I read about this in the '80's....when I was doing research
on vaccine damage after my son, John, became autistic... It seemed that some
Swedish Pediatric Oncologists were noticing that when children with leukemia
experienced the "9 day measles" (Rubeola) they were no longer suffering the
immune deficiency disease that is "leukemia"... I also read the POLIO actually
prevents arthritic diseases in later years... And we all know about the fact
that the Rubella vaccine has cause juvenile rheumatoid arthritis..... Could it
be that experiencing the German Measles could truly prevent or even lower the
chances of rheumatoid arthritis???!!!
From: Meryl Dorey <meryl@avn.org.au
Subject: Measles Virus to treat cancer!
For years, studies have shown that natural infection with measles virus
reduces the risks of cancer in later life. Now, there are studies showing
that treating cancer in mice with measles virus works. When are they going
to wake up????
Cancer Res. 2003 Oct 1;63(19):6463-8. Related Articles, Links
Neutrophils Contribute to the Measles Virus-induced Antitumor Effect:
Enhancement by Granulocyte Macrophage Colony-stimulating Factor Expression.
Grote D, Cattaneo R, Fielding AK.
Molecular Medicine Program, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905.
To investigate the contribution of a neutrophil response to the oncolytic effect
of replicating attenuated measles virus (MV), MVs expressing murine granulocyte
macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) were generated. The growth
characteristics and kinetics of GM-CSF production of these viruses were
characterized in vitro. Their biological effects were characterized in mice
transgenic for the MV receptor CD46. The oncolytic efficacy of MV GM-CSF was
then compared with that of a parental MV and a control, UV-irradiated MV using a
human lymphoid tumor model in immunodeficient mice. Intratumoral injection of MV
resulted in significant tumor regression or slowing of progression compared with
injection of the control. Injection of MV GM-CSF further enhanced the oncolytic
effect. In additional experiments, the cellular response to MV, MV GM-CSF,
recombinant murine GM-CSF alone, or untreated tumors was quantified. The
predominant response was an influx of neutrophils. Intratumoral natu ophages
were not detected. The magnitude of the neutrophil response correlated well with
tumor regression. Our studies suggest that therapy with replicating MV
stimulates a strong neutrophil antitumor response, which can be
cytokine-enhanced to improve oncolysis.
Does systematic Vaccination give health to people?
Anita Petek-Dimmer
founder of Aegis Switzerland
2002
Vaccination is an established medical measure worldwide. Vaccines are so
established that any doubts, let alone criticism, are not allowed. Many
mothers and even medical professional can confirm this. Vaccination was
invented during the time of the great epidemics, when human kind, especially
medical professionals, had to watch powerlessly how whole towns were wiped
out by epidemics. In those days, as is still habit today, doctors tried
desperately to find a prophylaxis instead of finding the cause of these
diseases. Vaccines were developed from this attempt to find a prophylaxis.
The picture looks different today. Not only have plague or cholera epidemics
been long gone, a different relationship has been established between people
in the industrialized countries and diseases, compared to earlier
generations.
Today we grow up in an environment in which illness is an annoying break
from routine, in the economy as well as medicine. Not only us adults are
expected that we return to work, recovered, within a few days, but children
are not allowed to be ill and stay in bed either. We are seen as machines,
which have to constantly function equally well all the time. And since it is
possible to avoid diseases, it is being practiced. Vaccines are part of this
strategy.
What we need today is not constantly new vaccines against newly found
diseases; instead, we need a new relationship to diseases in general. We
have to relearn to accept illness as a normal part of life. The machine that
never falls ill controls our thinking. And we tend to forget that this
machine eventually has to be exchanged. However, the human being has powers
of life and regeneration, which by far compensate for the apparent
disadvantage of a temporary illness.
