Vaccination & epidemic

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

- Some autistic behavior is the result of pain, and not of a non-painful neurological dysfunction, and some is the result of pain plus other, non-painful problems, neurological or otherwise?

This one, plus 'some behaviors are a result of neurological dysfunction and not related to pain at all.' My mistake was in listing specific symptoms that can be a result of pain (head-banging, screaming, posturing) and forgetting that not everyone knows the entire set of symptoms and would understand this was merely a few of them.

One of my children has/had obvious gut pain. The other does not seem to, but I can't ask her because she doesn't talk. (Some autism mothers have also reported that their older children, even once they learned to talk, didn't tell anyone about their moderate levels of pain until much later because at some point they had decided it was normal, that everyone felt this way.) Both have neurological symptoms beyond the pain, which we are working to address through other known causes. It is possible we will never know all the causes of the neurological damage; or that we will, but be unable to totally repair the damage; or that we can repair it, but will only be able to maintain that level with a steady dose of drugs and supplements to address permanent underlying disorders. I don't know. The only thing I fundamentally do not believe is that this is a wholly genetic condition that they were born with from day one. The neurons were working, and then they stopped working.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

I'll re-read it for that, but in the meantime, we'll know if the monkey count is identical in your next email update. Promise to let me know?

Yeah, if they mention it. But I bet I won't see that kind of detail until the article is published, same time you will.

[Aliantha]

Inflamation of the brain doesn't cause pain in the brain itself, but it certainly causes pain in the head area because it restricts blood vessels etc. This is why people with brain tumours and concussion suffer from pain. It's not the brain itself that's hurting. It's all the other stuff up there.

[jinx]

Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy children

Main results

Fifty-one studies with 294,159 observations were included. Sixteen RCTs and 18 cohort studies were included in the analysis of vaccine efficacy and effectiveness. From RCTs, live vaccines showed an efficacy of 82% (95% confidence interval (CI) 71% to 89%) and an effectiveness of 33% (95% CI 28% to 38%) in children older than two compared with placebo or no intervention. Inactivated vaccines had a lower efficacy of 59% (95% CI 41% to 71%) than live vaccines but similar effectiveness: 36% (95% CI 24% to 46%). In children under two, the efficacy of inactivated vaccine was similar to placebo. Variability in study design and presentation of data was such that a meta-analysis of safety outcome data was not feasible. Extensive evidence of reporting bias of safety outcomes from trials of live attenuated vaccines impeded meaningful analysis.

Authors' conclusions

Influenza vaccines are efficacious in children older than two but little evidence is available for children under two. There was a marked difference between vaccine efficacy and effectiveness. No safety comparisons could be carried out, emphasizing the need for standardisation of methods and presentation of vaccine safety data in future studies. It was surprising to find only one study of inactivated vaccine in children under two years, given current recommendations to vaccinate healthy children from six months old in the USA and Canada. If immunisation in children is to be recommended as a public health policy, large-scale studies assessing important outcomes and directly comparing vaccine types are urgently required.

[Flint]

Hello? They don't have to do a study because they already told us it's safe. What the hell is it with you conspiracy-spouting hippies and your infernal "what if" scenarios? How about this: "what if" you just shut up and do what you're told. Inject this shit into your baby for no reason.

[glatt]

Speaking of efficacy, did anyone else see the story yesterday about all the recalled H1N1 vaccine that had apparently lost its mojo.

lemme dig around. Here we go.

About 800,000 doses of swine flu vaccine for children are being recalled because tests found the strength of the shots had dropped since shipment, officials announced Tuesday.
....
Most of the vaccine, which was distributed nationwide in November, has probably already been used.

[Undertoad]

IOW, the live/weakened nasal flu vaccine was efficacious, because it prevented flu 82% of the time, but was not effective, because it only prevented "flu-like symptoms", from viruses other than influenza, 36% of the time. The dead, injected vaccine was only 59% efficacious, so the nasal, live/weakened version is better at combating flu.

[jinx]

Flu vacine efficacy is measure by antibody or titer response - beneficial results under ideal (lab) conditions. Effectiveness indicates the vaccines ability to work (ie. prevent flu) in real world conditions.

