Cindy, you raise some good points. And we definitely need to hone in on the many issues in bone density testing; there are too many problems to list here! More on this soon.
Terry, this is a very complex issue as you know. All I can say is that after many years, and a slew of inconclusive articles, some people have been seriously affected by the vaccination. Based on literature (and CDC data, which IMHO is incomplete), there would appear to be a low complication rate.
For what it’s worth, I’ve talked to (app.) five people in the last year who happen to be health care workers that were vaccinated with Hep B and appear to have major multi-level spine problems.
Please folks, I am not making sweeping generalizations; I am just trying to discuss some information that was inspired by past conversations. It’s up to you to do more research (if you have the time & patience) and ask more questions.
That said, I hope these citations help us all
rethink the sophistication and fragility of the immune system and its infinitely complex relationship to spine health.
Finally, a disclaimer from me: as I was in the National Guard many years ago, my arm was vaccinated like a pincushion! I had more dead bugs injected me than I want to think about; so this issue is a tricky one for me.
Happy reading.
________________________________________________
Excerpts from a Discussion of Hep B Vaccination Risks:
http://www.immunesupport.com/library.../1/T/CFIDS_FM/
France Terminates HepB Vaccinations
Autoimmune and fatiguing diseases can also occur in adults that receive vaccines. Alarmed over the world-wide rate of hepatitis B infections, the U.S. and Canada have pushed the hepatitis B (hepB) vaccine, even though hepatitis B infections in North America were reported to be less than 10,000 in 1997, with only about 300 occurring in children under the age of 14.
Almost all of these patients recover from their hepatitis B infections and have permanent immunity to the virus. In the U.S. and Canada, health many care and other workers are required to get a hepatitis B vaccination, and a new recombinant DNA hepB vaccine has been promoted as a safe, effective vaccine against hepatitis B. However, this new hepB vaccine may cause chronic illnesses, such as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.
Professor Bonnie Dunbar of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston reports that the hepB vaccine may cause autoimmune disease by tricking the immune system to attack itself. The reason for this may reside in the amino acid sequences programmed by the recombinant DNA vaccine. Some of these polypeptide sequences appear to mimic some of the normal sequences on the cell surfaces of nerve cells present in the human brain. Thus, immunization with the hepB recombinant vaccine may increase the risk of autoimmunity.
Recently, France became the first country to terminate a hepB vaccine program. The French Ministry of Health acted when complaints of multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and other illnesses in patients who received the hepB vaccine were reported.
--------------------------------------
Excerpts from the AMA site on Hep B vaccinations:
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/1809.html
What are possible serious side effects?
Serious side effects after administration of the hepatitis B vaccine are extremely rare. There have been some anecdotal reports of the association of hepatitis B vaccination with chronic illness such as autoimmune disorders. However, there have been no scientific data supporting these claims. Large-scale immunization exercises have been ongoing in many other countries and in the United States, and thus far there has been no association of hepatitis B vaccination with serious adverse events. No clear association has been demonstrated between hepatitis B vaccination and disorders such as Guillain-Barre syndrome, transverse myelitis, optic neuritis, and seizures. Even then, such alleged associations are still being studied to further ensure the safety of the vaccine. A recent study demonstrated that persons who developed rheumatoid arthritis following hepatitis B vaccination were actually genetically susceptible to rheumatoid arthritis, making it difficult to correlate the occurrence of rheumatoid arthritis with hepatitis B vaccination. Considering the large number of doses of HBV vaccine administered and the very low numbers of serious adverse reactions, it is possible that adverse reactions reported after hepatitis B vaccination may represent coincidence rather than causation.
Is the hepatitis B vaccine safe?
Yes. The hepatitis B vaccines have been administered to more than 20 million people in the United States and more than 500 million people in the world. The most common side effects of vaccination are pain at the injection site (3%-29%) and/or a mild fever (1%-6%). However, these side effects are related to the injection event and not to the hepatitis B vaccine itself as persons receiving placebo injections also reported similar reactions.
What is the treatment for hepatitis B?
There is no known cure for hepatitis B. Thus, prevention is the best option to dealing with this disease. Currently, the only Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medicines for treatment of hepatitis B are interferon alpha and lamivudine. Interferon alpha, which is administered via injections, often has side effects, some of which may be severe, and is usually used only for persons whose liver enzyme tests are abnormal. The FDA recently approved Lamivudine in December 1998 for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B in adults. This DNA polymerase inhibitor was originally used for treatment of HIV, and unlike interferon alpha, is available in oral form and appears to have fewer side effects. However, there is a significant risk of viral mutations leading to drug resistance thereby diminishing the drug’s effectiveness. Please consult a physician regarding the therapeutic benefits and side effects of any of these treatments.
What is the hepatitis B vaccine?
