Help With Autism

While preparing for the birth of her daughter, Christy Rue stumbled across a concern that she is now trying to share with every parent.

The 25-year-old mother is one of thousands who have picked up the cause to promote cleaner vaccines.

“The doctors give the shots, you know, so they must be safe,” Rue said.

But the disheartening facts, she said, are children are being disabled and pharmaceutical companies are paying lobbyists to help the vaccines pass through Washington.

“I’m not against vaccines,” Rue said. “I just want them to clean up the stuff they’re putting in there and give them a safer schedule.”

To make her concerns heard, Rue and her children traveled to Washington, D.C., for the “Green Our Vaccines, Too Many, Too Soon” march and rally two weeks ago. The three were among 8,000 people that walked from the Washington Memorial to the Capital Building, holding signs demanding change and pictures of children who lost their lives from reactions to vaccines.

“It was amazing to see how many people have been affected by vaccines and nobody knows about it,” Rue said. “To look around and see all these children, these innocent children who are victims, who now are having severe issues mentally and physically.

“When we walked down Independence Avenue it was a surreal feeling because so many other Americans had done this before for an important cause. But this is not just any old cause that will be forgotten about tomorrow. These are our kids and they are our future.”

The support for clean vaccines – meaning extracting toxins like formaldehyde, aluminum, antifreeze and mercury – has been slow because a majority of the medical community denies a link between vaccines and certain disorders such as autism.

Parents of autistic children believe autism is linked to mercury-based vaccines given to children as infants.

The mercury-based thimerosal was removed from most childhood vaccines in 2001 because of the autism fears. The number of autism cases continue to rise, though, leading health officials to set aside the connection. Today, 1 in 150 children have the disorder.

“Scientist say there’s no link, but who is paying for the research?” Rue said.

One of the main battles green-vaccine promoters face are the special interest and biased ties scientists have, she said.

Along with Mothers Against Mercury, a North Carolina-based organization, Rue is spreading the word about N.C. House Bill 431. The bill, which would limit the amount of thimerosal in vaccines, passed in the N.C. House last year, but failed to make it past the Senate’s Health Committee, Rue said.

Sitting in the pediatricians office last week, Rue said she looked around and wondered how many parents knew what was in the vaccines their children would receive.

“I’m not against vaccines by any means, I just don’t want my child being 1 in 150,” Rue said. “I don’t want anyone’s children.”

During most of his early childhood, Zack Barsamian sat quietly under a table lining up his toys - he didn’t understand how to properly play with them. Often his hands covered his ears. Alone in his world, he didn’t like noise and he didn’t show typical child-like expressions of joy or happiness.

When Zack was 3 years old, doctors diagnosed his condition as “mid-functioning” autism. He also suffered from liver dysfunction and had difficulty digesting food.

Five years later and after his parents spent more than $400,000 out of pocket for Zack’s treatment, the boy smiles, relates and enjoys other children in his second grade class. He plays on a soccer team. He even has a best friend.

The $400,000 paid for conventional autism treatments including speech, occupational and behavioral therapists, and neurologists as well as testing and unconventional treatment to remove heavy metals from Zack’s body, expenses to travel to New York, North Carolina, Texas and Mexico to see specialists and the cost to build an in-home clinic.

Last week the Barsamians, along with 8,500 other parents of children with autism, participated in the Green Our Vaccines Rally, in Washington, D.C.

The participants hoped to raise awareness and push for elimination of toxins in vaccines, and to change children’s vaccination schedules. Some people believe the mercury-based preservative thimerosal found in vaccines is the main cause of autism. But the Institute of Medicine concluded that there is no link between vaccines and autism after examining the results of 19 major studies.

It began with IVs for nutrition and chelation to remove heavy metals from the blood.
 
The detoxifying treatment removes toxins in the body caused by internal factors such as diet and external factors such vaccines, the air we breathe, or the water we drink, said Jennifer.

Zack’s treatment also included oxygen therapy, which increases oxygen and blood flow to the brain. Twice a year Zack and his family travel to North Carolina where Zack receives treatment in a chamber for 100% pure oxygen.

To supplement that treatment, at home Zack receives one to two hours of daily supplemental oxygen therapy in a special chamber his parents built in their basement.

But the cost the Barsamians pay for treatment is high - between $3,000 and $7,000 each month because it is not covered by insurance.

More and more kids are recovering from autism, according Wendy Fournier, president of National Autism Association, a parent-run advocacy organization located in Missouri.

“Doctors are realizing it’s medically based. If you treat them medically - treat them with what’s going on in the body, they get better,” she said. “The problem is the medical community looks at them like they have some incurable mental illness. Autism is thought of as a mysterious mental illness.”

Chelation therapy is the administration of chelating agents to remove heavy metals from the body.

Based on the speculation that heavy metal poisoning may trigger the symptoms of autism, some parents have turned to alternative medicine practitioners who provide chelation therapy. As there are several cases that link the mercury in the vaccine preservative thiomersal causes autism or its symptoms, chelation therapy is a viable treatment for autism.

