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Health Alert: Vaccines Alter Diabetes Risk! |
SourcePR NEWSWIREForumsHealth, Safety, Nutrition and KidsRelated ArticlesInfant Vaccine to Target Pneumococcus Bacteria, the Leading Cause of Ear Infections and MeningitisInformation and news releases furnished by the members of PR Newswire, who are responsible for their fact and content. |
BALTIMORE, March 25, 1996 -- Classen Immunotherapies has published data in the April issue of Diabetologia (Journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) indicating that immunization alters the risk of developing insulin dependent diabetes (IDDM). The data demonstrates that administration at birth of a single dose of BCG vaccine, used in Europe to prevent tuberculosis, is associated with the prevention of up to 50 cases of diabetes/100,000 children immunized, the equivalent of over a 25% decrease in diabetes by age 15 in many industrialized nations. Classen Immunotherapies' data was derived by reanalyzing a Swedish epidemiology study following over 400,000 immunized and unimmunized children for 12 years. The data supports Classen Immunotherapies' earlier studies (patent application PCT/US 94/08825) showing that immunization at birth may reduce diabetes while immunization starting after 8 weeks may increase the risk of diabetes, presumably due to the timing of interferon release. The added effect of administering a dose of a vaccine starting at birth, as opposed to starting after 2 months, may result in a 50% reduction in diabetes by age 19. The discovery indicates that vaccine safety studies are dangerously flawed because they are not designed to detect the effect of vaccines on common autoimmune diseases such as insulin dependent diabetes. The data indicates that vaccines may be having an even greater impact on autoimmune diseases than on the serious infectious complications which they are designed to prevent. Classen Immunotherapies is the first to develop proprietary pediatric immunization methods to prevent diabetes. Classen Immunotherapies' discovery raises strong doubts about the safety of vaccines and indicate that clinical trials are needed immediately to either confirm or disprove the effect of vaccines on diabetes. If confirmed, Classen Immunotherapies discoveries will revolutionize the vaccine field and lead to safer immunization practices. The benefit from changing immunization schedules may exceed the benefit from immunization against polio, due to the high incidence and cost of insulin dependent diabetes. A US citizen's life time risk of developing IDDM may reach 1:100 while the total US cost of this disease may exceed $30 billion annually. Safer vaccines could be on the market in a few years if government officials make vaccine safety a priority. CONTACT: J. Barthelow Classen, M.D., president of Classen Immunotherapies, 410-377-4549, or fax, 410-377-8526 |
