Hepatitis Vaccine - medical data suggesting link to Multiple Sclerosis

back to healthread                               Return to Vaccines Page

Is there a link between MS and the hepatitis vaccine?

There is a movement afoot to force babies to have the Hepatitis B vaccine at birth. Yet, babies at this age are low risk for this non fatal disease and the following suggests that the side effects of this vaccine might be worse than the illness:

Medical Literature Cites Immune System/Brain Damage (after receiving the Hepatitis B vaccine)

During the past decade, there have been many reports in the medical literature (primarily in international medical journals rather than U.S. medical journals) that hepatitis B vaccination is causing chronic immune and neurological disease in children and adults, including lupus: Tudela & Bonal (1992); Mamoux & Dumont (1994); Guiserix (1996); arthritis, including polyarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis: Christan & Helin (1987); Hachulla et al (1990); Rogerson & Nye (1990); Biasi et al (1993),(1994); Vautier & Carty (1994); Hassan & Oldham (1994); Rheumatic Review (1994); Gross et al (1995); Pope et al (1995); Cathebras et al (1996); Soubrier et al (1997); Guillain Barre Syndrome GBS): Shaw et al (1988), Tuohy (1989); demyelinating disorders such as optic neuritis, Bell's Palsy, demyelinating neuropathy, transverse myelitis and multiple sclerosis: Shaw et al (1988); WHO (1990); Reutens et al (1990); Herroelen et al (1991); Nadler (1993); Brezin et al (1993); Mahassin et al (1993); Kaplanski et al (1995); Baglivo et al (1996); Marsaudon & Barrault (1996); Berkman et al (1996); Waisbren (1997); diabetes mellitus: Poutasi (1996); Classen (1996); chronic fatigue: Salit (1993); Delage et al (1993); vascular disorders: Fried et al (1987); Goolsby (1989); Cockwell et al (1990); Poullin & Gabriel (1994); Mathieu et al (1996); Graniel et al (1997); and others.

In 1996, Burton A. Waisbren, M.D., a cell biologist and infectious disease specialist, who is a founding member of the Infectious Disease Society of America and past President of the Infectious Disease Society of Milwaukee, pointed out in the Wisconsin Medical Journal that "there is an increasing number of reports in the refereed medical literature about demyelinizing diseases occurring after an individual has received the hepatitis B vaccination...since the hepatitis B virus itself has been reported to cause autoimmune problems, should we not be wary of giving antigens that seem to have triggered these problems?" Waisbren, in a presentation before a 1996 Institute of Medicine Vaccine Safety Forum, warned that genetically engineered hepatitis B vaccines contain polypeptide sequences that are present in human neurologic tissues such as myelin and that, by a mechanism called molecular mimicry, these polypeptides can act as autoantigens which can induce autoimmune demyelinating diseases of the brain such as multiple sclerosis.

In that same year, Montinari et al published a study in Italy evaluating 30 children and adults, the majority aged 3 to 9 months, who suffered central nervous system disorders, such as seizures and autism, following hepatitis B vaccination. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether there is an immunogenetic basis (autoimmune type) responsible for the demyelination process in the brain that can occur following recombinant hepatitis B vaccination. The authors concluded "autoimmune diseases are more frequent in nations where vaccines are widely used, the so called "clear" communities" and they identified several potential genetic markers that "may visualize risk patients for autoimmune diseases following hepatitis B vaccination.

Montinari's work to identify genetic factors for predisposition to hepatitis B vaccine reactions is important in light of the study in 1989 by Alper et al to identify genetic factors for those who do not respond to hepatitis B vaccination. In that study, the authors concluded that there was genetic predisposition to failure to respond to the vaccine. They stated: "These results support our hypothesis that the production of anti-HBsAg [vaccine-induced antibodies] is a dominant trait and that the inability to produce high titers of anti-HBsAG after adequate immunization is a recessive trait..." The authors concluded that the genetic markers they identified are most prevalent in caucasians of European descent "and is associated with a wide variety of diseases with autoimmune features in this population, including Type 1 diabetes mellitus..."

In 1996, Barthelow Classen, M.D., CEO of Classen Immunotherapies Inc., published an epidemiologic study in the New Zealand Medical Journal and reported that there was a 60 percent increase in Type 1 diabetes (juvenile diabetes) following a massive campaign in New Zealand from 1988 to 1991 to vaccinate babies six weeks of age or older with hepatitis B vaccine. His analysis of a group of 100,000 New Zealand children prospectively followed since 1982 showed that the incidence of diabetes before the hepatitis B vaccination program began in 1988 was 11.2 cases per 100,000 children per year while the incidence of diabetes following the hepatitis B vaccination campaign was 18.2 cases per 100,000 children per year.

Graph showing adverse events after Hep B vaccine

Please see: Vaccination information Center - Hepatitis B Vaccine - the untold story

Recently, we read in the respected medical journal, the NEJM, that the link between the Hepatitis B vaccine and Multiple Sclerosis had been 'disproven' using the same population used to "disprove" the link between estrogen and breast cancer (in year 2000, estrogen was put on the cancer causing agent's list by the FDA). And we should remember the article in the same medical journal 'disproving' the link between abortion and breast cancer using the Melbye study which was later proven very faulty since most aborted women in Denmark were not included in the study! The NEJM managed to 'ignor' the results of 28 other studies proving that there was a strong link between abortion and breast cancer.

If you are deciding whether or not to vaccinate your child, perhaps the above should be considered in making your decision.