I’m dying to write a light-hearted post, but I keep coming across new news on the potential risks involved with Gardisil, the teen vaccine intended to stave off cervical cancer, and the swine flu vaccine and I feel that I must continue to get the word out on vaccines. The more I read and listen, the more suspicious I am becoming that our national vaccination policy is a well-meaning government program that, like so many others, is caught up in nasty politics and big business.

As a side note, it is difficult to write about these matters without sounding alarmist. My goal here is to encourage parents to educate themselves about vaccines. Like any medical issue, citizens need to take responsibility for their own health. It is too easy to just do what the doctor says. See my last post about vaccinating baby for more resources that can help educate you about the potential hazards of vaccinations.

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Of the 45 initial deaths from H1N1 (between April 15 and June 16), 6 were pregnant women. Although that doesn’t sound like a lot, proportionally it’s huge. It’s 13 percent of swine flu deaths, whereas only 1 percent of the population overall is pregnant at any given time. They face a higher death risk and a higher hospitalization risk.

In general pregnant women get sicker for longer.

Experts know they’re climbing an uphill battle with preggos. Many are hesitant to take anything during pregnancy, and OBs don’t generally prescribe medications unless absolutely necessary.

So should all pregnant women jump on this vaccine bandwagon, especially for a shot that is just starting to be tested?

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The FDA suggests that physicians talk to patients about these risks. They also suggest that girls remain at the doctor’s office for 15 minutes after receiving the shot so their reactions can be monitored.

Lay down for 15 minutes in case of seizure or fainting.

But is “laying down” the right prescription for this vaccine?

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Up to 250,000 children have autism or a related condition on the autistic spectrum, but have not been diagnosed, researchers say. They are in addition to the 500,000 children who are known to be affected.

The study, conducted by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen and colleagues of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University, found that the increase was due to better detection and intervention.

This is disputed by a U.S. study at UC Davis, which said that California’s 7- to 8-fold increase was due only in small part by better detection, and stressed that environmental factors must be studied as a possible cause.

So now the opposite sides of the pond, and coasts for that matter, are in dispute.

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The media has been having a heyday with the fear of a “swine flu” pandemic, and rumors and fear-mongering have taken the stage. One doctor tries to cut through the crap with his article, “Swine Flu: New Pandemic or Just Makin’ Bacon?”

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Around age two, we begin to suspect that we weren’t just dealing with a more difficult or strong willed child.  At that time, I had no idea what we were dealing with and I kept telling myself “this is just a phase, it’ll pass”.  But the phase never passed.  Behaviors became more pronounced, social interactions and transition became exceptionally difficult.

Our “Little Critter” as she is dubbed in the online community is exceptionally bright, active and speaks beautifully so Autism Disorders were not considered in our early well child checks.  She walked at 7 1/2 months unassisted and has never stopped since, she wasn’t a cuddly baby from birth… rolling and scooting around on her belly by 2 1/2 months.  This was a baby who wanted to go.  I figured she was eager to play with her big sisters and therefore had no desire to be a baby.  She hit all the milestones on time or early and boy was she messy!  Always touching, feeling, running, jumping, twirling.  Now we know that she has sensory processing disorders which cause her to seek stimulation in some situations and over-react to stimuli (lights/noise) in others. We began to learn about Aspergers Disorder and Sensory Perception Disorder and saw our child.

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Both Gardasil and Menactra vaccines are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for grade school through college aged children, but according to the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), Gardasil has been implicated in many more adverse reactions than Menactra, raising plenty of questions about its safety.

“Merck only studied the vaccine in fewer than 1200 girls under age 16 and most of the serious health problems and deaths in the pre-licensure clinical trials were written off as a ‘coincidence.’ If the new Administration and Congress want to make government recommended health care safer, more effective and less expensive, a good place to start is by looking into the human and economic costs of Gardasil vaccine.” - Barbara Loe Fisher, NVIC co-founder and president

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Like many states, Oregonians can opt out of school required vaccinations by claiming religious exemption.  Statewide, 3.7 percent of kindergartners were exempt in 2007; however in Ashland, 28.1 percent of kindergartners were not vaccinated making it the least vaccinated city in the US.  The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) wants to know why.

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The state of New Jersey has decided to combat the problem by mandating flu vaccines for children in preschool and licensed child-care centers, but is this a good idea?

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The National Institute of Mental Health, or NIMH, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, said in a statement on Wednesday that it has canceled a study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of a treatment called chelation.

Chelation is a type of therapy in which an …amino acid, called EDTA, is added to the blood. It was developed during World War I and has been used to treat poisoning by various heavy metals including, lead, mercury and arsenic.

The controversy surrounding the mercury-autism connection has been raging for over a decade which caused removal of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal from vaccines in 2001. Many across the country though, believe that this connection has not been thoroughly refuted

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I am, by all accounts, a deeply flawed woman, and had the hostess been anyone other than who she is, she might have decked me. Some of these parenting issues become hot buttons before we realize it. The immunization debates rankle many. I live in a neighborhood where illegal immigrants with unknown backgrounds routinely care for young children. I see childhood vaccines as prudent. I understand waiting a few extra months, but skipping them altogether seems foolhardy to me.

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Raymond F. Palmer said the study showed — for the first time in scientific literature — a statistically significant association between autism risk and proximity to the mercury source

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Now that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines are combined into one shot, the MMR vaccine, avoiding those mega doses of vaccinations in one visit is a little harder. With a little ingenuity however, you can have the shot for each disease administered separately.

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The Vaccine Book is divided into 19 chapters. The first 12 chapters are devoted to a different vaccine. Within each vaccine chapter, Dr. Sears discusses:

• What the disease is
• When the vaccine is given
• How the vaccine is made
• What ingredients are in the vaccine
• What are the side effects of the vaccine
• Should you give your baby the vaccine (including both reasons for and against, as well as travel considerations)
• The way Dr. Sears sees it

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