.
The latest signal that something may be going on comes from the father-and-son research team of Dr. Mark R. Geier and David A. Geier. They report in the spring issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons that "significant decreasing trends in newly diagnosed NDs (neurodevelopmental disorders) were observed ... from mid-2002 through 2005" in two separate databases.
The first is kept by the California Department of Developmental Services and is widely regarded as the most accurate barometer of full-syndrome, professionally diagnosed cases of autism. Those qualifiers are important because autism spectrum disorders run the gamut from severe (full-syndrome) to milder (Asperger's disorder) to hard to define (the awfully named PDD-NOS, or pervasive developmental disorders, not otherwise specified).
So focusing on the full-syndrome cases -- the most easily identified and indisputable -- is a smart way to go.
The other database is the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System maintained by the federal government, to which health professionals, parents and anyone else can report what they believe are side effects of vaccines.
That's much less consistent and credible, of course, but the Geiers see the VAERS information as an informal confirmation of the California data --companion graphs printed side by side in the study show remarkably similar rise-and-falls in autism.
"The consistency of the effects observed for the spectrum of NDs, including autism and speech disorders, and the agreement between the observations from two separate databases, support the conclusion that the effect is real and not a chance observation. The magnitude of the change in the trend lines is substantial," the Geiers write.
The Geiers also cite another confirmation: "(P)rovisional data from the U.S. Department of Education show a recent decrease of 529 in the number of new autism diagnoses recorded among children 3 to 5 years old, after years of annual increases. There were 1,451 new cases in 2001-2002; 1,981 in 2002-2003; 3,707 in 2003-2004; and 3,178 in 2004-2005."
The Geiers attribute the rise and fall to the increasing use of the mercury preservative thimerosal in childhood vaccines in the 1990s, followed by the phase-out beginning in 1999. While federal health authorities and mainstream medical groups say concern about thimerosal is not founded on good science, the Geiers think the trends ought to prompt a fresh look at the theory.
The people I talk to who think the preservative may indeed have triggered the rise in autism don't know what to make of all these numbers. While the autism rate may be falling as indicated in these databases, they say it's far too soon to make conclusive claims.
Some, in fact, have told me they think it should be falling further, faster if thimerosal is really behind the autism epidemic. Others suspect the connection is already there to see in exactly those numbers.
Then there's the possible confounding effect of flu shots for children and pregnant women, most of which still contain thimerosal. A number of other vaccines retain "trace" amounts of thimerosal.
And despite the welcome trends in data cited by the Geier, some countervailing reports are troubling. For example, reporter Steven Carter wrote in The Oregonian just last week that "(c)hildren diagnosed with autism, a brain disorder that disrupts a child's communication and social skills, jumped from 5,070 in 2004 to 5,637 in December. Over five years, the number of autistic students rose by 67 percent."
I'm sure someone can reconcile that with figures suggesting autism is on its way down, but I can't.
"We wish we knew exactly what is going on," said an admirably tentative Dr. Bob Nickel, a developmental pediatrician who heads the Autism Training Network at Oregon Health & Science University. He told Carter environmental issues could be at work.
Certainly other neurotoxins -- mercury in fish, just to pick an example often cited -- could harm kids' development whether the mercury in vaccines was ever a problem or not. It doesn't take much imagination to connect fish from the Pacific with mercury-laced plumes wafting over from China with a long history of mercury mines in the northwest -- and voila, rising autism in Oregon.
That's rank speculation. But some areas of the country probably do create more autism than others -- "hotspots," as they're called.
All this should make people cautious, humble and, as the scientists always remind us, evidence-based.
Mark Blaxill, a director of the mercury-out-of-medicine group Safe Minds, told me a couple of years ago: "By the time kids born in 2001 turn 5, we'll have a pretty good picture of the thimerosal effect."
That's soon -- but not quite yet.
--
E-mail: consumer@upi.com
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.
UPI Senior Editor
Whatever the reason, a big decline in autism diagnoses would be welcome news to anyone who cares about the nightmarish prevalence of the disorder.
The latest signal that something may be going on comes from the father-and-son research team of Dr. Mark R. Geier and David A. Geier. They report in the spring issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons that "significant decreasing trends in newly diagnosed NDs (neurodevelopmental disorders) were observed ... from mid-2002 through 2005" in two separate databases.
