VACCINES AS AN AUTISM TRIGGER

At present, the cause of autism and its related spectrum disorders isunknown. Many hypotheses regarding what causes autism have beenand will continue to be put forth, but only one will prevail: its truecause. A conversation as to whether vaccines trigger autism cannot

be made in a vacuum but, rather, must be weighed against certainepidemiologic, scientific and historic considerations because its complexityis too great.

California Department of Developmental Services, Sacramento, 1999California, in 1999, had been on high alert for some time. Level-one autism,

without any of its "spectrum", went from almost 5,000 cases in late summer1993 to an estimated 20,377 cases by December 2002. As California'sDepartment of Developmental Services stood by incredulously, it witnessed atripling of California's autism rate and all but 15 per cent of cases were inchildren.

California wasn't alone, but its autism rates had become the fastest-growing group in that state's developmental disability system and a numberof Bay Area school districts were forced to fill entire classes with youths withdifferent forms of autism.

But even in the midst of California's mini-epidemic, its Santa Clara Countyseemed particularly singled out. The California Department of SocialServices' aid, brokered by the San Andreas Regional Center, staggered to itsbreaking point, and its forecast for autism in Santa Clara wasn't good.

What was behind this epidemic? A major clue, overlooked from a criticalstandpoint, was contained in the timeline of the department's own 1999autism report1 which concluded that the disease had increased dramaticallybetween 1987 and 1998. What had happened in California in and around 1987that could have sown the surplus of autism that California now reaped?

Division of Communicable Disease Control, Sacramento, California, 1999While autism exploded in California, there was also, beginning in 1987, a

major spike in the number of tuberculosis cases reported by the TuberculosisControl Branch of California's Division of Communicable Disease Control.There, division head Dr Sarah Royce proclaimed a tuberculosis (TB) epidemicin California. The epidemic peaked in 1992, had the same malepreponderance as autism, and took off at precisely the same moment in time.

California's TB epidemic was claimed to have peaked well before 1999, butthis didn't stop it from continuing to contribute the greatest number of casesto the nation's total tuberculosis morbidity.2 But, as with autism, theproblem was worldwide, and even the World Health Organization,traditionally slow to react, had declared a global tuberculosis emergency sixyears earlier.3

VVACCINESACCINES ASAS ANAN AAUTISMUTISMTTRIGGERRIGGER: A TB L: A TB LINKINK??

While it can’t be saidcategorically thatvaccines trigger

autism, it can’t bedenied that many

vaccines still containtoxic mercury

compounds as well asanimal and humancomponents which

may be contaminatedwith tuberculosis

mycobacteria, withdeleterious effects.

by Lawrence Broxmeyer, MD © December 2014 – January 2015

Email:nyinstituteofmedresearch@

yahoo.com

Website:http://lawrencebroxmeyermd.com/

FEBRUARY – MARCH 2015 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 1

Among children, brain-seeking central nervous systemtuberculosis is common in a disease that kills morechildren each year than any other, with the potential tocause in survivors a withdrawal from social interaction,among other things, in its devastating wake.4

It had to be more than a coincidence, therefore, thatsince the 1980s California experienced a dramaticincrease in the number of children diagnosed withautism as well.

Santa Clara County, California, March 2006If California was experiencing autistic tremors, then

surely its Santa Clara County was at the epicentre. By2006, Santa Clara had some of the highest rates forautism in the entire USA. Although this was for unknownreasons, again the question became: why Santa Clara?The answer pointed in a similar direction.

By 2002, it had become apparent that tuberculosis wason the rise in Santa Clara. By 2006, that county had thehighest number of new TB cases in California. A newsreport of 2014 mentioned thatSanta Clara now has "moretuberculosis cases than most USstates".5 At the same time, theimmigrant share of thepopulation in Santa ClaraCounty, mostly from countrieswhere TB is endemic, is at itshighest point since 1870.6

Santa Clara's HealthDepartment sounded the alarm.Santa Clara now knew that it hadtwo problems on its hands. Itsmedically trained psychiatrists,doctors, personnel and statisticians just never stoppedto think that the two problems might be related.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta,Georgia, September 2008

Time passed. More information came in. In September 2008, the Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention (CDC) published a study7 by lead author,paediatrician and researcher Dr Laura J. Christie of theCalifornia Department of Public Health entitled"Diagnostic Challenges of Central Nervous SystemTuberculosis". Christie and colleagues identified 20cases of unexplained encephalitis referred to theCalifornia Encephalitis Project that were indeedtubercular. The team importantly began with thissignificant statement: "Tuberculosis (TB) of the centralnervous system (CNS)" as thought of by physicians "isclassically described as meningitis. However, alteredmental status, including encephalitis, is within thespectrum of [its] clinical manifestations."

In most of the 20 cases, the California EncephalitisProject cultured out tuberculous encephalitis, the sametuberculosis considered the least likely cause for

encephalitis. Yet there it was. But, as Christie pointedout, as little as 25 per cent of patients with a diagnosisof CNS TB actually cultured out TB, which was a criterionfor this particular study. That means that only a quarterof possible cases were confirmed.

Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness,Washington, DC, September 2004

The following excerpts are from the transcript of the"Hearing before the Subcommittee on Human Rightsand Wellness of the Committee on Government Reform,House of Representatives, One Hundred EighthCongress, Second Session, September 8, 2004".8

[The Subcommittee's Chairman, Congressman DanBurton (R-Indiana), is thanking Dr Melinda Wharton,Acting Deputy Director of the National ImmunizationProgram, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, forher opening testimony.]

Mr Burton: Thank you for your testimony. Everybodyknows the value of vaccinations. And every time you

testify, you tell us how valuablethey've been. And we alreadyknow that.

We're not here to say thatvaccinations aren't important.They're very important. They'vegiven us the highest quality oflife of any civilization in thehistory of mankind. That isn'twhat we're talking about. We'retalking about why they're puttingmercury in vaccinations and whyit's never been tested since 1929when Lilly developed it.

[Congressman Burton turns his attention to Dr WilliamEgan, the Acting Director of the Office of VaccinesResearch and Review, Center for Biologics Evaluationand Research, Food and Drug Administration (FDA).]

Mr Burton: Has thimerosal ever really been tested?Has thimerosal ever been tested by our health agencies?

Mr Egan: Only in those early tests that you know ofthat were done by Lilly.

Mr Burton: When was that? That was done in 1929.Let's follow-up on that. In 1929, they tested this on 27people that were dying of meningitis. All of those peopledied of meningitis, so they said there was no correlationbetween their death and the mercury in the vaccines.That is the only test that's ever been done on thimerosalthat I know of. Can you think of any other?

Mr Egan: No, in people, no. Except for accidentalexposures over time.

Mr Burton: So we have mercury that's being put intopeople's bodies in the form of this preservative, and hasbeen since the 1930s, and it's never been tested by ourhealth agencies. And yet you folks come here and youtestify that there's no conclusive evidence, and the IOM[Institute of Medicine] says, they favor, get this, they

It had to be more than acoincidence…that since the

1980s California experienceda dramatic increase in the

number of childrendiagnosed with autism…

2 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com FEBRUARY – MARCH 2015

don't say they're sure, they say they favor rejection of acausal relationship between mercury and autism andother neurological disorders. Nobody ever gives acategorical statement, that no, mercury does not causethis, no, it doesn't. And that's because you can't do it…

Mr Egan: We are diligently working, as we havetestified today and previously, toward eliminatingthimerosal mercury from vaccines as quickly as can bedone. But there are many issues that are involved indoing this. If we were to say tomorrow that all vaccines,for example, all flu vaccines could only be administeredin single dose syringes or single dose vials [thuseliminating the need for thimerosal], the capacity to fillthose does not exist…

Mr Burton: OK. Now, my grandson got nine shots inone day, seven of which contained mercury. So if he gotthe very small amount, he'd be getting maybe ninemicrograms, right?

Mr Egan: No, much less than that. Because themaximum that wecalculate that a child couldreceive now during the firstsix months of life issomewhat less than three.A number of these vaccines[have] defined trace as lessthan one, some of themhave considerably lessthan one.

Mr Burton: But thatamount of mercury wouldnot do any neurologicaldamage to anybody?

Mr Egan: Not accordingto any guideline.

Mr Burton: No, no, no,no. I want you to say yesor no.

Mr Egan: I do not believe so.Mr Burton: You do not believe so. I didn't say believe.

Can you say to me right now that amount of mercurybeing injected into a baby will not hurt it?

Mr Egan: It's impossible to make those categoricalstatements with 100 percent---

Mr Burton: That's right. So it is possible that theamount of mercury that's being injected, even in traceamounts, could damage a child neurologically, right?

Mr Egan: I don't think it has that capacity, no. We canargue.

Mr Burton: I know, but you don't think it is, but youcan't say categorically, can you?

Mr Egan: Do I have evidence for every single child, forevery possible dose, the answer is no…

As it turns out, the doses of thimerosal referenced inmicrograms cited by Egan were small change comparedto what is in certain current multidose flu shots.9 The

CDC's 2014–2015 guidelines for eligible child influenzavaccinations advise: "To protect their health, all children6 months and older should be vaccinated against the flueach year."10 With some multidose influenzapreparations containing as high as 25 micrograms perdose of thimerosal or higher, this can add up to a lot ofthimerosal. And on top of this, concurrently, the CDCstill insists: "Pregnant? Get a Flu Shot!"11

Congressman Burton had established, as of 2004, thatthe only study ever done to conclude that thimerosal wasnot neurotoxic or could not precipitate the first signs andsymptoms of autism was done by its manufacturer, ElyLilly, in 1929—a study in which 22 meningitis patients(not 27, as Congressman Burton mentioned) in anIndianapolis epidemic were treated with thimerosal, allof whom died.

