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Newsletter for July 2012
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MMR
Vaccine Causes Autism
Italian Court Judgment - Hannah Poling, how many more? by Sue
Reid
PUBLISHED: 15 June 2012
An
Italian court ruled that the Measles/Mumps/Rubella (MMR) vaccine
caused autism when given to Valentino Bocca at 15-months of age.
The Italian court reached the same conclusion about the MMR as
the US Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in the case of Hannah
Poling, and dozens of other cases identified in the study
Unanswered Questions: A Review of Compensated Cases of Vaccine
Induced Brain Injury.
Don’t expect to see anything about this in the corporate media
in the US. Below is an article on the decision from the UK’s
Daily Mail. Just goes to show that the official position is,
"Vaccine’s never cause autism - except when they do.”
MMR: A mother's victory. The vast majority of doctors say there
is no link between the triple jab and autism, but could an
Italian court case reignite this controversial debate?
Landmark ruling in an Italian court has said Valentino Bocca's
autism was provoked by the MMR jab he had at aged nine months
His parents have already been awarded £140,000 and could be paid
an additional £800,000 in their case against the Italian
government. The case could set a precedent for many similar
civil proceedings.
At nine months old, Valentino Bocca was as bright as a button.
In a favourite family photo, taken by his father, the baby boy
wriggles in his mother’s arms and laughs for the camera.
His parents look at the precious picture often these days. It is
a reminder of their only son before they took him on a sunny
morning to the local public health clinic for a routine
childhood vaccination.
Valentino was never the same child after the jab in his arm. He
developed autism and, in a landmark judgment, a judge has ruled
that his devastating disability was provoked by the inoculation
against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR).
The judgment in a provincial Italian court challenges the
settled view of the majority of the medical profession — and
could have profound implications in Britain and across the
world.
Valentino’s parents, Antonella, 44, and Maurizio, 43, have been
awarded £140,000, to be paid by Italy’s Ministry of Health and
they plan a civil action against the Italian government that may
get them £800,000 more.
‘But, of course, the money will never bring back the perfect and
beautiful child of 15 months that we had before the doctors gave
him the inoculation,’ said his mother this week at the family’s
small but beautifully designed flat near Rimini in northern
Italy.
‘We have a different Valentino today. We love him just as much,
but our lives will never be the same again.
‘He is nine, but cannot speak, and only sings a little to
himself. He cannot hold a pencil. He has a special teacher at
school to help him and finds it difficult to mix with other
children. What the future holds for him, or for us, we do not
know.’
The story of Valentino Bocca is a tragic one. His family have
agreed to reveal their identity for the first time as the
outcome of their case became public last week. They spoke
exclusively to the Mail because they believe other parents all
over the world should learn what has happened to their son.
Autism covers a huge range of developmental disorders which
affect a child’s communication, social skills, and ability to
lead a normal life.
Families caring for severely autistic children say their lives
are blighted. Care of sufferers and related disorders costs the
British state billions of pounds a year.
The number of autism cases has soared over the past four decades
— at the last count researchers found one in 64 British children
have some kind of autistic condition — and there has been
widespread speculation over the cause of this widespread curse
on so many families. In the Eighties, only four in every 10,000
children showed any signs of autism.
Suspicion has long been directed by some parents at the MMR
vaccine, a triple cocktail of the measles, mumps and rubella
viruses, although the Department of Health and NHS doctors have
argued forcefully that better diagnosis of autism and
environmental factors are responsible for the extraordinary rise
in the number of cases.
In 1998, a highly controversial article in the medical journal
The Lancet written by Dr Andrew Wakefield made a connection
between the MMR jab and autism.
His research methods were later discredited, but as a result of
the article countless numbers of parents in Britain refused to
let their children have the jab, and cases of measles — which is
very occasionally fatal — went up significantly.
In recent years, public confidence in the MMR inoculation has
returned, but the Italian court’s judgment could reopen the
controversy. This week, Luca Ventaloro, the Bocca family’s
lawyer who specializes in helping families with vaccine-damaged
children, proclaimed that the Rimini court judgment was the
‘first public admission’ that the MMR vaccine could, in some
cases, lead to a healthy child developing autism.
