Vaccines and Autism in India
Some parents in India are claiming that mercury poisoning from vaccines caused their children to become autistic, according to an article in today’s Tehelka. Multi-dose vaccines containing thimerasol are still in use in India, in part (the Tehelka article) notes because they are 10 percent less expensive than single-dose vaccines and “hence preferred by the international agencies for vaccination programmes” (such as that of the World Health Organization (WHO)) in developing countries. The title of the article is, indeed, Autism could come cheap for children.
No figures for the prevalence of autism in India are cited. Some statements are made in the Tehelka article that suggest that Westerners’ views on a mercury/autism link are much more unified than is the case:
The possible link between mercury in vaccines and the unprecedented growth in the number of autism cases among children in the West caused great concern among parents there. This led to a ban on such vaccines in many developed countries.
It seems to me that the “ban” referred to here is on the use of the mercury-based preservative thimerasol in vaccines, rather than the vaccines themselves. The Tehelka article also notes that chelation—”detoxification of heavy metals present in the system and in the brain”—has been proven to be “the most effective treatment to limit the disability caused by autism.” Again, while some parents in the US have claimed that their children have greatly improved due to chelation, not everyone has found this to be the case (this would be my husband and I; highly structured and individualized teaching of our son Charlie has been especially effective, in his case; a child died last year due while undergoing chelation treatment).
Autism is again referred to in the closing two sentences of the article, with the rather blunt assertion that “Indian children just might unknowingly be risking autism every time they are vaccinated” —and in particular because single-dose vaccines (without thimerasol) are more expensive than multi-dose ones (with thimerasol), international health organizations favor the latter. One finishes the article thinking that it is more about issues other than autism, namely the influence of organizations like the WHO and Unicef in India and on public health in a global perspective.
On autism in India, please visit Action for Autism, a national, non-profit parent organization. Its websites notes that, in India, “numerous studies have placed the occurrence of autism at a rate of approximately 1 in 500 people.”
2 opinions for Vaccines and Autism in India
Gerard Petillo
Dec 3, 2006 at 11:10 pm
Kristina
About a week ago you and I were commenting on how much press the vaccine hypothesis continues to receive even though the medical and scientific community in this country has failed to prove that hypothesis and is exploring different explanations to establish a cause for autism.
This new article regarding India is yet another example.
Gerard Petillo
Parents Of ANGELS Bronx N.Y.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Dec 4, 2006 at 12:15 am
That was indeed my impression on reading it—and there is much more about autism in India, as at the Action for Autism website.
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