Lilly showcased and funded the study for one reasonand one reason only: its scientist Smithburn, the study'slead author, out of the sheer desperation of having

nothing with which tocure his patients, hadinjected 22 of thosepatients dying ofmeningitis with largedoses of thimerosal (upto 10 milligrams perkilogram intravenously)with supposedly nosignificantly graveconsequences.12 That is,no grave consequencesother than the fact thatseven out of 22 ofSmithburn's patientsdied within one day afterreceiving the thimerosal.Only one patient made itto day 62 before

succumbing—hardly enough of a window to investigatefor chronic mercury damage from the thimerosal.Nevertheless, Lilly would next try to turn a lemon into anorange, sponsoring other scientists13 to say that thethimerosal had nothing to do with the deaths ofSmithburn's meningitis patients.

Unknown to either Burton or Egan, there was one otherstudy testing a mercury compound on humans—asizeable series which also appeared in the samepublication, The Journal of the American Medical Association(JAMA), which had published the Lilly study. Hartz14,looking for a cure for his chronic TB patients, concludedthat his trial with a mercury compound was "positivelyinjurious and detrimental to one afflicted withtuberculosis". Of the 14 patients to whom Hartzadministered six or more injections (consisting of 1/5gram or 13-milligram doses every second day), 12 diedwithin from two weeks to six months after their lastinjection. Hartz was only using a small fraction of what


Congressman Dan Burton, Chairman of the Hearing beforethe Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness,

8 September 2004

Smithburn had used, yet his results for those on thereceiving end of multiple injections of the mercurycompound were disastrous. Hartz wrote:15

"This enormous percentage of deaths, namely, 85.7 percent, among those [TB] patients who received six ormore injections [of mercury], can be attributed only tothe use of mercury, simply from the fact that theexpectation of life in many of the cases chosen was veryfavorable indeed. In fact, on account of the age of thepatients and the chronic arrested type of the disease,they were the kind of patients who live long and have afavorable prognosis."

Also unknown to the scientists and the congressmanpresent at the hearing was that although the 1929 Lillyinvestigators purportedly had an epidemic ofmeningococcal meningitis on their hands, as theepidemic wore on they were considering it as havingoriginated as a mixed infection with an underlying

tubercular infection—making the Hartz and Lillypublications have more in common than might at firstmeet the eye. It was an era when Mycobacterium tuberculosisand Neisseria meningitidis (the meningococcus) were thetwo most common causative organisms responsible formeningitis.16 And to this day, TB meningitis is in thedifferential rule-out for meningococcal meningitis.17

In back-to-back studies of the Indianapolis outbreak of1929, Smithburn, present in the initial investigation, leftthe second-phase probe to Kempf, Gilman and Zerfas.18

Both publications showed how anti-meningococcalserums were of little or no use for the Indianapolisoutbreak—an unexpected finding for a meningococcalmeningitis epidemic.

The actual genesis of meningococcal disease was andstill is not fully understood. Meningococcus coloniseslarge numbers in the general population harmlessly, withonly a very small percentage of individuals havingserious illness from it—notably in the limbs and thebrain. Front and centre in the follow-up study done bySmithburn's colleagues was a mysterious "micrococcus"found in both phases of the Indianapolis outbreak. Justprior to Lilly's publications, a similar micrococcus wasuncovered by Sweany19, also published in JAMA, andsubsequently by Mellon and Fisher20 in The Journal ofInfectious Diseases. But both Sweany and Mellon'smicrococcus proved to be a (pleomorphic) form of cell-wall-deficient (CWD) tuberculosis (see figure 1 for anexample of CWD TB). According to Kempf et al.:21

"The fact that the meningococcus could not berecovered from the blood, spinal fluid or nasopharynxdoes not necessarily mean that it was not there.

However, it [the mysteriousmicrococcus] was readily recoveredfrom the few meningococcic[meningococcal] cases that we haveobserved during the last few monthsand during the first and second yearsof this epidemic. One might expectto find an organism of this nature intraumatic meningitis or as acomplication in tuberculosis…"

As he left the congressionalhearing, very much on CongressmanDan Burton's mind, after havinggrilled the FDA's Dr William Egan,was that despite promises time andagain to remove mercury fromvaccines it never seemed to happen.

Uncommon Valour "My name is William Thompson. I

am a Senior Scientist with theCenters for Disease Control andPrevention, where I have workedsince 1998. I regret that mycoauthors and I omitted statistically

significant information in our 2004 article published inthe journal Pediatrics. The omitted data suggested thatAfrican American males who received the MMR vaccinebefore age 36 months were at increased risk for autism.Decisions were made regarding which findings to reportafter the data were collected, and I believe that the finalstudy protocol was not followed…"22

On 27 August 2014, CDC scientist Dr WilliamThompson spoke out, admitting that he had co-authoreda study23 which purposely cooked the data to avoidshowing that African-American infants and toddlersgiven the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccinebefore 36 months of age were at a 340 per cent increasedrisk for coming down with autism. At the time of the


Figure 1: One of the stealth, viral-like forms of “cell-wall-deficient” atypicaltuberculosis colonies that grew from the brain of a child who expired from thedisease. Such forms of tuberculosis are extremely difficult to detect and require

special stains and culture media not used routinely in today’s laboratories. (Source: Korsak, T., Acta Tuberc. Pneumol. Belg. 1975; 66[6]:445-469)

study, and for a decade after, Thompson was silenced—but troubled. This was no average witness; this was aman who knew the intricacies of the study and theoriginal data obtained like the back of his hand.

