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Thimerosal exposure in infants and developmental disorders: a retrospective cohort study in the United kingdom does not support a causal association.
by Andrews N, Miller E, Grant A, Stowe J, Osborne V, Taylor BPediatrics.
Article Abstract:
OBJECTIVE: After concerns about the possible toxicity of thimerosal-containing vaccines in the United States, this study was designed to investigate whether there is a relationship between the amount of thimerosal that an infant receives via diphtheria-tetanus-whole-cell pertussis (DTP) or diphtheria-tetanus (DT) vaccination at a young age and subsequent neurodevelopmental disorders. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was performed using 109 863 children who were born from 1988 to 1997 and were registered in general practices in the United Kingdom that contributed to a research database. The disorders investigated were general developmental disorders, language or speech delay, tics, attention-deficit disorder, autism, unspecified developmental delays, behavior problems, encopresis, and enuresis. Exposure was defined according to the number of DTP/DT doses received by 3 and 4 months of age and also the cumulative age-specific DTP/DT exposure by 6 months. Each DTP/DT dose of vaccine contains 50 microg of thimerosal (25 microg of ethyl mercury). Hazard ratios (HRs) for the disorders were calculated per dose of DTP/DT vaccine or per unit of cumulative DTP/DT exposure. RESULTS: Only in 1 analysis for tics was there some evidence of a higher risk with increasing doses (Cox's HR: 1.50 per dose at 4 months; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02-2.20). Statistically significant negative associations with increasing doses at 4 months were found for general developmental disorders (HR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.81-0.93), unspecified developmental delay (HR: 0.80; 95% CI: 0.69-0.92), and attention-deficit disorder (HR: 0.79; 95% CI: 0.64-0.98). For the other disorders, there was no evidence of an association with thimerosal exposure. CONCLUSIONS: With the possible exception of tics, there was no evidence that thimerosal exposure via DTP/DT vaccines causes neurodevelopmental disorders.
Response Pediatrics never published
By: John Heptonstall - Sat 11/11/2006 PMSir/Madam
The UK media today (8th November 2006) contains information suggesting that the UK government and medical establishment is presiding over a major national scandal with respect to its vaccine programmes (http://www.the sun.co.uk/article/0..2-2006510771.00html).
"Child immunisation records are in such chaos that health chiefs across Britain have no idea what jabs have been given to hundreds of thousands of kiddies" says The Sun..."The scandal is exposed in top secret documents leaked to The Sun, which reveal records held by the NHS are a farce....up to 60% more shots have been given to children than should have been...some youngsters appear to have received THIRTY jabs - when they should have had just 13....amazingly some children are shown as having nine jabs in a single day.....the shambolic records - dating back an astonishingly TWENTY years - are mainly blamed on incompetenmt paperwork in surgeries......six records taken at random were ALL found to contain errors.....That means records for one million children in London alone are involved.....an insider said there is no reason to think that the rest of the country is any different, it's just that London is the first place any of this work has been done".
Dr. Elizabeth Miller, one of the authors and a noted employee and spokesperson for the UK Department of Health during the past two decades, could comment on this extremely serious developing situation and how it might affect the integrity and validity of this study and all others reliant on the accuracy of UK vaccination records and respective databases developed this past twenty years, not least the UK GPRD, a counterpart of which has long been maintained by the Boston Collaboration using constant updates from UK computerised medical records?
Assuming The Sun story holds merit, would it not now be wise for every parent to seriously consider witholding vaccination from their children until validated evidence-based studies are available to prove safety and efficacy of this medical intervention? Perhap Dr Miller can convey to the readers her expert opinion as to whether vaccines, which may now be devoid of proper evidence-based support from UK based research, ought to be suspended until they can be scientifically declared safe?
Regards
John H.
Conflict of Interest: None declared