The hepatitis B vaccine has been available since 1982. The vaccines currently in use in the United States are made with recombinant DNA technology, and contain protein portions of HBV (usually parts of the outer protein or the surface antigen of HBV). Thus, the vaccines do not contain any live virus. The vaccine is administered intramuscularly in three doses usually given on a schedule of 0,1, and 6 months, but there can be flexibility in this schedule. More than 95% of children and adolescents and more than 90% of young, healthy adults develop adequate immunity following the recommended three doses. Persons who respond to the vaccine are protected from both acute hepatitis B infections as well as chronic infection.
--------------------------------------
An Ethics Discussion on Big Pharma’s Role in Treating Hep B:
Drug Giant's Spin May Obscure Risk
By Deborah Nelson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 18, 2001; Page A14
An excerpt:
“…While there is evidence that long-term treatment produces lasting improvement in some patients, the mutant virus risk rises dramatically over time -- infecting one-fourth of study participants after one year of treatment and 67 percent after four years…”
Full article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp...0349-2001Mar17
--------------------------------------
Excerpts from a site that describes international research:
http://www.healing-arts.org/children/vaccines/vaccines-...tis-b-.htm#hepatitis
“…Suggestions also arose that all vaccines, including hepatitis B, could shift the immune system toward an auto-immune direction, shifting from Th1 to Th2 cytokine production, thereby encouraging the expression of auto-immune disease, including autism, among individuals rendered susceptible by other mechanisms.
There are three hypotheses that could explain the observed cases of demyelinating disorders following HB vaccine:
1. Coincidence: due to the large number of HB vaccine doses administered, many of them in age groups where symptoms of MS first occur.
2. "Triggering": an increased risk of symptomatic demyelination following HB vaccine which would act as a "trigger" in individuals predisposed to develop MS or central nervous system (CNS) demyelinating diseases. These individuals would have developed demyelination with or without an altered natural history following some immunologic or other precipitating factor.
3. A true causal relationship between HB vaccination and MS or other CNS demyelinating disease.
Evidence to support the first hypothesis includes the fact that no statistically significant association was found between hepatitis B vaccine and MS in the limited studies conducted to date. Further, the age and sex distributions of MS cases reported through spontaneous reporting systems match the recognised age and sex distribution of MS cases that preceded the use of the vaccine and are not correlated with vaccine administration…”
--------------------------------------
Bol Asoc Med P R. 2003 Nov-Dec;95(6):13-6.
Polymyositis: rare complication of hepatitis B vaccination. An unusual cause of toxic shock syndrome.
Ramírez-Rivera J, Vega-Cruz AM, Jaume-Anselmi F.
Universidad Central del Caribe.
ramirj@hotmail.com
Transient weakness of the legs developed in a 17 year-old male high school student three weeks after the initial injection of a hepatitis B vaccine. Seventeen days after the second injection of the vaccine, low-grade fever, a pruritic maculopapular rash appeared and weakness of the legs recurred. This was associated with elevation of the creatinine kinase to 2,406 U/L. The day after admission he became afebrile and in the subsequent four days the rash improved but leg weakness persisted.
One-month later, muscle strength had returned; and the creatinine kinase had returned to normal levels. The only case of dermatomyositis associated with hepatitis B vaccination and the findings in the six reported cases of surface antigen-positive hepatitis associated with polyomyositis or dermatomyositis are briefly reviewed.
Hepatitis B vaccination should be encouraged, but it is important to be aware that, rarely, dermatomyositis, polymyositis or neurovascular complications may occur. Polymyositis associated with the administration of the hepatitis B vaccine or with hepatitis B virus infection is a rare occurrence. A Medline Search performed from 1960 to January 2002 associating hepatitis B vaccine or hepatitis B virus with myopathy, myositis, polymyositis and dermatomyositis, showed only one case of dermatomyositis related to the hepatitis B vaccine, and six case reports relating polymyositis to hepatitis B virus infection. We present a case where a causal relationship between polymyositis and hepatitis B vaccination appears quite likely.
--------------------------------------
Acute transverse cervical myelitis following hepatitis B vaccination. Evolution of anti-HBs antibodies [Article in French]
Renard JL, Guillamo JS, Ramirez JM, Taillia H, Felten D, Buisson Y. Clinique de neurologie, HIA Val-de-Grâce, Paris.
BACKGROUND: The cause and effect relationship between anti-HBV immunization using recombinant vaccine and the development of a neurological event, including flare-ups of multiple sclerosis, is a widely debated issue. CASE REPORT: A previously asymptomatic 16-year-old girl was a hyper-responder to anti-HBV vaccine. Subsequent to a booster shot of anti-HBV recombinant vaccine, she developed regressive acute cervical transverse myelitis with intrathecal oligochonal IgG secretion and a hypersignal on the MRI T2 sequences of the cord. DISCUSSION: The distinction between a first episode of multiple sclerosis or post-vaccinal acute myelitis in this case will depend upon subsequent course, but this observation points out the very high level of persistent post-vaccinal immunization which can be acquired by a hyper-responder.
PMID: 10442059 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
--------------------------------------
CDC Site on Vaccinations:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/h.../b/factvax.htm
--------------------------------------