The first is kept by the California Department of Developmental Services and is widely regarded as the most accurate barometer of full-syndrome, professionally diagnosed cases of autism. Those qualifiers are important because autism spectrum disorders run the gamut from severe (full-syndrome) to milder (Asperger's disorder) to hard to define (the awfully named PDD-NOS, or pervasive developmental disorders, not otherwise specified).
So focusing on the full-syndrome cases -- the most easily identified and indisputable -- is a smart way to go.
The other database is the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System maintained by the federal government, to which health professionals, parents and anyone else can report what they believe are side effects of vaccines.
That's much less consistent and credible, of course, but the Geiers see the VAERS information as an informal confirmation of the California data --companion graphs printed side by side in the study show remarkably similar rise-and-falls in autism.
"The consistency of the effects observed for the spectrum of NDs, including autism and speech disorders, and the agreement between the observations from two separate databases, support the conclusion that the effect is real and not a chance observation. The magnitude of the change in the trend lines is substantial," the Geiers write.
The Geiers also cite another confirmation: "(P)rovisional data from the U.S. Department of Education show a recent decrease of 529 in the number of new autism diagnoses recorded among children 3 to 5 years old, after years of annual increases. There were 1,451 new cases in 2001-2002; 1,981 in 2002-2003; 3,707 in 2003-2004; and 3,178 in 2004-2005."
The Geiers attribute the rise and fall to the increasing use of the mercury preservative thimerosal in childhood vaccines in the 1990s, followed by the phase-out beginning in 1999. While federal health authorities and mainstream medical groups say concern about thimerosal is not founded on good science, the Geiers think the trends ought to prompt a fresh look at the theory.
The people I talk to who think the preservative may indeed have triggered the rise in autism don't know what to make of all these numbers. While the autism rate may be falling as indicated in these databases, they say it's far too soon to make conclusive claims.
Some, in fact, have told me they think it should be falling further, faster if thimerosal is really behind the autism epidemic. Others suspect the connection is already there to see in exactly those numbers.
Then there's the possible confounding effect of flu shots for children and pregnant women, most of which still contain thimerosal. A number of other vaccines retain "trace" amounts of thimerosal.
And despite the welcome trends in data cited by the Geier, some countervailing reports are troubling. For example, reporter Steven Carter wrote in The Oregonian just last week that "(c)hildren diagnosed with autism, a brain disorder that disrupts a child's communication and social skills, jumped from 5,070 in 2004 to 5,637 in December. Over five years, the number of autistic students rose by 67 percent."
I'm sure someone can reconcile that with figures suggesting autism is on its way down, but I can't.
"We wish we knew exactly what is going on," said an admirably tentative Dr. Bob Nickel, a developmental pediatrician who heads the Autism Training Network at Oregon Health & Science University. He told Carter environmental issues could be at work.
Certainly other neurotoxins -- mercury in fish, just to pick an example often cited -- could harm kids' development whether the mercury in vaccines was ever a problem or not. It doesn't take much imagination to connect fish from the Pacific with mercury-laced plumes wafting over from China with a long history of mercury mines in the northwest -- and voila, rising autism in Oregon.
That's rank speculation. But some areas of the country probably do create more autism than others -- "hotspots," as they're called.
All this should make people cautious, humble and, as the scientists always remind us, evidence-based.
Mark Blaxill, a director of the mercury-out-of-medicine group Safe Minds, told me a couple of years ago: "By the time kids born in 2001 turn 5, we'll have a pretty good picture of the thimerosal effect."
That's soon -- but not quite yet.
--
E-mail: consumer@upi.com
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
For information, resources and practical strategies on autism visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Study links autism, vaccine
By Jon Brodkin
Thursday, March 2, 2006
Between 1988 and 1992, the federal government more than doubled the amount of mercury injected into babies by recommending additional vaccines that contain thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury.
Since then, estimated autism prevalence soared from one out of 2,500 births to one in every 166. Federal officials say the increase is at least partly explained by changes in diagnostic guidelines, but some researchers believe mercury in vaccines is to blame.
Thimerosal is still used in flu shots, but was eliminated from most other childhood vaccines by 2003.
A father-son research team determined that new diagnoses of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders have dropped since then after analyzing data from the national Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, the U.S. Department of Education and the California Department of Developmental Services.
