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Event highlights autism, vaccines

The Post and Courier
by Jill Coley
May 18, 2009

A recent autism conference in Charleston boldly touted a claim that mainstream science largely has put to rest: a link between the developmental disorder and vaccines.

The three-day International Vaccine Risk Symposium was hosted by the American Chiropractic Autism Board, a group formed last year by Charleston-based chiropractor Renee Tocco.

In addition to presentations on vaccines and seminars for the general public, chiropractors and medical doctors focused on nontraditional autism therapies such as diet and hyperbaric oxygen chambers.

"We're bringing everything to the table that's helping children recover," Tocco said. "Every child is different so you have to find out what is going on with that individual child."

However, Dr. Laura Carpenter, a clinical psychologist at the Medical University of South Carolina, said, "I have concerns with treatments that don't have theoretical underpinnings."

As long as treatments are safe, such as a gluten-free diet, Dr. Jane Charles does not take issue with them. Whatever parents try, it's important for them to tell their doctors, said Charles, a developmental behavioral health pediatrician at MUSC.

Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning that it affects each person differently and to varying degrees. While its cause remains unproved, it's pretty clear genetics play a role, Carpenter said.

The controversy ignited in the late 1990s following a study described in The Lancet that proposed a connection between the measles-mumps-rubella, or MMR, vaccine and autism.

A review of more than 12 large studies in five countries concluded that no data supported that link, according to Dr. Paul Offit, chief of infectious diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and author of the book "Autism's False Prophets."

Another hypothesis pointed the finger at thimerosal, which was removed from nearly all vaccines about eight years ago, according to Carpenter.

A third reasoning now gaining popularity is that vaccines overwhelm the immune system. Carpenter, however, pointed to the purity of vaccines today compared with those in the past.

In 1985, doctors vaccinated for seven diseases using 3,000 antigens, she said. Today, health care providers can vaccinate against 16 diseases using only 200 antigens.

On Thursday while preparing for the conference, Tocco said that the keynote speaker, Dr. Andrew Moulden, a brain specialist from Canada, would present research that hasn't been linked together before. His hypothesis centers on vaccines slowing the blood in an effect called "blood sludging."

While Tocco also thinks there is a connection between autism and vaccines, she said it is likely multi-causal. "Over the years, so many have pointed at so many components in vaccines," she said.

It is that unfocused rationale that scientists eschew. Charles said scientists prefer theories that can be tested in double-blind experiments with a placebo control group.

Vaccines are a good thing, and that we have so many now is a public health success, Charles said. It's important for everyone to get them so the public can develop what's called a "herd immunity."

But when parents choose not to vaccinate, they put others at risk, Charles said. "They are dumping on the community to protect their child."