Government concedes vaccines exacerbated girl's autism

This from the L A Times: Photo of Hannah with her parents by W.A. Harewood/AP

Hannah Poling was vaccinated in 2000, before thimerosal was taken out of vaccines.

Her family described her as a healthy toddler who could speak 20 words, walk and point to body parts on command.

She had suffered a series of ear infections, so she was behind on her vaccinations when she visited her pediatrician.

"They did a catch-up on her shots -- five shots, nine vaccines -- in one sitting," said her father, Dr. Jon Poling, a Johns Hopkins-trained neurologist.

Within 48 hours, she developed a high fever and couldn't stop crying. Soon she stopped walking and became less verbal....
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... Officials with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scrambled Thursday to reassure the public that childhood vaccines were safe after news spread that an agency had acknowledged a link between a child's autism and the shots she received as a toddler."

Our message to parents is that immunization is life- saving," Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, the CDC's director, said at a hastily convened conference call with reporters. "There's nothing changed. . . . This is proven to save lives and is an essential component of protection for children across America and around the world."

Over the years, despite a small and vocal group of parents who insist otherwise, studies consistently have shown no credible link between vaccines and autism. But pediatricians who have long reassured suspicious parents braced for another cascade of questions.

On Thursday, the parents of Hannah Poling, now 9, took their case public, sharing news that federal health officials had conceded that a series of vaccines she got when she was 19 months old exacerbated an underlying condition and ultimately led to her diagnosis of autism.That concession -- thought to be the first of its kind -- makes her eligible for money from a federal vaccine-injury fund.

And this from MSNBC.

It is being called a landmark decision by some. Government officials have ruled childhood vaccines exacerbated a rare disorder in a 9-year-old girl and caused the symptoms of autism.

The government says data does not show a direct link between vaccines and autism, but many are watching this case closely.

As she shared a hug with a loved-one, Hannah Poling was also making history. "It is gratifying to finally have a court agree her injury was caused by vaccination," Hannah's father, Jon Poling, said.

Government health officials have conceded that childhood vaccines contributed to Hannah's autism by aggravating a rare mitochondrial disorder. It is the first time the government has admitted the possibility of a link between vaccines and autism.Yet they maintain that the data does not prove vaccines cause autism directly.

Experts warn Hannah's case is rare and may well be an exception rather than a rule. "So you can't generalize and say ok, now every child with a mitochondrial disorder is going to go through same thing that Hannah did," Dr. Jennifer Shu with the American Academy of Pediatrics explains.

There is still much that is unknown and more research to be done. But with some 5,000 five other cases currently in the justice system and millions of children being vaccinated, it is a case being watched closely....

And by Dan Olmsted of UPI.

The Age of Autism: The Amish anomaly

Where are the autistic Amish?

Here in Lancaster County, heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, there should be well over 100 with some form of the disorder.

I have come here to find them, but so far my mission has failed, and the very few I have identified raise some very interesting questions about some widely held views on autism...

The mainstream scientific consensus says autism is a complex genetic disorder, one that has been around for millennia at roughly the same prevalence. That prevalence is now considered to be 1 in every 166 children born in the United States.

Applying that model to Lancaster County, there ought to be 130 Amish men, women and children here with Autism Spectrum Disorder....

...That is why it is worth looking for autistic Amish -- to test reasoning against reality.

Largely cut off for hundreds of years from American culture and scientific progress, the Amish might have had less exposure to some new factor triggering autism in the rest of population.

Surprising, but no one seems to have looked....

Autism Epidemic May Be All in the Label

ATLANTA (AP) — A few decades ago, people probably would have said kids like Ryan Massey and Eddie Scheuplein were just odd. Or difficult.

Both boys are bright. But Ryan, 11, is hyper and prone to angry outbursts, sometimes trying to strangle another kid in his class who annoys him. Eddie, 7, has a strange habit of sticking his shirt in his mouth and sucking on it.

Both were diagnosed with a form of autism. And it's partly because of children like them that autism appears to be skyrocketing: In the latest estimate, as many as one in 150 children have some form of this disorder. Groups advocating more research money call autism "the fastest-growing developmental disability in the United States."

Indeed, doctors are concerned there are even more cases out there, unrecognized: The American Academy of Pediatrics last week stressed the importance of screening every kid — twice — for autism by age 2.

But many experts believe these unsociable behaviors were just about as common 30 or 40 years ago. The recent explosion of cases appears to be mostly caused by a surge in special education services for autistic children, and by a corresponding shift in what doctors call autism...

...In the 1990s, the autism umbrella expanded, and autism is now shorthand for a group of milder, related conditions, known as "autism spectrum disorders." ...

This from the Associated Press.