Not only us parents, but also especially the medical profession equate
illness with complications. The fact that, say, only a very small proportion
would suffer encephalitis when contracting measles, whereas with all others
this disease runs its course wholly uneventful, has been forgotten. Today we
know that childhood diseases have a strengthening and healing effect on the
children and help maintain health during adulthood. This fact has always
been known to older generations.
This is clearest with measles. Chronic tendencies, such as recurring
respiratory infections 1, often heal after measles. Chronic health problems
disappear, such as psoriasis or chronic kidney problems. The children's
hospital in Basle (Switzerland) used to get children with chronic kidney
infections to contract measles intentionally in order to heal them, up until
the 1960s 2. Children susceptible to infections are healthier and stronger
after contracting measles; the need for medical treatment clearly decreases
3. Children in the Third World countries are less likely to contract malaria
and parasites after measles 4. The risk to suffer breast cancer decreases to
less than half 5. MS is also much lower in people who had measles 6. Hay
fever is more rare in children who have older siblings and had measles than
in those who were vaccinated against measles 7. A large African study showed
that children who have had measles are 50% less at risk from allergies than
those vaccinated 8,9. Furthermore it is shown that experiencing measles
protects from diseases of the immune system, skin diseases as well as
degenerative cartilage, bone and tumourous diseases 10.
English and American researchers also found that adult women are less likely
to contract ovarian cancer if they had measles, mumps, but especially
rubella during childhood. These are just rays of light. In detail, the
protective effects after childhood diseases are far greater. Parents who
accompanied their child through a childhood disease and who noticed the
change will know what I am talking about. If we look at the epidemiological
situation of all childhood diseases we must say that the introduction of
these particular vaccines were not indicated in any country at any time.
These diseases neither led to bad or frequent complications nor did they
occur that often. In the contrary, before these vaccines were introduced,
infants were protected through the nest protection of the mother, and the
vast majority of these diseases happened before puberty. Just as nature had
intended.
We managed, through our interference with nature, to move these diseases
into either infancy, due to the lack of nest protection of the mother, or
into teenage and adult age. And there these diseases can be incomparably
more problematic. This extrusion of the diseases into an older age has
nothing to do with a "protection" or good efficacy of the vaccination, but
the overall organism of the vaccinated person is weakened permanently and
unable to react, so that the vaccinated does not have the strength to allow
the disease to happen by itself 11.
Mass vaccinations of all infants have destroyed the natural and steady
contagion to such an effect that epidemics can occur again, as we can
observe in countries with a high vaccination rate, such as USA and Finland.
Complications and death are incomparably more frequent than before the
introduction of mass vaccination. The encephalitis rate after measles has
since risen ten-fold in the US 12.
With regard to the HIB vaccine, it is always suggested to us, that thanks to
the vaccine many cases of meningitis are avoided. However, the fact that
before the introduction of this vaccine this was not a notifiable disease is
never mentioned, and therefore the number of cases is not known.
According to studies in Bavaria (Germany) and Finland, the total number of
meningitis cases however did not decrease, to the contrary 13,14,15. Today,
an increasing number of meningitis cases are reported caused by
meningococcal B and C. Anthroposophical doctors talk about a shift of the
virus in this context. Instead of recognizing the cause and make right
decisions now, it's business as usual, that is new vaccines are being
developed for new diseases. We have lost the ability to deal with diseases.
Instead of strengthening our and our children's immune system, we fight
fever and practice an intensive treatment of symptoms. However, fever is one
of the most important processes that take place in our body.
On the basis of observations by the Vienna surgeon Professor Schmidt, which
took place over decades in his practice 16, studies in the last 100 years
have shown consistently that people who experienced childhood diseases
accompanied by fever were less likely to suffer from cancer in later life
17, 18,19,20.
Therefore, an avoidance of childhood diseases is not sensible, but the
avoidance of complications. Other infectious diseases, such as polio,
diphtheria, cholera, etc. no longer occur as epidemics because we have
improved living standards, hygiene, diet and sanitation in our part of the
world.
