Autism Vox

Experts to Hold Meeting on Mitochondrial Disorders

by Kristina Chew, PhD on June 27th, 2008

Ever since March when the government conceded that vaccines had “aggravated” a pre-existing mitochondrial disorder and led to symptoms of autism in a 9-year-old girl, Hannah Poling, whether there’s any link between mitonchondrial disorders and autism has been under questions. Is there a “subpopulation of mitochondrial autism“?, Hannah Poling’s father, Dr. Jon Poling has asked. Researchers at Medical Neurogenetics have said they have found evidence of a genetic link and mitochondrial disease. Anecdotally, I’ve heard parents of autistic children seeking out tests for mitochondrial disorders.

In the June 28th New York Times, Gardiner Harris (who has previously reported on vaccines and autism) writes about a meeting on Sunday in Indianapolis that federal officials have called for experts in mitochondrial disorders discuss the “controversial case” of Hannah Poling. The meeting is co-sponsored by co-sponsored by the the National Institute of Mental Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the C.D.C., the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

The New York Times article suggests that another controversy could be afoot:

the government has so far kept quiet a second case that some say is more disturbing and more relevant to the meeting.

On January 11, a 6-year-old girl from Colorado received FluMist, a flu vaccine, and about a week later “became weak with multiple episodes of falling to ground” and “difficulty walking,” according to a case report filed with federal health officials and obtained by The New York Times.

The girl grew increasingly weak and feverish and “became more limp, appears sleepy, acts as if drunk,” the report said. She was hospitalized and underwent surgery and was finally withdrawn from life support. She died on April 5, according to the report.

Both the 9- and 6-year-olds suffered from mitochondrial disorders, a spectrum of genetic diseases that have received almost no attention from federal health officials. The 9-year-old, Hannah Poling, was 19 months old and developing normally in 2000 when she received five shots against nine infectious diseases. Two days later, she developed a fever, cried inconsolably and refused to walk. Over the next seven months, she spiraled downward, and in 2001 she was given a diagnosis of autism.

No one knows whether vaccinations had anything to do with the girls’ health problems, and the scientific significance of individual cases is always difficult to assess. But suggestions that mitochondrial disorders could be triggered or worsened by vaccinations, and that the disorders may be linked to autism, spurred Sunday’s meeting and has brought the disorders sudden national attention.

Those scheduled to present at the meeting who were contacted by The Times said that they knew nothing of the Colorado case.

“I haven’t heard about this case,” said Dr. Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health and the day’s first speaker.

Dr. John Iskander, acting director of the immunization safety office at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that his group studied the Colorado case closely but did not discuss it with those presenting at Sunday’s meeting and had no plans to present the case to the conference, although he and members of his group will attend.

Dr. Iskander notes that those called to the meeting are not vaccine safety experts, but, again, experts in mitochondrial disorders. The Colorado girl had, too, “not experienced any problems with her previous vaccinations and was relatively old at the time of her diagnosis” with mitochondrial disorder and there is no mention of autism in her case. Dr. Darryl Devivo, a professor of neurology and pediatrics at Columbia University, who is a leading expert in the field of mitochondrial disorders, notes that “‘After caring for hundreds of children with mitochondrial disease, I can’t recall a single one that had a complication from vaccination.’” While it’s noted that a test to screen for mitochondrial disorders is not sufficiently “’sensitive or specific,” Dr. Insel notes that discussion about these, vaccines, and autism is needed; he says:

“We’re talking about two things we don’t understand very well, mitochondrial disorder and autism, and putting them together. It’s like two drunks holding each other up.”

More questions for sure and probably more calls of controversy will be heard, too.

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POSTED IN: Cause, Health, Science, Vaccines