Last Friday, scientists from the University of Pittsburgh released findings from a study that showed primates that were given vaccines showed autism-like symptoms.  The vaccines that were used were the same ones recommended by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics; several of the vaccines had thimerosal in it.

The study’s results are being released as a federal case goes underway.

As reported by AP: the Institute of Medicine said in 2004 there was no credible evidence to show that vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal led to autism in children. But thousands of families have a different take based on personal experience.

Some of them are going to court Monday as attorneys will attempt to show that the mercury-based preservative triggers symptoms of autism.

Two 10-year-old boys from Portland, Ore., will serve as test cases to determine whether many of the children and their families should be compensated. Attorneys for the boys will attempt to show the boys were happy, healthy and developing normally — but, after being exposed to vaccines with thimerosal, they began to regress.

Thimerosal has been removed in recent years from standard childhood vaccines, except flu vaccines that are not packaged in single-doses. The CDC says single-dose flu shots currently are available only in limited quantities. In 2004, a committee with the Institute of Medicine concluded there was no credible evidence that vaccines containing thimerosal caused autism.

Nearly 4,900 families have filed claims with the U.S. Court of Claims alleging that the vaccination caused autism and other neurological problems in their children. Lawyers for the families are presenting three different theories of how vaccines caused autism.

The Office of Special Masters of the claims court has instructed the plaintiffs to designate three test cases for each of the three theories — nine cases in all — and has assigned three special masters to handle the cases. Three cases in the first category were heard last year, but no decisions have been reached.

Arguments are scheduled to go on throughout the month. A final decision could take several more months.

The families or the federal government can also appeal the decision of the special master to the Court of Federal Claims or to a federal appeals court.

The court Web site says more than 12,500 claims have been filed since creation of the program in 1987, including more than 5,300 autism cases, and more than $1.7 billion has been paid in claims. It says there is now more than $2.7 billion in a trust fund supported by an excise tax on each dose of vaccine covered by the program.

ACTION ALERT
Nassau County, New York to Hold Unprecedented Vaccine
Injury Press Conference and Hearings, Monday, April 28, 2008

Parents, family members, and friends, please read the following news release from the Nassau County Legislature.  The press conference, which starts at noon, will be a unique opportunity to further the public’s awareness of vaccine injuries including the development of autism.David Kirby will be making a statement at the press conference. David plans to address the fact that the case chosen to replace Hannah Poling’s case involved a Long Island family and was also withdrawn because of issues related to mitochondrial dysfunction.
 
Following the press conference, parents can also attend the hearings starting at 1:40. Time has been set aside for public comments during the hearings. Please pass this information along to anyone you know who might be able to attend, and also to any media contacts you have. We need to make the most of both the press conference and hearings on behalf of our injured children.
 
NASSAU COUNTY TO BECOME FIRST MUNICIPALITY IN THE NATION TO HEAR CONCERNS ABOUT SAFETY OF VACCINES AND ITS LINK TO AUTISM BY PARENTS. SPECIAL PRESS CONFERENCE MONDAY APRIL 28, 2008.

NASSAU COUNTY LEGISLATURE COMMITTEE ON HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES CHAIRMAN DAVE MEJIAS AND NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLYMAN HARVEY WEISENBERG, AS WELL AS OTHER HEALTH OFFICIALS WILL HOLD A SPECIAL NEWS CONFERENCE ON APRIL 28, 2008 at 12 NOON WITH HUNDREDS OF PARENTS CONCERNED ABOUT THE SAFETY OF VACCINES AND ITS LINK TO AUTISM.  THE PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM WILL BE SPEAKING AT LEGISLATURE’S HEALTH COMMITTEE LATER THAT DAY.  THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IN THE NATION THAT A MUNICIPALITY HAS HAD THIS CONTROVERSIAL TOPIC ADDRESSED AT ITS HEALTH COMMITTEE.  

Thimerosal is a mercury-containing organic compound (an organomercurial). Since the 1930s, it has been widely used as a preservative in a number of biological and drug products, including many vaccines, to help prevent potentially life threatening contamination with harmful microbes. Over the past several years, because of an increasing awareness of the theoretical potential for neurotoxicity of even low levels of organomercurials and because of the increased number of thimerosal containing vaccines that had been added to the infant immunization schedule, concerns about the use of thimerosal in vaccines and other products have been raised. Indeed, because of these concerns, the Food and Drug Administration has worked with, and continues to work with, vaccine manufacturers to reduce or eliminate thimerosal from vaccines.

Thimerosal has been removed from or reduced to trace amounts in all vaccines routinely recommended for children 6 years of age and younger, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine (see Table 1). A preservative-free version of the inactivated influenza vaccine (contains trace amounts of thimerosal) is available in limited supply at this time for use in infants, children and pregnant women. Some vaccines such as Td, which is indicated for older children (≥ 7 years of age) and adults, are also now available in formulations that are free of thimerosal or contain only trace amounts. Vaccines with trace amounts of thimerosal contain 1 microgram or less of mercury per dose.