WHY IS CHILDHOOD ARTHRITIS ON THE RISE?

Quote:

WHY IS CHILDHOOD ARTHRITIS ON THE RISE?

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, DO

July 6, 2007

http://www.newswithviews.com/Tenpenny/sherri17.htm

More children are suffering from arthritis than ever before. Unpublished
data released June, 2007 from a study conducted jointly by the American
College of Rheumatology and the American Academy of Pediatrics at the behest
of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states nearly
300,000 children in the United States have significant arthritis. Dr. Brian
Feldman, chief of the arthritis program at the Bloorview MacMillan
Children's Center in Toronto states that this number is "probably an
underestimate" since it only takes into account those children who have
actually been diagnosed with arthritis. An Australian study confirms that
the rate of childhood arthritis is four to six times higher than rates
typically quoted.[1]

Physicians are taught about 20 percent of children who are diagnosed with
arthritis go on to develop chronic disease. However, new research suggests
that the percentage is much greater than previously thought. Even when the
acute painful episode subsides or goes into remission, relapses often occur.
In a study of children who had arthritis isolated to one joint, called
oligoarticular arthritis, 60 percent went into remission. Of those, nearly
40 percent had reoccurrences.[2]

Despite assurances by the Institute of Medicine and the FDA that vaccines
are safe and have no association with arthritis, a review of medical
literature suggests a different conclusion.

Quote:

Another mechanism proposes that severe arthritis, such as rheumatoid
arthritis, may be triggered by the vaccine if the person has a genetic
tendency toward an autoimmune disease and then is vaccinated.[4] Genetic
predisposition cannot be determined in advance of the vaccine. In essence,
this mechanism blames the bad outcome from the vaccine on the defective
genetics of the recipient.

The hepatitis b vaccine has been recommended for newborns since 1991 and is
generally administered within the first 48 hours of life. The value of this
vaccination of should certainly be questioned. For example, an Italian study
touted a 46 percent reduction in the number of cases of hepatitis b in
adults, attributed to the vaccination of children. This seems like a
significant contribution to health until the study is closely inspected.
Then the significance of that report withers away. The study concludes that
the number of acute hepatitis b infections decreased from 5.4 per 1 million
persons to 2.9 per one million persons between 1990 and 1998. This was the
researchers arrived at a 46 percent reduction in disease. A similar study
from France boasted that the wide spread vaccination of hundreds of thousand
11 year-old adolescents could prevent 30 from contracting liver cancer as
adults.[5] This is how experts to promote universal vaccination of newborns.

The World Health Organization denies the association between hepatitis b
vaccination and arthritis, claiming, "the medical literature comprises
mainly case reports, case series and a few case-control studies," reports
considered to be marginally scientific. Unless the numbers of individuals
are found to be statistically significant in proportion to the number of
vaccines that are given worldwide, clinically observed correlations are
dismissed. The Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) concluded
in 2006 that there was "no convincing evidence to support an association
between hepatitis B vaccination and rheumatoid arthritis."[6] Making this
conclusion by Committee is an easy way to negate all clinical evidence to
the contrary, an easy way to dismiss the illness of an individual.

Arthritis and the Rubella Vaccine in the MMR

Acute arthritis following rubella vaccinations have been reported since
1972, the earliest use of the vaccine. All of the symptoms are lumped and
called an arthropathy, defined as any abnormality of a joint. The term
encompasses joint stiffness, arthralgia (subjective joint pain), and
arthritis (joint pain that is accompanied by swelling, redness, heat, pain,
and/or decreased range of motion.) Arthropathy after a rubella shot usually
occurs within 10 to 28 days and tends to appear suddenly. The joints
involved, in order of decreasing frequency, are fingers, knees, wrists,
elbows, ankles, hips, and toes.[7] The rubella strain used in today's
rubella vaccine, strain RA27/3, reportedly causes post-vaccination joint
symptoms in approximately 15% of recipients.[8]

While most reports of arthropathy after rubella vaccination have most
commonly occurred in adult females, extremely painful joints have occurred
in children, reported as two different syndromes. The "arm syndrome" causes
severe pain in the arm and the hand, and tingling that is worse at night.
The "catcher's crouch" syndrome causes severe knee pain upon arising in the
morning. Both can occur within two months after rubella vaccination. As an
example, The Journal of Arthritis and Rheumatism published a report in
November, 2005 about eleven children who suffered recurrent episodes of
catcher's crouch after receiving a rubella vaccine.[9]

Another type of painful condition was reported in 2004 involving an 11
year-old girl who was diagnosed with "complex regional pain syndrome type I"
(CRPS-I) after receiving a rubella vaccination.[10] CRPS-I, referred to as
reflex sympathetic dystrophy prior to 1994, is characterized by severe,
deep, burning, unrelenting pain without discernible nerve injury. Treatment
involves physical therapy, intensive psychological care to cope with the
debilitating pain, nerve blocks, pain medication infusion pumps. The
long-term prognosis for recovery is poor, meaning, the damage can be
permanent.

As stated by Dr. Feldman, "The whole idea that 80% of children [with
arthritis] will have permanent remission is just wrong. Most of our patients
will have arthritis well into adulthood." Those with post-vaccination
arthritis are more likely to require substantial drugs to control the
progression of their disease, one that has no cure. While not every child
has vaccine-induced arthritis, there is a strong possibility that many
children can attribute their condition to the hepatitis b or rubella
vaccine. Those children have become customers of the pharmaceutical industry
for life as a result of vaccination.

Footnotes:

1, Childhood Arthritis Prevalence, Prognosis Eyed. Pediatric News. Volume
41, Issue 6, Page 36 (June 2007)

2, Ibid. Pediatric News. June, 2007.