[Undertoad]

I'm going by what the Summary says:

The review authors found that in children aged from two years, nasal spray vaccines made from weakened influenza viruses were better at preventing illness caused by the influenza virus (82% of illnesses were prevented) than injected vaccines made from the killed virus (59%). Neither type was particularly good at preventing 'flu-like illness' caused by other types of viruses (33% and 36% respectively).

[ZenGum]

Saying "82% of illnesses were prevented" sounds awfully similar to saying "over a million jobs were saved".

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

Saying "82% of illnesses were prevented" sounds awfully similar to saying "over a million jobs were saved".

Yea but it was 600k!

[Griff]

Panel finds no digestion problem specific to autism

Just picked up a new kid with the diagnosis... major digestive issues suprise suprise.

[Clodfobble]

Here is a perfect example of how political this bullshit is.

From the AP, via boston.com:

Panel finds no digestion problem specific to autism

An advisory panel says there is no rigorous evidence that digestive problems are more common in children with autism compared with other children or that special diets work, contrary to claims by celebrities and vaccine opponents.

Painful digestive troubles can trigger problem behavior in children with autism and should be treated medically, according to the panel’s report, published in the January issue of Pediatrics and released today.

Nevermind that sentence two seems to directly contradict sentence one, the article continues as you would expect and uses sparse quotes from the panel's findings.

Here is a press release from the National Autism Association regarding the exact same advisory paper:

An article published today in the journal Pediatrics confirms what parents and advocacy organizations have been saying for years: many individuals with autism suffer from gastrointestinal disease that can contribute to behaviors and symptoms associated with autism.

Evaluation, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Gastrointestinal Disorders in Individuals With ASDs: A Consensus Report is the result of expert panel study and discussion led by Dr. Timothy Buie of the Harvard Medical School Department of Pediatrics. The panel's findings point out not only the existence of underlying GI disturbances that can manifest as behavioral problems, but also notes that such medical issues have often gone undiagnosed or been ignored in the past by physicians treating patients diagnosed with autism.

But the NAA includes much larger portions of the panel's findings, so you can decide whose interpretation is more accurate:

The panel arrived at several conclusions regarding current clinical practice guidelines and made recommendations for future medical and research priorities. These include:

Current treatment guidelines do not routinely consider potential medical problems

Problem behaviors including self-injury, aggression, irritability, and sleep disturbance may be manifestations of abdominal pain

Behavioral treatment should not substitute for medical treatment

Gastrointestinal symptoms should be considered an urgent indication for medical investigation

Immunologic dysfunction, inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, and allergies are all potentially associated with autism

Research is needed to determine the role of abnormal GI permeability in neuropsychiatric manifestations of autism

Greater awareness is needed among health care providers of the atypical manifestations of GI disorders

Awareness of unrecognized medical conditions in autism must become a priority of professional societies including the American Academy of Pediatrics

Diagnostics should be performed to accurately identify co-morbid allergic disease

Research is needed to determine the role of immune dysfunction in autism

[Clodfobble]

Here are my son's DMSA results. First, the "before" data; i.e., urine collected for six hours immediately prior to giving the dose of medication. Note especially the Lead and Tungsten numbers.

[Clodfobble]

And the "after" data; i.e., urine collected in the very next six hours on the same day, following a dose of DMSA. As you can see, most things are increased a little, nothing huge, but Lead has spiked way up. Even more than the graph makes it appear, actually, because they squashed each scale to fit on one page. Cadmium output, for example, is "elevated," but it's only a value of .7 when it should be a maximum of .5, so it's about 40% out of range. Lead, on the other hand, is at 33 when it should be at a maximum of 5, so it's 660% out of range, or six times higher than what is considered a safe amount of lead in the body.

Meanwhile, you may notice that Tungsten was a little elevated before the drug, and stayed right at the same level after the drug. From this we can infer that there's some higher-than-average source of Tungsten somewhere in his environment, but he's successfully processing and peeing it out without a problem, thus there was no extra Tungsten for the drug to grab.