Crucially, it came after Antonio Barboni, a doctor of forensic
medicine and appointed by the judge to independently advise the
court, wrote a report saying that ‘in the absence of any other
pre-existing conditions’ it is a ‘reasonable scientific
probability’ that Valentino’s autism can be ‘traced back to the
administration of the MMR vaccine . . . by
the health authority’.
Dr. Barboni’s
findings were endorsed by two other eminent doctors who examined
Valentino, investigated his medical background, and gave
evidence to the court hearing.
Judge Lucio Ardigo, awarding compensation to the family, agreed.
He said it was ‘conclusively established’ that Valentino had
suffered from an ‘autistic disorder associated with medium
cognitive delay’ and his illness, as Dr Barboni stated, was
linked to receiving the jab.
Lawyer Mr. Ventaloro explained yesterday: ‘This is very
significant for Britain which uses, and has used, an MMR vaccine
with the same components as the one given to Valentino.
‘It is wrong for governments and their health authorities to
exert strong pressure on parents to take children for the MMR
jab while ignoring that this vaccine can cause autism and linked
conditions.’
Claudio Simion, a leading member of the lobby group Association
for Freedom of Choice in Vaccination (Comilva), adds: ‘The
Rimini judgment is vitally important for children everywhere.
The numbers with autism are growing. It is a terrible thing that
the authorities turn a blind eye to the connection between the
MMR vaccination and this illness.’
No doubt the Bocca family would agree. They turned to Comilva
for advice on compensation after they were finally told that
their son had autism when he was five years old.
They had travelled to a world-renowned children’s clinic in
Milan, bewildered as to why their son screamed all night,
refused to eat anything but bread, could not keep still or
concentrate and refused to look them in the eye.
After 14 days of tests into his genetic background to rule out a
family connection for his illness, a neurologist explained the
diagnosis.
‘We were handed a big file with Valentino’s name on it and
stamped with the word ‘autism’,’ remembers his mother Antonella.
‘Up to then, we had suspicions he had autism. But the nurses,
the doctors, and the specialists we had seen before said we were
dreaming up fairy tales.’
Father Maurizio adds: ‘When we mentioned our suspicions about
the MMR jab and how Valentino had been an ordinary happy little
boy until he had it, these medical people looked at us as if we
were crazy,’
As they talk in the park near their home, with Valentino tightly
holding each of their hands, Antonella and Maurizio reveal how
their nightmare began.
The couple had been married for a year before Valentino was born
in 2003. His birth was normal and they were thrilled to take
their healthy baby home.
Antonella, who worked part-time in a textile factory, and
Maurizio, a civil engineer, went together with Valentino for all
his routine vaccination appointments.
It was on the last Friday of March, 2004, that the boy was given
the MMR jab. The dark-haired toddler was already saying ‘Mama’
and ‘Dada’, walking a few steps and enchanting his two
grandmothers because he would not stop chattering. His parents
had delayed for a month the triple MMR jab (normally given at 13
months) because Valentino had a bout of gastro-enteritis.
Antonella
told the doctor
about the illness and asked if it was safe for Valentino to have
the jab. The doctor said there was ‘no problem’.
‘He cried when they gave him the injection,’ remembers Maurizio.
‘We were asked to wait half an hour afterwards at the clinic to
make sure he was all right. When the doctors said he was OK, we
just went home.’
They drove away — not knowing their lives had changed for ever.
By the evening their normally hungry son was refusing to eat
very much. That night he had diarrhoea and was restless. But
neither of his parents attributed this to the jab.
Maurizio continues: ‘A few days after that, Valentino stopped
using his spoon to eat. We started having to put food into his
mouth. It was as though he was a baby again.
‘It was as if we’d gone to the vaccination clinic with one child
and had been given another to take home. Valentino was not
interested in what was happening around him anymore. He could
not concentrate on a single thing.’
But worse was to follow. The little boy stopped sleeping at
night. He would wake up and scream in pain. During the day he
ran around in circles without stopping. His parents were getting
exhausted and were at their wits’ end.
Maurizio explains: ‘About two weeks after the jab he began
screaming every night. He woke up three or four times each night
and cried. It was like something out of The Exorcist. He was
obviously in pain and we could do nothing to comfort him.’
They went back to the vaccination clinic for advice.
‘We
were not
being over fussy but the medical staff did not seem to grasp the
gravity of the situation,’ added Antonella.