Today's common vaccines cannot avoid childhood diseases nor their
complications, as can be seen with the various epidemics where mainly the
vaccinated come down with the disease. I will get back to this later. Even
if the vaccines gave us 100% protection from the illness, we would have to
decline them for epidemiological reasons, especially with regard to
childhood diseases.
Constant lack of challenge as well as untimely over challenge of the immune
system can lead to permanent weaknesses and damages. If we want to protect
our children from everything and everyone, the immune system is lacking
challenges and cannot develop. There are many studies that prove that
especially children living on farms have fewer problems with allergies than
the "clean" city children 21,22.
Health is a dynamic balance between challenging and processing. The child's
typical situation in today's western world tends to be more a lack of
challenge in the development of the immune system with a concurrent overload
in perception and in the area of intellectual thinking. This lack of
challenge is certainly helped by excessive hygienic measures. Even
Paracelsus said that everything is healthy in moderation only; this applies
particularly to our hygiene. Even today's scientists are increasingly in
favour of letting our children play in dirt, whereas a few years ago, they
would have preferred to disinfect every child twice a day.
Vaccines represent in principle an invasion into the human immune system.
The mass vaccination campaigns, however, are invasions into the ecological
balances between human beings and microbes. These balances did not just
happen over the past few years, they have developed over many, many
generations, with the result being a relatively reliable relationship
between host and microbe. However, a vaccination program as we witness it,
covering whole areas or even countries, includes whole age groups and
results in considerable changes in a short time. The suppression of the
natural disease can lead to severely damaging consequences from an
epidemiological point of view. Be reminded of the measles epidemic of 1846
on the islands of Faeroe. No measles case had occurred there for more than
65 years. When a Danish worker brought the disease into the area, 6000 out
of the total 7,782 inhabitants contracted the disease, 200 died23. The same
observations were made on the Fiji Islands, Greenland, Canada and New
Guinea. There, the death rate was approximately 25%24,25,26,27.
So even if the vaccines would offer protection it would not be beneficial
for us to be vaccinated. Today, the medical establishment admits that polio
used to occur nearly always without the paralysis, which is so feared today.
This paralysis only occurred when the smallpox vaccine was widely used, ie.
200 years ago28. With the smallpox vaccination, we have changed, or weakened
the human organism to such an extent that polio became a dangerous disease.
But what does the so strongly propagandised protection look like after a
vaccination. Does the vaccination protect us from the disease? One can only
answer with a clear No. To this day, no independent efficacy studies exist
about the vaccines. I'll give some examples how much these vaccines can
"protect" us:
Mumps
Switzerland was affected by a mumps epidemic from Autumn 1999 until Spring
2000. The Swiss Federal Office for Health (BAG) eventually admitted, upon
the pressure of the medical profession, that more than 75% of those who
contracted Mumps had been fully up to date with their vaccinations29. No
further comment is necessary here!
Rubella
The main fear that is propagandised with regard to rubella is the rubella
embryopathy. What we are not told is, for example, that there were 4 cases
of RE in Switzerland between 1995 and 2001 of which two women were fully
vaccinated against rubella30. The only protection a pregnant woman has from
rubella is that she contracted rubella during her childhood. We should
therefore offer our girls the chance to contract rubella.
Tetanus
A tetanus vaccination cannot possibly protect from the disease since the
human organism cannot build up any immunity after contracting the disease
(as is the same after HIB, diphtheria or TB). So, if nature hasn't planned
the immunity, how does the vaccine work?
Furthermore, the tetanus vaccination (as is the case with the diphtheria
vaccine) is a so-called toxoid vaccine. The killed poison of the tetanus
bacilli is injected into the body and meant to protect us. But the human
body cannot build up immunity against poisons31. How can the vaccine protect
us then? The official statistics of the various countries show us that the
vaccine does not protect us. The Robert Koch Institute in Germany admits
that 2/3 people who contract tetanus have been fully vaccinated32. The rate
in Switzerland was 50% fully vaccinated and still contracted the disease.