Obviously, the CDC's doctored 2004 study was anattempt to clear the MMR vaccine of troublesomeimplications—an attempt to give the vaccine a clean billof health. But if the study's purpose was to examinehonestly the possibility of a causal relationship betweenthe MMR vaccine and autism, it failed miserably.

After Thompson came out, the CDC's Director ofImmunization Safety and Thompson's co-author, DrFrank DeStefano, defended the study as originallypublished. But Thompson was already on record.Thompson believed that the removal of some of thestudy's subjects because of the lack of a Georgia birthcertificate not only went against the original studyprotocol, but, by reducing the study size by 41 per cent,obscured the strong statistical association between thetiming of the MMR vaccination and the appearance ofautism in African-Americanmale toddlers. DeStefano waslead investigator in the 2004paper. Subsequently, DeStefanohad a telephone interview withinvestigative reporter SharylAttkisson.24 Here are a fewverbatim excerpts from theirexchange:

Attkisson: Were you aware ofany of his [whistleblowerWilliam Thompson's] concernsof, you know, have you beenaware before today of any of hisconcerns about this?

DeStefano: Uh, uh, yeah, I mean I've continued to see,uh, uh, see him for over the past ten years and we'veinteracted fairly frequently, and, uh, uh, no I wasn't awareof this.

Attkisson: So whoever he raised his concerns to, hedidn't, he didn't raise it to you or anybody you knew of?

DeStefano: No, I mean the last time I saw him wasprobably about two months ago, and he didn't mentionanything about this…

[Ms Attkisson turns up the heat, relating to lead authorDeStefano, that she thought that leaving out anything inthe results of the study, especially through a birthcertificate criterion which went against the study'sprotocol, didn't seem appropriate. It was also hiding thetrue conclusion of the study, which otherwise found a340 per cent increase in autism in black children giventhe MMR before 36 months.]

Attkisson: …I still think it would be pretty importantto know…

[DeStefano's reply below apparently was his way ofdeflecting Attkisson's probing comment by saying thatautism probably developed in the womb before 36

months anyway and that somehow this meant that anMMR vaccination given before 36 months was alreadytoo late for the vaccine to cause or precipitate the firstsigns of autism.]

DeStefano: No, I mean, I think, you know, the other,the other important consideration here is looking atwhat, what time period we're talking about. We're, youknow, autism, as you probably are aware, is a conditionthat really probably has its start while the child is still inthe womb. And, you know, it doesn't, some of thebehaviors and such don't come apparent, becomeapparent until maybe the child is one, two, three yearsold. But, uh, uh, what we know about autism that, uh,the, uh, characteristics or behavioral signs do becomeava–, you know, apparent by 24 months of age, so. So wehad different cut-offs, before 18 months of age, there wasno difference in, in any group in terms of, uh, vaccinationlevels, between the cases and controls. At 24 months ofage, when, uh, au—you know—behaviors of autism orsome features of autism become apparent, there was no

difference between the, uh,cases and controls in any group,it was at 36 months where therewas a slight differen—and thedifference was, we're talkingabout a difference between 93%versus 91%, not a, a bigdifference. But, so that's at 36months. And at 36 months, anexposure around that timeperiod is just not biologicallyplausible to have a uh, uh, acausal association with autism.I mean autism would've already

started by then… Attkisson: Let me just, let me just interrupt, before I

lose that thought. So you already made up your mindregardless of what the stats show that if it, certain thingsshow that it didn't make sense, you wouldn't, you wouldtry to find out a way to…

DeStefano: No, that's not what we said. I'm justsaying, you know, you interpret, you interpret findings,also, you know, there's the statistics, then you have toalso interpret, bring in things like biological plausibility,how do you interpret these results? So I think we hadpretty strong evidence that these results at 36 monthswere primarily a reflection of requirements to attendearly intervention special education programs for the, forthe children with autism…

Attkisson: Is there any possibility that it is biologicallyplausible and you just haven't, you know, that that's, theconsensus is that it's not, among you guys, but that it isand you're overlooking that?

DeStefano: I'm, I'm not aware of any data that wouldsay, you know, that would s-, you know, that would saythat, uh, you would have, um, onset of autism after 36months. [End of excerpts.]


…the CDC’s doctored 2004 study was an attemptto clear the MMR vaccine oftroublesome implications—

an attempt to give thevaccine a clean bill of health.

