Vaccines: more on seizure risk

British government researchers have discovered that the DTP (diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis) and MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccines can increase risk of seizure five-fold. Their findings are nearly identical to those made by the American governmentla

The discovery is deeply embarrassing for a government that was assuring the public last autumn, in one of the largest immunization programmes ever undertaken, that the measles vaccine was perfectly safe.

It is also personally embarrassing for the Public Health Laboratory Service, which dismissed our claims of increased seizure risk as "nonsense" during a television programme with WDDTY editor Lynne

McTaggart.

The Public Health Laboratory Service Statistics Unit found the measles jab increased seizure risk five times, while the DTP caused a four-fold increase. The DTP vaccine caused convulsions in infants less than a year old, usually three days after being given the dose. The Urabe strain of the MMR vaccine took longer to cause convulsions, occurring between 15 and 35 days afterwards. One case in 2,600 Urabe doses was recorded.

Last November we reported the findings of the American Centers for Disease Control, which, to this day, have never been publicly revealed (The Lancet, March 4, 1995).

The tetanus jab, given to virtually all American babies, wears off with age. Researchers discovered that the immunity rate was as high as 88 per cent among children aged between six and 11, falling to just 28 per cent in adults aged 70 or over. The rate drops gradually until the age of 40 when it begins to decline dramatically. There are about 150 tetanus cases a year in the US, resulting in between 10 and 20 deaths (Journal Watch, April 15, 1995).