By Brian Carnell

Thursday, February 21, 2002

An independent committee of the Institute of Medicine has released a report finding there is no evidence that the multiple vaccines children receive contributes to illnesses and recommends that the United States maintain its current regimen of vaccinations.

The committee looked at whether there was an association between childhood vaccination and colds, ear infections, juvenile diabetes, meningitis, and pneumonia. Anti-vaccine critics claim that the large number of vaccinations that children receive today affects the immune systems in ways that may make them vulnerable to later illnesses.

The committee focused on Type I Juvenile Diabetes which is an autoimmune disorder. It reviewed eight studies of vaccination and this disorder and found no evidence for any sort of causal link between it and vaccination. Other studies found no evidence linking vaccination to colds, ear infections, meningitis, and pneumonia. If multiple vaccinations really suppress or otherwise hamper the immune system, it is odd that children receiving vaccinations are not at a higher risk to such infections.

The committee did call for further study on whether or not multiple vaccinations might increase the risk of developing asthma. At the moment there aren't enough methodologically sound studies of the connection between the two to make a determination either way.

The New York Times noted that in many ways the idea that multiple vaccinations might overload the immune system is a misnomer since vaccines have been reengineered to the point that infants today are actually exposed to fewer total antigens today than in the past even though they are receiving more vaccines.

The number of antigens in the pertussin vaccine, for example, has been reduced from 3,000 to less than five, and of course the smallpox vaccine, with its 200 antigens, is no longer administered. Recently adopted vaccines such as for chickenpox and hepatitis contain very few antigens, resulting in a net decrease in the total number of antigens two which children are exposed.

Source:

Panel discounts some fears over vaccinations for babies. Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The New York Times, February 20, 2002.

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