Granted DeStefano's remark that "autism, as youprobably are aware, is a condition that really probablyhas its start while the child is still in the womb", whichmany believe, what did this have to do with a vaccine likeMMR exacerbating or bringing on the first signs orsymptoms of an autism, perhaps from chronic infectionfirst acquired in the womb—even if the vaccination wasgiven just before 36 months of age? Moreover, now thatthe real results of the 2004 autism–vaccine study wererevealed, why did they show a 340 per cent increase inyoung black children given the MMR before age 36months? Autism is certainly not more prevalent inAfrican-American children than in whites. In fact, therates of autism in black children are considerably less.25

Sir William Osler, co-founder of Johns Hopkins Hospitaland frequently described as the Father of ModernMedicine, mentioned that "a quiescent malady" such ascongenital syphilis and tuberculosis "may be lighted intoactivity by vaccination".26 So, perhaps the differentialwith the MMR might lie in the racial differential in one ofthe diseases which Osler mentioned. The CDC's ownstatistics, for example, show that the percentage oftuberculosis in blacks is way out of proportion to theirpercentage in the US population, with TB rates beingseven times higher in blacks than in whites.27

The MMR, then, could very well be acting adversely inthe fashion described by Osler through statisticalevidence alone—but there was much, much more.

Exhibit 1: Known Contents of the MMR VaccineOf all the issues of concern regarding a

vaccination–autism link, one of the most prominent is,according to Sugarman28, the continued use ofthimerosal in certain influenza shots, especially thewidely used and economical multidose influenza vialsthrough which many patients can be vaccinated usingthe same vial of influenza vaccine. Most of the legalbattles over vaccines and autism, Sugarman mentions,have alleged that the first signs and symptoms of autismwere precipitated by this mercury-containingpreservative, which used to be an ingredient in manychildhood vaccines and still is found in some of themultidose flu shots used by paediatricians.

Others have argued that the culprit is the measles,mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) or perhaps MMR incombination with thimerosal. Yet in many other autisticcases, a direct causal link is not there for either.Nevertheless, the thought lingers that these agents aswell as other vaccines could, in certain cases, still triggerthe first signs and symptoms of autism. In themeantime, the lay term pointing to "toxins" in thevaccines is inadequate.

Whenever one deals with biologicals originating fromthe cow, the calf, the chicken, the chicken embryo, theswine or from another human in the form of albumen ora foetal cell line—all found in the MMR—one hits uponthe potential of such biologicals used in the vaccine

bearing or being contaminated by mycobacterialinfection. This holds particularly true of a vaccine likeMMR, whose components can potentially carryMycobacterium tuberculosis from human fluids or tissue,Mycobacterium avium from poultry (a subspecies of whichis Mycobacterium paratuberculosis) or Mycobacterium bovis fromcows or the foetal tissue of cows. And in this case, weare not talking about mere environmental exposure: weare talking about direct injection through vaccination.

To say that the US Department of Health and HumanServices' Food and Drug Administration is aware of thisis a stark understatement. One just need download its"Guidance for Industry"29 for viral vaccines—a 50-pagepaper—each page carefully framed under the heading"Contains Nonbinding Recommendations". In such a"Guidance for Industry", the words and warnings forhuman Mycobacterium tuberculosis as well as mycobacteriafrom animal sources are scattered throughout.

The MMR vaccine is generally administered to childrenaround the age of one year (12 months), with a seconddose before starting school (i.e., at age 4–5).

MMR is front-loaded with such entities as foetalbovine serum (FBS). Foetal bovine serum or foetal calfserum is the blood fraction remaining after the naturalcoagulation of blood, followed by centrifugation toremove any remaining red blood cells. FBS comes from


the blood drawn from a bovine foetus via a closedsystem of collection at the slaughterhouse.30

This presents a problem. Johne was the first to report a case of congenital TB in

animals, his specimen consisting of the very samebovine foetus.31 Macroscopically though, he noted, theuterus and placenta of the pregnant cow were normal.

Autism has already been linked to be triggered incertain cases by an atypical tuberculosis calledparatuberculosis, frequently found in cattle.32 A criticalreview found that this same form of tuberculosis caninfect bovine cow foetuses about nine per cent of thetime when the bovine mother has subclinical disease,and an average of 39 per cent of cow foetuses in caseswhere the expectant cow shows signs of clinicalparatubercular disease.33

Industry Turns a Blind Eye Once the most prevalent

infectious disease of cattle inthe US, yet today largely ignoredand purportedly no longernearly the problem it once was,bovine TB caused more lossesamong US farm animals in theearly part of the 20th centurythan all other infectiousdiseases combined.34

By 1917, the situation hadbecome so grave in hogs andcattle that the CooperativeState–Federal TuberculosisEradication Program, administered by the USDepartment of Agriculture (USDA) and the Animal andPlant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), had to beinstituted. For in 1917, it was estimated that 25 per centof deaths from tuberculosis in adult humans werecaused by animal tuberculosis.35

Although it is claimed that in the United States TB"once was" a common disease of farm poultry flocks,cattle, swine and people, this author remainsunimpressed with present governmental agencyattempts to diagnose both the bacilli and, moreover,their predominant cell-wall-deficient forms.