Excerpt from article at: http://www.dailynewstribune.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=70814
For information, resources and practical strategies visit: www.AutismConcepts.com
Thursday, March 2, 2006
Between 1988 and 1992, the federal government more than doubled the amount of mercury injected into babies by recommending additional vaccines that contain thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury.
Since then, estimated autism prevalence soared from one out of 2,500 births to one in every 166. Federal officials say the increase is at least partly explained by changes in diagnostic guidelines, but some researchers believe mercury in vaccines is to blame.
Thimerosal is still used in flu shots, but was eliminated from most other childhood vaccines by 2003.
A father-son research team determined that new diagnoses of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders have dropped since then after analyzing data from the national Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, the U.S. Department of Education and the California Department of Developmental Services.
Excerpt from article at: http://www.dailynewstribune.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=70814
For information, resources and practical strategies visit: www.AutismConcepts.com
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Time for CDC to Come Clean
from National Autism Association
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/time-for-cdc-to-come-clea_b_16550.html
Time for CDC to Come Clean
by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
03.01.2006
Correspondence newly obtained under the Freedom of Information Act raises troubling new questions about CDC's role in the Thimerosal scandal. Thimerosal is the mercury-based vaccine preservative that has been linked to epidemics of neurological disorders, including autism, in American children born after 1989.
Responding to scientific studies linking dangerous levels of mercury to a range of health disorders, the CDC in July 1999 recommended that the nation's vaccine makers eliminate Thimerosal as a preservative, "as soon as possible."
But the newly released documents show that behind the scenes CDC was quietly discouraging Thimerosal's removal. In a July 1999 letter, vaccine producer SmithKline Beecham tells CDC that it is ready to produce non-Thimerosal DTP (Diptheria/Tetanus/Pertussis) vaccines immediately and has sufficient inventories to supply the entire U.S. market during the remainder of 1999 and the first half of 2000, by which time other vaccine manufacturers would have their Thimerosal-free DTP vaccines on line.
Thimerosal-laden DTP vaccines containing 25 micrograms of mercury apiece were then being administered to American infants at two months, four months and six months -- far exceeding EPA's recommended safe level for mercury. Had CDC accepted SmithKline's offer, it could have immediately reduced the mercury exposures to vaccinated six-month-old children by 40%.
However, in November, CDC mysteriously sent a letter back rejecting SmithKline's offer. Then, on July 14, 2000 CDC published a deceptive press release promising to require that all vaccines be Thimerosal-free as soon as "adequate supplies are available." This was a full 12 months after the agency had denied SmithKline's proposal.
"If CDC were basing its decision on safety alone, it would have taken SmithKline up on its offer. That's a no-brainer," said a federal health official who requested anonymity. "So there were other considerations beside safety that were guiding their decision making."
Among these "other considerations" were CDC's important concerns for the preservation of the vaccine program, a bureaucratic impulse for self-preservation, and protecting the economic interests of its vaccine industry friends."
Immediate withdrawal would send a strong message; 'We messed up!'" the health official told me. "And I don't think they wanted to send that message to parents, the public or those considering legal action."
"There was also concern," says the federal official, "that an immediate withdrawal might discredit the international vaccine programs for which CDC is an important partner." The World Health Organization has urged CDC against the banning of Thimerosal in U.S. vaccines since that prohibition might discredit WHO's third world inoculation programs. WHO, with U.S. funding, is now injecting children in developing countries with the same amounts of Thimerosal we were giving American kids at their highest exposures, but in a shorter time period. In May 2001, WHO committed to "develop a strong advocacy campaign to support the ongoing use of Thimerosal."
But CDC insiders argue that CDC's primary concern was the economic impacts on its pharmaceutical industry partners. "The big consideration was cost," says the federal health official. "A lot of CDC's friends in the vaccine industry had stockpiled Thimerosal-based vaccines. If they couldn't sell them the costs would total in the tens of millions of dollars."
On July 14, 2000 CDC promised to complete the transition to Thimerosal-free vaccines for children by first quarter 2001. But, probably for the reasons stated above, its commitment sometimes seems half-hearted.
