http://www.usatoday.com/news/healthscience/health/2001-12-18-vaccines-usat.htm
12/17/2001 - Updated 08:59 PM ET
CHICAGO — Concerns that vaccines
may occasionally trigger serious illnesses, including multiple sclerosis,
diabetes and autism, are not borne out in a variety of studies on vaccine
safety, researchers reported here Monday.
In a study to determine whether the
Lyme disease vaccine causes arthritis, Arnold Chan of the Harvard School
of Public Health says interim results based on records of 5,000 vaccinated
and 14,000 unvaccinated people show a slightly higher percentage of arthritis-related
diagnoses in vaccinated people (15.8%) compared with the unvaccinated (13.9%).
But a review of 25% of those reports
found only five confirmed cases of arthritis among vaccinated people; 15
confirmed among the unvaccinated. "So far, there is no signal for an increase
in risk" among the vaccinated, Chan says.
The reported link between the MMR
vaccine, autism and inflammatory bowel disease doesn't hold up to scientific
scrutiny, says Neal Halsey of Johns Hopkins University. Some evidence suggests
autism is caused by an abnormality that occurs before birth in genetically
predisposed babies, Halsey says, but reports of symptoms appearing in toddlers
shortly after they get the MMR shot have raised fears of a causal relationship.
Some parents and a handful of researchers
say there also is a link between the vaccine and intestinal disorders,
which they say are common in autistic children. But Halsey says studies
have been unable to establish a cause-and-effect connection between the
vaccine and autism, nor is the rate of gastrointestinal disorders higher
in autistic children than in others.
The hepatitis B vaccine, which protects
against serious liver disease, has been linked to multiple sclerosis (MS)
in adults and to sudden infant death in babies and the onset of juvenile
(type 1) diabetes — and none of these associations appears valid, says
Frank DeStefano of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A French study found "persuasive
evidence against an association" between the vaccine and MS, he says. The
CDC is doing a similar study that looks at patients with MS and their vaccination
history and "we're not finding any increased risk (of developing MS) overall,
or within a year of vaccination," DeStefano says.
The vaccine also is safe for kids,
he says, noting a drop in incidences of sudden infant death syndrome during
a period when an increasing number of babies were vaccinated against hepatitis
B. And a study involving 252 children with type 1 diabetes compared with
non-diabetic kids found "no correlation between diabetes and the hepatitis
B vaccine," he says.
In a separate presentation, a researcher
from the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison reported promising
results from early studies of a vaccine to prevent recurring urinary tract
infections in women. Walter Hopkins says 10% to 15% of women experience
three or more bladder infections every year, requiring frequent use of
antibiotics.
The experimental vaccine, being developed
with funding from the National Institutes of Health, is given as a vaginal
suppository. In studies involving 54 women, 55% of those who got monthly
immunization had no infections for six months, while 89% of those given
a placebo experienced infections.
Additional studies will begin soon.
By Anita Manning, USA TODAY
Experts at a meeting of the American
Society for Microbiology presented summaries of safety data on vaccines
that prevent measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), hepatitis B and Lyme disease.
© Copyright 2001 USA TODAY