As another strategy to hide the true incidence of TB,our domestic animals and poultry are often killed youngbefore the onset of tubercular disease becomesobvious.36 Furthermore, most inspection is donevisually.

In the meantime, the USDA continues to downplay andignore the actual incidence of TB not only in cows andtheir milk (especially with regard to paratuberculosis)but in poultry and eggs. For example, when forced toaddress the issue of finding paratuberculosis incontainers of milk, the USDA initiated a study in 1998,but first used methods like freezing and ultrasound todamage the very mycobacteria being tested for, and then

ignored established techniques to isolate mycobacteriarelated to TB, growing samples on a culture mediumwhich was considered inadequate—and for not nearly along enough time.37, 38 Not surprisingly, the USDAresults in that study were all negative.

MMR vaccine also contains WI-38 human lungfibroblasts. A fibroblast is the most common type of cellfound in our connective tissue. Although no study hasaddressed the possibility of mycobacteria contaminatingsuch fibroblasts, Higuchi et al. in 2002 found that the alltoo common and dangerous strain of tuberculosisH37Rv can invade and grow in a WI-38 foetal cell linequite efficiently.39

Actually, WI-38 is a human cell culture line composedof fibroblasts which were derived from the lung tissue ofa three-month-old white female foetus. It iscommercially known as "WI-38 (ATCC® CCL-75™)". Firstsequestered by Hayflick and Moorhead40 in the 1960s,

WI-38 has been used ever sincein the production of many ofour vaccines.

Finally, in the MMR we havethe chick embryo cell cultureused to propagate the mumpsand rubella (German measles)viruses.

Although authorities seemtotally unconcerned today,Hull41, Trylich42 andRomanenko43 all certainly sawthe danger of tuberculosis fromtubercular hens getting into

embryonated chicken eggs. Chick embryo cell cultures also consist of hydrolysed

gelatin as well as human albumen. Hydrolysed gelatin isthe hydrolysed connective tissue from an animal—usually from the skin and bones of an animal, generallya pig. The process involves adding enzymes which breakdown the proteins. It separates the proteins alonghydrogen bonds. Then the foetal calf serum from theblood drawn from a bovine foetus through a closedsystem at a slaughterhouse is also added.

Against all of this you have the antibiotic neomycinadded to the MMR in an attempt to contend with anyunknown mycobacterial content in the vaccine—whichneomycin by itself is totally unequipped to do.

Almost lost in the package insert of Merck's popularMMR II vaccine is the admission that no studies havebeen reported to date of the effect of the measles virusvaccine in the MMR on untreated tuberculous children:"However, individuals with active untreated tuberculosisshould not be vaccinated."44 Although infants andchildren are "individuals", so difficult is it to isolate TB inthem that some paediatric experts recommend a spinaltap in all children under 12 months of age.45 Yet it isspecifically at 12 months of age that mandatory MMRvaccination first cuts in.


As another strategy to hidethe true incidence of TB, ourdomestic animals and poultryare often killed young before

the onset of tuberculardisease becomes obvious.

The Science of Denial"They believe that TB is an extinct disease. I don't

know why."46 So said Mario Raviglione, MD, infectiousdiseases specialist and Director of the World HealthOrganization's Global Tuberculosis Programme about adisease which WHO admits infects a third of the world.

While frontal assaults on thimerosal, the MMR vaccineand the overburdened vaccine schedule have justifiablysprung up, a satisfactory and comprehensive explanationas to why and how vaccines might trigger autism has not.

In a 2013 interview, Mel Spigelman, MD, President andCEO of the TB Alliance, a nonprofit TB drug researchgroup based in New York, said of tuberculosis: "It's stillin the US, we just don't recognize it."47 Perhaps this isbecause we just don't want to recognise it—in ourselves,in our livestock, in the products from our livestock, andin the biologicals used in our vaccine manufacture. Butit won't let us not recognise it.

Meanwhile, we have with tuberculosis one of the fewdiseases that could possiblyaccount for the soaring rate ofautism—a disease which is notonly the most common cause ofinfectious death in children48

but, according to WHO, in theirchild-bearing mothers aged15–44, one million of whom diefrom it each year49; a diseasewhich is extremely neurotropic(nerve-seeking) and remains,worldwide, the most commontype of central nervous systeminfection, particularly amongchildren50; and a disease in which 20–25 per cent of suchchildren can manifest mental retardation as well as otheranomalies often associated with neurodevelopmentaldisorders and the autistic spectrum.51

By 2007, Rzhetsky, in a proof-of-concept biostatisticalanalysis of 1.5 million patient records, had foundsignificant genetic overlap in victims of autism and thosewith TB.52

No one who has done a serious study of the literature,old and new, can doubt for a second that the incidenceand transfer of maternal tuberculosis, even when thereare no maternal symptoms and the disease is latent, arebeing grossly underestimated. This has been duly notedin recent publications, but more in depth in the pastwritings and solid research of Charles C. Norris,Pennsylvania physician, gynaecologist, obstetrician andmedical investigator. Norris wrote:53

"Pregnancy is prone to light up a latent or chronictuberculosis, and thus produce a condition in which abacillemia [blood-borne infection] is likely to be present.Secondary infection and metastasis [by TB] occur in theplacenta in the same manner in which they affect otherportions of the body."

