February 2008

Researchers admit that removing thimerosal from vaccines did not reduce autism cases in California

For years, the medical community said that autism cases resulting from childhood vaccines were caused, not by the vaccines themselves, but by the mercury‑containing preservative thimerosal. However, a new study published in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, reveals that autism cases continued to increase in California after thimerosal was eliminated from most childhood vaccines. This suggests that exposure to thimerosal is not a primary cause of autism, giving additional credence to parent's concerns that the real culprit may be one or more of the vaccines.

Diagnosed cases of autism and related conditions, known collectively as autism spectrum disorders, have increased in recent years, according to background information in the article. "Young children receive immunizations in the period preceding the typical manifestations or diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders," the authors wrote. "Increased exposure to thimerosal, a preservative that contains 49.6 percent ethylmercury by weight, has been postulated to have contributed to the upswing in reported cases of autism spectrum disorders."

Thimerosal was eliminated from most vaccines by 2001. A 2004 report by the Institute of Medicine cited the lack of data supporting thimerosal as a cause of autism, but recommended that trends in autism diagnoses be observed as exposure to thimerosal decreased.

Robert Schechter, MD, MSc, and Judith K. Grether, PhD, of the California Department of Public Health, Richmond, studied the prevalence of children with autism in California from 1995 through March 2007. They used data provided by the California Department of Developmental Services, which administers a statewide system of centers that serve individuals with autism and other developmental problems.

"The estimated prevalence of autism for children at each year of age from 3 to 12 years increased throughout the study period," the authors write. Per 1,000 children born in 1993, 0.3 had autism at age 3, compared with 1.3 per 1,000 births in 2003. The highest estimated prevalence ‑‑ 4.5 cases per 1,000 births ‑‑ was reached in 2006 for children born in 2000. "Although insufficient time has passed to calculate the prevalence of autism for children 6 years and older born after 2000, the prevalence at ages 3 to 5 years has increased monotonically for each birth year since 1999, during which period exposure to thimerosal has been reduced," they continue.

In addition to analyzing the prevalence of autism by birth year, the researchers also examined the rate among children age 3 to 5 based on quarterly reports issued by the Department of Developmental Services. Prevalence increased each quarter from January 1995 (0.6 per 1,000 live births) through March 2007 (4.1 per 1,000 live births), including after 2004, when the researchers estimate that exposure to thimerosal during infancy and early childhood declined. Over the same time period, the rate of all developmental disabilities increased but at a slower rate, from 5.4 to 9.5 per 1,000 live births.

In an editorial published in the same issue, Eric Fombonne, MD, of the Montreal Children's Hospital, tried to ward off the to‑be‑expected reaction from parents and the public and, at the same time, steer them away from non‑medical alternative care.

"Parents of autistic children should be reassured that autism in their child did not occur through immunizations," Dr. Fombonne commented. "Their autistic children, and their siblings, should be normally vaccinated, and as there is no evidence of mercury poisoning in autism, they should avoid ineffective and dangerous 'treatments' such as chelation therapy for their children."

Barbara Loe Fisher, co‑founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) noted in her blog, Vaccine Awakening, that Fombonne is "the Canadian child psychiatrist, who helps out drug companies and US vaccine policymakers by testifying in civil court and in the D.C. Court of Claims to deny vaccine injured autistic children compensation for their injuries."

Fisher also suggests that Fombonne is "apparently unhappy that children with vaccine associated autism have been healed through use of alternative therapies that do not rely on expensive prescription drugs and visits to child psychiatrists... He points an accusing finger at 'powerful advocacy groups' that have lobbied 'decision makers to influence decisions about which autism research to fund and even how to conduct it.' He ridicules 'best‑selling writers, journalists and politicians' who are 'unaware of scientific studies, or worse, doubtful of their results' and have been 'drawn to embrace conspiracy theories that portrayed vaccine manufacturers and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as public enemies.'"

In reference to the research itself, she conclude: "As usual, it is not the MD or PhD 'experts' but parents of vaccine injured children, who understand the bigger picture involving accumulating clinical evidence that many children are regressing and becoming chronically ill after receiving both mercury‑containing and non‑mercury containing vaccines. Parents know well that this one study cannot negate the fact that the medical establishment has refused to conduct the methodologically sound basic science research into the biological effects on immune and brain function of injecting infants and children with multiple vaccines containing many potentially toxic ingredients, including mercury."

SOURCES: Archives of General Psychiatry 2008;65(1):19‑24

"Fombonning Autism Increases in California," by Barbara Loe Fisher. Vaccine Awakening, Jan. 8, 2008. www.vaccineawakening.blogspot.com.