> Children and Parenting > Health and Environmental Concerns > vaccinations

A few years ago, the Kitchener/ Waterloo area was host to the neisseria menigitidis pathogen, which claimed the lives of several young people. One teenage girl developed meningitis and died a week after getting the vaccine Menomune. Health officials explained the incident away by saying the girl hadn’t had enough time to develop immunity, which takes about 10 to 14 days.

Pathogens commonly linked to meningitis are haemophilus influenza B, pneumococcal organisms and numerous sub-groups of neisseria menigitidis. Menomune was produced by Aventis-Pasteur (previously known as Connaught), and is the quadravalent vaccine used in Canada during outbreaks to "protect" against four groups of neisseria meningitidis-A, C, Y and W135. Product information indicates that 20 percent of reported cases of meningicoccal disease occur in infants and about one quarter of the resulting deaths are in infants. Thimerosal, a mercury derivative, is added to the vaccine as a preservative.

How long "protection" lasts is not indicated in the product information sheet. A frightening possibility is that the vaccine might actually fuel the outbreak of sub-groups of pathogens not covered in the vaccine.

Smith Kline’s statement about its own meningitis vaccine, Mencevax, reflects this concern. "The use of Mencevax ACWY may increase the meningicoccal carriage rates, especially for meningicoccal groups not included in the vaccine," he said.

The most commonly occurring meningicoccal groups that appear in Canada are C and B. However, the vaccine does not "protect" from sub-group B and the age distribution of group B and C varies greatly. Infants with meningicoccal disease were significantly more likely to be infected with group B disease than group C, and children below the age of one year have the greatest age-specific incidence of the disease. In addition, there is a growing awareness in the research community that use of the vaccine may actually precipitate serotype conversion from group C to group B.

Provoking Disease

The provocation effect caused by vaccines in precipitating meningitis is well documented. The Urabe strain of mumps vaccine has been linked to meningitis, as was an outbreak of asceptic meningitis in Brazil that started in August 1997, three weeks after the highly publicized "national vaccination day." At that time an intensive mass vaccination campaign against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) was launched. In a survey of 87 children (ages eight to 11) hospitalized in one area of the country, it was determined that 86 percent had been vaccinated with MMR!

In the USA, where college students are urged to get the meningitis vaccine, it’s estimated that they are at increased risk of developing meningitis. Some observers are linking their susceptibility to the disease to stress, overcrowded dorms, cigarette smoke, alcohol consumption, late nights, inadequate sleep and poor nutrition.

Although Canadian high-school students don’t live the dorm life, they are also subjected to high stress levels by virtue of the fact that teen years are a very difficult time of life. Couple that with peer and school pressures and a nutritional status that is often sub-optimal. All are contributing factors to lowered immunity and lowered resistance to disease.

Dr Cheraskin’s research in the mid-1970s demonstrated that refined sugar lowers white blood cell count dramatically. Blood was sampled before and after sugar intake of subjects and researchers found that eating a few teaspoons of sugar lowered the white cell count up to 50 per cent or more within an hour. It took five to six hours for the blood chemistry to normalize. Sugar can drastically impair white blood cell activity, sending the immune system into a tailspin.

Teens need real health education that teaches nutritional ways to protect their immune systems. And they need to understand the role junk foods, fast foods and drinks have in lowering their bodies’ resistance to pathogens. Vaccines are not the answer to disease and can actually push children over the edge. Supporting the immune system with good whole food nutrition is the foundation for lifelong health.

Edda West is the coordinator of VRAN, the Vaccine Risk Awareness Network, a resource group committed to educating the public about the risks of vaccines.

Source: alive #227, September 2001