"Baumgarten's theory…has done much to show thatcongenital tuberculosis may occur, and that tuberclebacilli may remain latent in the child for quite prolongedperiods. It has been shown that the tubercle bacillus mayremain latent for some time. Under such circumstancescongenital tuberculosis is probably mistaken for, andclassified as, a postnatal infection [of childhood]."

"Undoubtedly the strong uterine contractions incidentto labor constitute a most important factor in thetransmission of tubercle bacilli at the end of pregnancy.Organisms that, prior to the onset of labor, were lodgedin the placenta or in the intervillous spaces, may, as theresult of these contractions, be forced into the fetalcirculation. Schlimpert, Schmorl and Geipel, Warthinand Cowie, Dardeleben, and others are very insistent onthis point."

Thus, throughout the first half of the 20th century, themethod of choice for an expectant mother with provenTB—if it was found—was early termination ofpregnancy.54

Others, like Norris, also sawthe possibility of maternal–foetal transfer of even non-symptomatic TB as notuncommon.55-59 Dr HenryWilliam Welch, often called theDean of American Medicine anda colleague of Osler at JohnsHopkins, was already on recordas saying that the mere inabilityto pick up TB in the foetus ornewborn wasn't an argumentagainst frequent transmissionto them.60 There were just too

many factors involved, such as the hostile, low-oxygenenvironment of foetal blood, which could tame even themost virulent TB bacilli into dormant forms for sometime, making diagnosis difficult to impossible. Thehistory of associating what we presently call "autism"with tuberculosis is an old one, going back to JohnLangdon Down, a subset of whose young patients clearlywere the first cases of "autism" on record. Suchassociations persist.61-63

While a blanket statement that vaccinations causeautism cannot be supported, the assertion that certainvaccines can aggravate and precipitate the first signs ofan autism originating from chronic disease cannot bedenied. A vaccine or group of vaccinations could triggerautism simply by inadvertently introducing, through theirhuman, animal and poultry components, mycobacterialelements into the mother, foetus or young child. Mixedtubercular infection in man with human and fowl TB isn'ta new discovery: Tsukamura and Mizuno64 found it rathercommonly in their 1981 study. Once introduced, onetubercular form can potentiate and make more virulent

Continued on page 9


…the assertion that certainvaccines can aggravate andprecipitate the first signsof an autism originating

from chronic diseasecannot be denied.

an existing tubercular infection. Another way in which vaccine

components can trigger autism waslaid out by Hartz in his JAMA proberegarding how mercury compoundslike thimerosal activate and makemuch worse an existing tubercularinfection.

Finally, in vaccinations there areadjuvant oils or lipids, many of whichdo not have to be reported, used toincrease a vaccine's potency. Suchoils or lipids are cholesterolprecursors, becoming cholesterol inthe body.65 Such a cholesterol surgeis a big boost for any dormantsystemic tuberculosis already in thebody, whose very ability to maintaininfection is linked to its ability toacquire and utilise cholesterol. Socrucial is this unique ability of TB touse cholesterol in the body for bothcarbon and energy sources that if itwere not for its ability to consume

cholesterol, tuberculosis, unlike otherpathogens, would be unable to resisteradication through cytokine attackand the attempts of certain activatedwhite blood cells called macrophagesto starve it of essential nutrients.66

In comparative and simpler terms,one might look at an injection ofcertain vaccine oil or lipid adjuvants,squalene among them, whetherinside or outside of a vaccination, aslighting up chronic foci oftuberculosis like a Christmas tree; or,in the words of Sir William Osler,chronic tuberculosis "may be lightedinto activity by vaccination"—for afew reasons, key to why vaccines, incertain cases, can trigger what achild's parents clearly see as the firstsigns of autism in their toddler. ∞

About the Author:Pennsylvania internist and medicalresearcher Lawrence Broxmeyer, MD,was on the staff at NY affiliates ofDownstate, Cornell and NYU for 14 years.

He was the originator and lead author ofa novel way to kill AIDS mycobacteria (J.Infectious Diseases 2002; 186[8]:1155-60).His ideas on phagotherapy are still in usetoday. He contributed a chapter to thetextbook Patho-Biotechnology (LandesBioscience, 2008). His peer-reviewedarticles are on PubMed. He is the authorof several books including AIDS: What theDiscoverers of HIV Have Never Admitted(new edition, July 2014; see review in20/01) and Autism: An Ancient FoeBecomes a Modern Scourge (2012). Hehas had several articles published inNEXUS: “Ebola…or African Strains ofTuberculosis” (22/01); “Influenza and theTB Connection” (19/01-02); and “TheUntold Truth About Cancer” (17/01-02).