Diphtheria
What applies to the tetanus vaccination equally applies to the diphtheria
vaccination. According to official reports, approximately 80% of adult
people would have to be fully vaccinated against diphtheria in order for
this disease not to occur as an epidemic. However, in the German speaking
areas, less than 25-30% of adults are vaccinated. Why have there been no
epidemics? Because diphtheria requires certain socio-economic conditions for
it to break out. These are war and poverty. Russia and the Ukraine still
experience diphtheria epidemics, despite the fact that more than 90% of
people are fully vaccinated (with a Swiss vaccine!)34,35,36. This disease
should not exist there, if the vaccine protected.
TBC
During the 1960s, the WHO organised a field study in India in order to
establish the efficacy of the TB vaccine. Two groups took part in this
study, each group comprising 375,000 people in the province of Madras. One
group was vaccinated against TB; the other group was not vaccinated. After 7
½ years, in 1971, this field study was stopped, for "ethical" reasons. The
conclusion of the study was: "The efficacy of the TB vaccine is 0%"37. Even
though it is impossible to have any worse efficacy (!), it took until March
1998 before vaccination was stopped in Germany, October 1998 in Switzerland
and March 2000 in Austria. Why did this news take more than 27 years to
reach Europe?
I can only explain it this way: The WHO sent someone from Madras in 1971 on
a walk to spread the good news of the inefficacy of this vaccine all over
the world. As Europe is very far away, the poor man required much time. This
walker, by the way, has not reached France yet, the vaccine is still
mandated for all new born babies.
The German speaking countries only stopped to vaccinate their own children.
Foreign children are still vaccinated. Presumably this vaccine only works
effectively with certain passport colours!
All infectious diseases decreased without vaccinations. Not only did
vaccines have no influence over the decrease of the diseases, the contrary
is true, they slowed down the downward trend of all diseases. The best
example for this is polio. After the majority of people were vaccinated,
severe epidemics occurred, such as in 1962 in the German speaking countries,
after vaccination had been in full force for 3 years.
Dr Buchwald carefully collected the facts in his book, which prove this fact
beyond doubt for all infectious diseases38.
Not only do vaccinations not protect, they can indeed cause massive damage.
Allergies, hay fever, behavioural problems, neurological damages, tiredness,
depressions, many colds, otitis media, tonsillitis, insomnia, bed wetting,
loss of interest, character problems, stop of growing, diabetes, development
disturbances, late speech development, childhood asthma, autism, SIDS, etc.
Illness is inevitably part of being human. The demand for the elimination of
diseases will not eliminate the microbe, but it will question humanity. This
is becoming all too clear when we look at our authorities' strategies
implemented to achieve better vaccination rates. Often, these measures serve
to introduce mandated vaccination through the back door, as we could see in
Germany, where unvaccinated children can suddenly be expelled from school.
Or as is the case in Upper Austria, where the payment of a mother/child
benefit is linked to the up to date vaccination record. And this despite
neither Germany nor Austria having mandated vaccination.
Also be reminded of the state in Italy and France, where parents are forced
by police to have their children vaccinated. Vaccine sceptic health
professionals are increasingly put under pressure by authorities as well as
their own organisations as we saw at the measles epidemic in Coburg
(Germany) in Spring 2002.
To show the disproportional status, here is an example. Every year,
approximately 3.4 million people die, according to the WHO, due to famine,
previous diarrhoea diseases in association with famine.
No vaccination can exist against this.
But it would be feasible to use the billions that are spent annually for
vaccinations, for providing wells, to provide real development aid in order
to stop the famine and to end wars. This would take out the basis for most
infectious disease, and would result in healthy people.It would also be a
possibility for us industrialised countries to balance out our old and new
debt to these people.
