Families of Autistic Children Demand Compensation from Vaccine Court
Attorney
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http://www.kidsgrowth.com/resources/articledetail.cfm?id=1867Childhood vaccines contain a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal. Many believe this causes autism in children and over 4,800 families have filed claims for compensation to pay for medical bills for their autistic children. They allege that their children were harmed by the thimerosal in vaccines.
A U.S. Court of Federal Claims, called the "Vaccine Court", began to hear the claims on June 11, 2007. The Court must decide whether to accept or reject the idea that thimerosal causes autism. It may be difficult since the Institute of Medicine reported three years ago that thimerosal does not cause autism.
Based on a thorough review of numerous medical studies, neither the mercury-based vaccine preservative thimerosal nor the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine are associated with autism. This was the conclusion of a new report issued in May of 2004 by the Institute of Medicine, a private, non-profit organization that provides scientific evidence to the government. Two governmental health agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had asked the IOM to evaluate the scientific evidence regarding whether vaccines caused certain health problems.
Autism is a chronic developmental disorder characterized by problems with social interaction, communication along with limitations of activities. Thimerosal is an organic mercury compound still used in adult vaccines but since 1999 removed from vaccines given to children.
This eighth and final report of the Immunization Safety Review Committee examines the hypothesis that vaccines, specifically the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and thimerosal-containing vaccines, are causally associated with autism. The committee reviewed the extant published and unpublished epidemiological studies regarding causality and studies of potential biologic mechanisms by which these immunizations might cause autism.
The committee concludes that the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism. The committee also concludes that the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism. The committee further finds that potential biological mechanisms for vaccine-induced autism that have been generated to date are theoretical only.
The Vaccine Court is hearing the case of Cedillo v Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Cedillo v. Secretary of Health and Human Services is the first to be heard of the 4,800 petitions filed by families of children with autism. Its outcome is of prime importance to the families seeking monetary support to help care for their children. It is also of great importance to physicians who are concerned that a decision favoring the families could undermine the perceived safety of vaccines.
Anyone with a autistic child should read the Immunization Safety Review: Vaccines and Autism released on May 17, 2004.
Also of interest may be Immunization Safety Review: Vaccinations and Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy released on March 12, 2003.
With current recommendations calling for infants to receive multiple doses of vaccines during their first year of life and with sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) the most frequent cause of death during the postneonatal period, it is important to respond to concerns that vaccination might play a role in sudden unexpected infant death. A death that occurs suddenly and unexpectedly in the first year of life, whether or not there is an underlying disorder that predisposes to death, has been referred to by the term "sudden unexpected death in infancy" (SUDI). SUDI includes deaths that can be attributed to identifiable causes and deaths for which the causes remain uncertain. SIDS is the diagnosis most commonly given to the deaths of uncertain cause. The committee reviewed epidemiologic evidence focusing on three outcomes: SIDS, all SUDI, and neonatal death (infant death, whether sudden or not, during the first 4 weeks of life).
Based on this review, the committee concluded that the evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between some vaccines and SIDS; and that the evidence is inadequate to accept or reject a causal relationship between other vaccines and SIDS, SUDI, or neonatal death. The evidence regarding biological mechanisms is essentially theoretical, reflecting in large measure the lack of knowledge concerning the pathogenesis of SIDS. Anaphylaxis related to vaccination has been discussed in detail in previous IOM reports and is reexamined in the report; the committee observed that anaphylaxis is known to be a rare but causally related adverse event following the administration of some vaccines. Fatal anaphylaxis in infants is extraordinarily rare.