CDC continues to promote the use of Thimerosal in vaccines. The agency continues to send its top spokesman Roger Bernier around the country to testify before state legislatures to derail state efforts to ban Thimerosal in vaccines. Last week Bernier was testifying against a proposed Thimerosal ban in Maryland.CDC continues to exert muscular efforts to derail studies of American cohorts -- the Amish, Christian Scientists, and home-schooled children -- who were not exposed to Thimerosal vaccines. Preliminary studies of these groups indicate very low levels of the neurological disorders, including autism, that have been associated with Thimerosal in vaccinated populations.
Think Autism. Think Cure.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/time-for-cdc-to-come-clea_b_16550.html
Time for CDC to Come Clean
by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
03.01.2006
Correspondence newly obtained under the Freedom of Information Act raises troubling new questions about CDC's role in the Thimerosal scandal. Thimerosal is the mercury-based vaccine preservative that has been linked to epidemics of neurological disorders, including autism, in American children born after 1989.
Responding to scientific studies linking dangerous levels of mercury to a range of health disorders, the CDC in July 1999 recommended that the nation's vaccine makers eliminate Thimerosal as a preservative, "as soon as possible."
But the newly released documents show that behind the scenes CDC was quietly discouraging Thimerosal's removal. In a July 1999 letter, vaccine producer SmithKline Beecham tells CDC that it is ready to produce non-Thimerosal DTP (Diptheria/Tetanus/Pertussis) vaccines immediately and has sufficient inventories to supply the entire U.S. market during the remainder of 1999 and the first half of 2000, by which time other vaccine manufacturers would have their Thimerosal-free DTP vaccines on line.
Thimerosal-laden DTP vaccines containing 25 micrograms of mercury apiece were then being administered to American infants at two months, four months and six months -- far exceeding EPA's recommended safe level for mercury. Had CDC accepted SmithKline's offer, it could have immediately reduced the mercury exposures to vaccinated six-month-old children by 40%.
However, in November, CDC mysteriously sent a letter back rejecting SmithKline's offer. Then, on July 14, 2000 CDC published a deceptive press release promising to require that all vaccines be Thimerosal-free as soon as "adequate supplies are available." This was a full 12 months after the agency had denied SmithKline's proposal.
"If CDC were basing its decision on safety alone, it would have taken SmithKline up on its offer. That's a no-brainer," said a federal health official who requested anonymity. "So there were other considerations beside safety that were guiding their decision making."
Among these "other considerations" were CDC's important concerns for the preservation of the vaccine program, a bureaucratic impulse for self-preservation, and protecting the economic interests of its vaccine industry friends."
Immediate withdrawal would send a strong message; 'We messed up!'" the health official told me. "And I don't think they wanted to send that message to parents, the public or those considering legal action."
"There was also concern," says the federal official, "that an immediate withdrawal might discredit the international vaccine programs for which CDC is an important partner." The World Health Organization has urged CDC against the banning of Thimerosal in U.S. vaccines since that prohibition might discredit WHO's third world inoculation programs. WHO, with U.S. funding, is now injecting children in developing countries with the same amounts of Thimerosal we were giving American kids at their highest exposures, but in a shorter time period. In May 2001, WHO committed to "develop a strong advocacy campaign to support the ongoing use of Thimerosal."
But CDC insiders argue that CDC's primary concern was the economic impacts on its pharmaceutical industry partners. "The big consideration was cost," says the federal health official. "A lot of CDC's friends in the vaccine industry had stockpiled Thimerosal-based vaccines. If they couldn't sell them the costs would total in the tens of millions of dollars."
On July 14, 2000 CDC promised to complete the transition to Thimerosal-free vaccines for children by first quarter 2001. But, probably for the reasons stated above, its commitment sometimes seems half-hearted.
CDC continues to promote the use of Thimerosal in vaccines. The agency continues to send its top spokesman Roger Bernier around the country to testify before state legislatures to derail state efforts to ban Thimerosal in vaccines. Last week Bernier was testifying against a proposed Thimerosal ban in Maryland.CDC continues to exert muscular efforts to derail studies of American cohorts -- the Amish, Christian Scientists, and home-schooled children -- who were not exposed to Thimerosal vaccines. Preliminary studies of these groups indicate very low levels of the neurological disorders, including autism, that have been associated with Thimerosal in vaccinated populations.
It's time for the CDC to come clean with the American public. Its tactics of deception and obfuscation are jeopardizing the credibility of the entire vaccine program, and therefore posing an enormous danger to public health.
Think Autism. Think Cure.
For information, resources and practical strategies visit: www.AutismConcepts.com.
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