Studies of measles viruses circulating in Australia between 1999 and 2001
reveals a new genotype
Authors
D. Chibo, M. Riddell, M. Catton, M. Lyon, G. Lum, C.
Birch
Abstract
Nineteen distinct measles virus (MV) strains associated with nine different
genotypes were identified in five Australian states (Victoria, New South
Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia) between 1999
and 2001. One of the strains identified is likely to represent a new
genotype within the clade D viruses (proposed to be d9). No evidence for an
indigenous MV strain was found. When epidemiologic information associated
with the index case was available for the outbreaks, it usually supported
introduction of the virus from overseas, with the main source being South
East Asia. Changes in the circulation of MV in Australia since the early
1970s were also observed. Prior to the introduction of measles vaccine, the
majority of the population acquired immunity through infection with
wild-type virus in early childhood. Nowadays in Australia, young adults are
at most risk of infection. The age range of cases in the study period was
from 1 month to 48 years, with the majority (59%) of cases from individuals
aged 18-30 years.
Infants face greater risk of measles if mothers were vaccinated
While the medical community claims that measles vaccine prevents the
childhood disease, a report in "Pediatrics," proves otherwise. The results
show that infants born to mothers who received the vaccine are at far
greater risk for having measles than other children. Researchers from several health institutes, including the National
Immunization Program, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
studied infants whose mothers were born after 1963, when the national
measles vaccine program began.
They found that the infants are more susceptible to measles than are
infants of older mothers. "An increasing proportion of infants born in the
United States may be susceptible to measles," the researchers wrote. Infants are born with a natural protection from measles through the
passive transmission of the mother's antibody and the antibody lasts for
years.
When their maternally acquired antibodies are depleted, children may
contract a mild case of the disease, which re-introduces the antibody and
safeguards them for the rest of their life. How long the initial protection lasts depends mainly on whether or not
the mother has ever had measles herself. Women who have had the disease
have a higher level of measles antibodies. Women who received the vaccine
and did not contract the disease have lower antibody levels.
Since vaccinated mothers transfer less natural measles antibody to
their newborns, they are more susceptible to the disease. In the study, infants whose mothers were born after 1963 (and who
presumably had been vaccinated for measles) had a measles attack rate of 33%, compared with 12% for infants of older mothers who were
not vaccinated.
"Our results suggest that infants whose mothers are born since measles
vaccine licensure in 1963 are significantly more susceptible to measles
than are infants of older mothers and that the risk of measles increases
incrementally with each year increase in the maternal year of birth," the
researchers concluded. However, rather than suggest that the medical community re-think its
stance on vaccines, the researchers actually used the report to urge
doctors to vaccinate children even younger. Current medical
recommendations call for infants to receive measles shots as early as 12
months of age.
SOURCE: "Increased Susceptibility to Measles in Infants in the
United States," Pediatrics, Nov. 5, 1999.
Age factor in measles jabs
BY JASON SUNDRAM
SHAH ALAM: One factor, which may be contributing to the rise
in the number of measles cases involving children, is are babies
vaccinated “too soon”.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad said the age when
babies were given the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) inoculation might be
too soon. “The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended that babies be
given the MMR vaccine at the age of 12 months.
“In Malaysia, the first dose is usually given to babies who are
seven to nine months’ old. “Certain studies have shown that when the jabs are given at or
before nine months, there may be a chance of decline of MMR antibodies
before the second booster jab, which is given at age seven. “Therefore, it can be inferred that this could be a contributing
factor in the sudden rise of measles cases,” he said, after launching
the Unani System of medicine here yesterday.
Dr Abdul Latiff, however, stressed that no proper studies had been
conducted in this country regarding the effects of early inoculations
and therefore, he could not give more conclusive answers.
According to a study undertaken by WHO, the risk of the MMR vaccine
virus replicating into measles was possible in children who had low
immunity at the time of the injection. Asked about the benefits of the second booster dose, he said that it
was essential as the MMR antibodies might have declined since the first
dose.