The clinic just gave them some cream to put on Valentino’s skin.
After six months of no improvement in his condition, they took
Valentino to the casualty department of the local hospital.
For the first time Antonella mentioned that the MMR vaccine
might be to blame. ‘They said it was not possible,’ she says.
Bewildered, the couple still looked for answers. Valentino was
still screaming at night and like a wild child during the day.
When he was nearly two-and-a-half (14 months after the jab),
they went to see an expert in neuropsychiatry and told her that
their son had changed after the jab.
Antonella says: ‘She did not even write down what I was saying.
She downplayed the situation, although she said he was not
developing normally for a child of his age. But she could not
offer any explanation and said it might be temporary in such a
young boy.’
Desperately, they started to do some research on the internet.
It suddenly occurred to them, after reading of other parents’
experiences, that Valentino might have autism.
When this was confirmed by the Milan children’s clinic, he was
put on a milk-free and gluten-free diet.
‘Within a week, Valentino was sleeping at night and not shouting
out in pain,’ says Maurizio.
‘He started to look us in the eye for the first time since the
jab. He began to feed himself again. Progress was slow, but at
last there was some hope.’
But, sadly, it was too late to find a complete cure for
Valentino. At nine years old, he will never lead a normal life,
and may need care for the rest of his days.
However, the Rimini court judgment has brought his parents some
comfort because, for the first time, it supports their long-held
belief that the MMR jab caused their son’s autism.
In the UK, this much-debated link has never been established in
the courts. In 2010, a boy called Robert Fletcher received
£90,000, for severe brain damage provoked by the MMR jab, under
the Government’s Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme. But he did not
have autism.
In the U.S., nearly 5,000 families blame the MMR jab for causing
their children’s autism — despite continuing protests from the
medical and scientific world that there is little evidence.
In 2008, a girl called Hannah Poling was awarded $1.5 million
damages by the U.S. government when a
court ruled that receiving nine vaccines in one day (including
the MMR) had caused her autistic condition.
But the court said that Hannah had an underlying cell disorder,
mitochondria, which had been aggravated by the vaccinations and
manifested itself as autism.
The Italian judgment has important implications for Britain for
a number of reasons.
First, the jab given to Valentino — called MMR 11 — contains the
same active measles, mumps and rubella viruses in the same
quantities as MMR VaxPro, one of only two approved MMR vaccines
in the UK which is used on hundreds of thousands of children
every year. (Prior to the introduction of MMR VaxPro in 2006,
MMR II had been used in the UK since 1988).
This match of ingredients is confirmed in the Department of
Health Green Book — a guide for doctors on inoculation against
infectious disease — and by detailed data on MMR vaccines
released by the European Medicines’ Agency.
Second, in the UK, like Italy, the MMR jab is not compulsory.
However, the judge in Valentino’s case said that because the
Italian government’s medical authorities so strongly recommend
child vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella, the state
should take responsibility for the devastating damage to
Valentino.
The judge’s view has since been endorsed by Italy’s High Court
of Law (the equivalent of our Supreme Court) which ruled that
the Italian government must pay compensation to children damaged
by any jabs given under the Ministry of Health auspices — even
if they are not compulsory ones.
Today, Antonella and Maurizio believe this is only fair for
families. ‘The medical authorities were really pushing us to
take Valentino for his childhood jabs,’ recalls Antonella.
‘We were sent endless appointment letters from the clinic. They
started arriving when he was three months old. There was huge
pressure. The letters made us, and other parents, feel obliged
to have the MMR jab in order protect our beloved child from a
dreadful illness.’
Little did they know that, soon after that jab, their son would
suddenly develop a devastating condition from which he would
never recover. The consensus of medical opinion in Britain
remains that autism symptoms emerge suddenly and inexplicably
around the age at which MMR is administered — making it
inevitable that some cases will arise just after the jab.
Most doctors continue to argue that this is merely coincidence
and that no convincing mechanism to explain a link has been set
out.
The Department of Health has insisted: ‘MMR remains the best
protection against measles, mumps and rubella. It is recognized
by the World Health Organization as having an outstanding safety
record and there is a wealth of evidence showing children who
receive the MMR vaccine are no more at risk of autism than those
who don’t.’
However, the Italian judgment clearly suggests this important
debate is far from over.
Courtesy: Autism Speaks Network
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