Dr Broxmeyer can be contacted byemail at [email protected]. For more information, visithttp://lawrencebroxmeyermd.com.

Editor’s Note:Due to space constraints, we’re unable toinclude the endnotes accompanying thisarticle. To see these, visit the websitehttp://lawrencebroxmeyermd.org/.

Continued from page 8

Vaccines as an Autism Trigger: A TB Link?


NEXUS February–March 2015 (vol. 22, no. 2)

Vaccines as an Autism Trigger: A TB Link?by Lawrence Broxmeyer, MD

Endnotes

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Santa Clara County, California, March 20065. Bay City News Service Santa Clara County hasmore tuberculosis cases than most U.S. states,http://www.mercurynews.com/health/ci_25414955/santa-clara-county-has-more-tuberculosis-cases-than6. Center for Immigration Integration. University ofSouthern California,http://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/731/docs/SANTACLARA_web.pdf

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta,Georgia, September 20087. Christie, L. J., Loeffler, A. M., Honamand, S., Flood, J.M., Baxter, R., Jacobson, S., Alexander, R., and Glaser,C.A. “Diagnostic Challenges of Central Nervous SystemTuberculosis.” Emerg Infec Dis., 14, no. 9 (September2008): 1473-75

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DC : 2005 http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-108hhrg98046/html/CHRG-108hhrg98046.htm; video ofHearing available athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBRwOohhHuA9. CDC. Influenza Vaccines United States, 2014-15Influenza Seasonhttp://www.cdc.gov/flu/pdf/protect/vaccine/influenza-vaccines-table-2014-15.pdf10. CDC. Children, the Flu, and the Flu Vaccine,http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/children.htm11. CDC. Pregnant? Get a Flu Shot!,http://www.cdc.gov/features/pregnancyandflu/12. Smithburn KC, Kempf GF, Zerfas IG, Gilman LH.Meningococcic Meningitis: a clinical study of onehundred and forty-four epidemic cases. JAMA.1930;95(11):776-78013. Powell, H. M., and Jamieson, W. A. 1931.Merthiolate as a germicide. Am. J. Hyg. 13:296–31014. Hartz, H. J. Ultimate Results in the Treatment ofPulmonary Tuberculosis with Mercury Succinimid.Journal of the American Medical Association, 55, no.11(September, 1910): 915–18.)15. Hartz, op. cit., p. 91716. Tauber MG, Sande MA. The impact of penicillin onthe treatment of meningitis. JAMA 1984; 251: 1877-8017. Ramachandran, TS. Tuberculous MeningitisDifferential Diagnoses. Medscape Reference: DrugsDiseases and Procedureshttp://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1166190-differential 18. Kempf GF, Gilman LH, Zerfas LG. Meningococcicmeningitis and epidemic meningo-encephalopathy:reports of one hundred and twenty-two additional casesin the Indianapolis epidemic and of sixty-eight cases ofan epidemic meningo-encephalopathy. Arch NeurPsych.1933;29(3):433-45319. Sweany, HC. Mutation forms of the tuberclebacillus. JAMA. Chicago. 1926;87(15):1206-1211. 20. Mellon RR, Fisher LW New studies on thefilterability of pure cultures of the tubercle group ofmicroorganisms. J Infect Dis. 1932; 51:117-12821. Kempf, op cit. pg. 450

Uncommon Valour 22. Statement of William W. Thompson, PhD, regardingthe 2004 article examining the possibility of arelationship between MMR vaccine and autism,http://www.morganverkamp.com/august-27-2014-press-release-statement-of-william-w-thompson-ph-d-regarding-the-2004-article-examining-the-possibility-of-a-relationship-between-mmr-vaccine-and-autism/23. DeStefano F1, Bhasin TK, Thompson WW, Yeargin-Allsopp M, Boyle C. Age at first measles-mumps-rubellavaccination in children with autism and school-matched control subjects: a population-based study inmetropolitan Atlanta Pediatrics. 2004 Feb;113(2):259-6624. Audio of Sharyl Attkisson telephone interview with


CDC’s Dr. Frank DeStefano about his questioned MMR-autism study, Aug. 26, 2014,http://sharylattkisson.com/audio-cdc-addresses-allegations-on-vaccine-autism-link-omission25. Child Trends DataBank. Figure 2. Percentage ofChildren Ages 3-17 with Autism Spectrum Disorders(ASD) by Race/Hispanic Origin, 2007 and 2011/12http://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=autism-spectrum-disorders 26. Duke, W.D. Multiple Infections – A study of TheRelation of one infection to Another The Journal of theAmerican Medical Association (JAMA) Chicago, IllinoisNovember 23, 1918 71:21:1703-170627. CDC Factsheet. Tuberculosis In Blacks,http://www.cdc.gov/tb/publications/factsheets/specpop/resources_TB_Blacks.htm

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