The second booster injection allows for MMR antibodies to be
produced again. ”Certain people have implied that the second jab is a
ploy to finish the existing stocks of the vaccine but this is not
true.
“If the child has already been given a second booster injection,
then parents can provide certification to show that their child does
not require the jab under the Mass Measles Immunisation campaign.”
On another issue, Dr Abdul Latiff said that the ministry was looking
closely at the regulations related to the field of alternative
medicines.
“We at the ministry are open to the idea of alternative medicines
and medical treatments.
“However, alternative methods of medical treatments must be reviewed
and regulated strictly, according to the ministry of health
guidelines,” he added.
Early fears about MMR in secret papers
05/03/2007
Mark Watts reports on the potentially dangerous side-effects of the MMR
vaccine
Katie Stephen was a healthy baby girl when she was injected with the MMR
triple vaccine. Ten days later she was vomiting, delirious and running a
fever.
A syringe containing the MMR vaccine
The Urabe MMR vaccine has been linked to cases of encephalitis
That was in 1990. Seventeen years later, she is deaf in one ear.
Following the debate over MMR and its alleged link with autism, government
documents just released under the Freedom of Information Act show there
was another, earlier concern for which there was more evidence and,
apparently, more immediate risk. Whitehall experts knew of it before MMR's
mass introduction into Britain, but the public was kept in ignorance.
Katie's symptoms were consistent with those of encephalitis, which can
cause brain damage or even death. Her mother Wendy, a former psychiatric
nurse, is convinced that the first variant of MMR used in Britain is
responsible.
Mass immunisation with the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine
began in Britain in October 1988. Ten years later, Andrew Wakefield, a
researcher at the Royal Free Hospital in London, suggested the vaccine
might increase the risk of autism and bowel disorders. But at least eight
months before the first British children were injected with MMR, the
government working party set up to introduce it was already aware of
another potentially dangerous side-effect.
advertisement
The newly released documents include the minutes of a meeting of 15
experts and officials held in February 1988. According to the minutes, the
group "read a report of cases of mumps encephalitis which had been
associated with MMR vaccine containing the Urabe strain of the mumps
virus. The Canadian authorities had suspended the licences of MMR vaccines
containing the Urabe strain."
This was bad news for the government: the Urabe strain was to be used in
85 per cent of early MMR injections. Canada did not withdraw the licences
for Urabe MMR, but stopped using it as a precaution.
In early 1987, just after the Thatcher government decided on MMR as an
option in mass vaccinations, doctors in America had already reported
"adverse reactions" to Urabe MMR. A few months later, the Swedes reported
52 cases of "febrile convulsions probably associated with MMR
vaccination".
Then, in Britain, five cases of convulsions were reported in children
taking part in an MMR trial in Somerset, although only three of these
appeared to be related to the triple vaccine. A meeting of the
government's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) noted:
"This gave a rate of three convulsions per thousand doses of MMR."
The group "expressed concern" about giving triple vaccines to children
with a personal or family history of convulsions. Nevertheless, the
British immunisation programme involving Urabe MMR went ahead in 1988.
Toby Stewart of west London was one of the children given it. He soon
developed encephalitis-type symptoms and was left with what his father
Andy, a business consultant, describes as "low-scale brain damage". Mr
Stewart believes his son was the victim of cost-cutting - Urabe MMR being
cheaper than MMR2.
Toby was one of the last British children to be injected with Urabe MMR.
After the start of mass immunisation, more alarming evidence surfaced
around the world. Canada, having stopped using Urabe MMR in 1988, withdrew
licences for the vaccine in May 1990. Malaysia, the Philippines and
Singapore soon followed.
In the same month, the JCVI's "adverse reactions" sub-committee expressed
"special concern" over reports from Japan linking Urabe MMR with high
levels of meningoencephalitis.
It took until 1992 for Britain to stop injecting children with Urabe MMR,
replacing it with MMR2, which contains a less potent form of the mumps
virus. And, according to the minutes, that action owed more to the
decision of the manufacturers of Urabe MMR to cease production. Revoking
the licence would have cast light on Whitehall's decision to use Urabe MMR
on British children despite disturbing evidence of its potential effects.
The minutes of Whitehall committees dealing with the triple vaccination
have been obtained by the FOIA Centre, a research company, on behalf of
parents involved in a group action for damages against a number of
pharmaceutical companies for an array of conditions allegedly caused by
MMR.
The discussions uncovered began 20 years ago, but Mrs Stephen still feels
betrayed. Mr Stewart is equally bitter. "These documents," he says,
"confirm our worst fears."
# Mark Watts is the co-ordinator of the FOIA Centre http://www.foiacentre.com
*
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Published online March 2, 2009
PEDIATRICS Vol. 123 No. 3 March 2009, pp. 771-778
(doi:10.1542/peds.2008-0013)
This Article
ARTICLE Allergic Disease and Atopic Sensitization in Children in Relation to
Measles Vaccination and Measles Infection
Helen Rosenlund, MSca,b, Anna Bergström, PhDa, Johan S. Alm, MD,
PhDc,d,Jackie Swartz, MDe, Annika Scheynius, MD, PhDf, Marianne van Hage,
MD, PhDg, Kari Johansen, MD, PhDh, Bert Brunekreef, PhDi,j, Erika von
Mutius, MDk,Markus J. Ege, MDk, Josef Riedler, MDl, Charlotte Braun-Fahrländer,
MDm,
Marco Waser, PhDm, Göran Pershagen, MD, PhDa,n and the PARSIFAL Study
Group a Institute of Environmental Medicine
b Centre for Allergy Research c Section of Pediatrics, Department of
Clinical Science and Education,Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden d
Section of Pediatrics, Sachs' Children's Hospital, Södersjukhuset,
Stockholm, Sweden e Vidar Clinic, Järna, Sweden f Clinical Allergy
Research Unit g Clinical Immunology and Allergy Unit, Department of
Medicine Solna, Karolinska Institutet and University Hospital, Stockholm,
Sweden h Department of Virology, Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease
Control, Solna, Sweden i Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht
University, Utrecht, Netherlands
j Julius Centre for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical
Centre, Utrecht, Netherlands k Dr von Hauner Children's Hospital,
University of Munich, Munich, Germany l Children's Hospital, Schwarzach,
Austria
m Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Basel,
Basel,Switzerland n Department of Occupational and Environmental Health,
Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden
OBJECTIVE. Our aim was to investigate the role of measles vaccination and
measles infection in the development of allergic disease and atopic
sensitization.
METHODS. A total of 14 893 children were included from the
cross-sectional, multicenter Prevention of AllergyRisk Factors for
Sensitization in Children Related to Farming and Anthroposophic Lifestyle
study, conducted in 5 European countries (Austria, Germany, the
Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland). The children were between 5 and 13
years of age and represented farm children, Steiner-school children, and 2
reference groups. Children attending Steiner schools often have an
anthroposophic (holistic) lifestyle in which some immunizations are
avoided or postponed. Parental questionnaires provided information on
exposure and lifestyle factors as well as symptoms and diagnoses in the
children. A sample of the children was invited for additional tests, and
4049 children provided a blood sample for immunoglobulin E analyses. Only
children with complete information on measles vaccination and infection
were included in the analyses (84%).
RESULTS. In the whole group of children, atopic sensitization was
inversely associated with measles infection, and a similar tendency was
seen for measles vaccination. To reduce risks of disease-related
modification of exposure, children who reported symptoms of wheezing
and/or eczema debuting during first year of life were excluded from some
analyses. After this exclusion, inverse associations were observed between
measles infection and "any allergic symptom" and "any diagnosis of allergy
by a physician." However, no associations were found between measles
vaccination and allergic disease.
CONCLUSION. Our data suggest that measles infection may protect against
allergic disease in children.