Prevnar Vaccination

The New Pneumonia Jab

PREVNAR VACCINE (FOR PNEUMONIA AND PNEUMOCOCCAL MENINGITIS)

This vaccine is for use against pneumonia and pneumococcal Meningitis and has previously been in use in the United States.

THE DISEASE

The annual incidence for pneumonia in the US is approximately 10 cases per 100,000 people. Incidence for pneumococcal meningitis in young children is approximately 7 cases per 100,000. The death rate for the diseases is 8%, with 25% suffering neurological problems (the data sheet failed to say whether this was permanent or temporary). (1).

WHAT ARE THE RISK FACTORS FOR THE DISEASE?

Children who aren’t breast fed get more pneumonia and meningitis. Bottle sharing also heightens the risk. Those in organised day care centres are at greater risk, those with a history of middle ear infections and those with a history of prior antibiotic use. It should be noted there are antibiotics in vaccines.

The reason for introducing vaccination is that children are now becoming resistant to antibiotics. (1).

WAYS TO PROTECT YOUR CHILD FROM PNEUMONIA

1. Breast feed! (see ‘Breast Milk: A Natural Immunisation’, from VAN UK shop, www.vaccine-info.org, or right here at Novel Book Shop).
2. If giving your baby bottles of juice, DON’T share them round with other babies or let your baby drink from another baby’s bottle.
3. Sterilise any soothers/dummies used.
4. Don’t share plates of food, knifes, forks, spoons etc
5. Avoid antibiotics except in the case of life-threatening emergency.
6. If your child has suffered from ear infections, strengthen his immune system with vitamin supplementation, breast milk, a healthy whole grain diet and homeopathic treatment instead of repeated antibiotic use.
7. Avoid day care facilities. If you work, pick a childminder instead as there will be less children in a more homely environment, which lessens the risk of pneumonia.

THE VACCINE – COMPOSITION:

Ingredients of the vaccine are: Streptococcus pneumoniae, diphtheria CRM protein, casamino acids, yeast extract, ammonium sulphate, aluminium.

SCHEDULE: It is intended to be given in 5 doses, at 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, 12 months and 13 months.

SIDE-EFFECTS:

50% of recipients will get redness and soreness at the injection site, 21% get a fever (over 100.3 F), chills, general malaise, irritability, drowsiness, decreased appetite, arthritis. 1 in 10,000 cases involves a serious reaction including trouble breathing, hives, having a fast heartbeat and becoming dizzy. Seizures also occurred in 1 in 10,000 – almost all seizures occurred within 4 days of vaccination. (2 and 3).

According to the manufacturer, Wyeth, the following reactions may also occur:
Vomiting, diarrhoea, injection site redness, fever over 38 Degrees C, drowsiness, irritability, swelling interfering with movement, seizures, hypotonic hyperesponsive episode, dermatitis, face oedema, angioneurotic oedema, dyspnoea, bronchospasm, anaphylactic shock.
As with other aluminium-containing vaccines, a nodule may occasionally be palpable at the injection site for several weeks
As the rate for pneumonia is 10 in 100,000 and the rate for serious vaccine side-effects is 1 in 10,000, this makes the risk from the vaccine the same, if not more, than the risk from the disease.

SAFETY TRIAL
Of the 17,066 children involved in the Prevnar safety trial, there were 24 hospitalisations, including 2 cases of pneumonia and 1 case of otitis media (the very things they are supposed to be immunising against) and 1 case of congestive heart failure. In addition to this there were also 162 visits to the emergency room department including 20 cases of seizure, 15 cases of otitis media, 6 cases of pneumonia and 1 case of sepsis.
12 cases of SIDS death also occurred in subjects receiving Prevnar and 1 SIDS like death in a child over 1 year old. This included 1 death within 1 week of vaccination, 2 deaths 2 weeks after vaccination, 2 deaths one month after vaccination and 4 deaths in the year following vaccination. (4).
There have also been 217 DEATHS reported to Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System in the US since 2000.
E.G. VAERS case number 167703 states: ‘Information has been received from an investigator regarding a 3 month old female who received her first dose of Prevnar as part of a post-marketing safety surveillance trial. At 39 days, post vax, the infant died due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.’ (5).

CONTRAINDICATIONS (people who should not receive the vaccine)

Hypersensitivity to any part of the vaccine
Illness with fever
Seizure disorder
Latex allergy (since the vaccine is packaged in latex)
Thrombocytopenia or any coagulation disorder
Adults – especially pregnant and lactating women

Prevnar has not been evaluated for any carcinogenic or mutagenic potential, or impairment of fertility (i.e. they don’t know if it causes cancer, mutates into other illnesses or impairs people’s ability to have children). (4).

SOURCES:
1. National Network For Immunization Information, a PRO-vaccine organisation.
2. NTW Information Series – Health Information Leaflet.
3. Walgreen’s Pharmacy.com
4. Wyeth Lederle Vaccine Manufacturer’s Data Sheet for Prevnar vaccine – Lederle Laboratories.
5. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, Database.


By Joanna Karpasea-Jones.

PREVNAR CAUSES SUPER BUG EAR INFECTIONS IN CHILDREN

Prevnar vaccine is having an unfortunate effect: promoting new superbugs that cause ear infections.

On Monday, doctors reported discovering the first such germ that is resistant to all drugs approved to treat childhood ear infections. Nine toddlers in Rochester, N.Y., have had the germ and researchers say it may be turning up elsewhere, too.

Flourishing strains

Prevnar prevents seven strains responsible for most cases of pneumonia, meningitis and deadly bloodstream infections. But dozens more strep strains exist, and some have flourished and become impervious to antibiotics since the vaccine combats the more common strains.

"It is very worrying," said Dr. Keith Klugman, an infectious diseases specialist at Emory University. "With the eradication of all the other types in the vaccine, this one is emerging."

Losing its punch

Prevnar, however, is losing its punch because strains not covered by the vaccine are filling the biological niche that the vaccine strains used to occupy, and they are causing disease.

Big trouble

One strain in particular, called 19A, is big trouble. A new subtype of it caused ear infections in the nine Rochester children, ages 6 months to 18 months, that were resistant to all pediatric medications, said Dr. Michael Pichichero, a microbiologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

The children had been unsuccessfully treated with two or more antibiotics, including high-dose amoxicillin and multiple shots of another drug. Many needed surgery to place ear tubes to drain the infection, and some recovered only after treatment with a newer, powerful antibiotic whose safety in children has not been established.

All 19A strep subtypes tend to be resistant to some drugs and have been growing in prevalence:

* Scientists from a drug company and two labs analyzed more than 21,000 bacterial samples from around the nation and found 19A increasing. Among children 2 and under, the portion of samples that were this strain rose to 15 percent in 2005-2006, from 4 percent in the previous three years.
* A British lab tracking respiratory infections in U.S. kids found that the 19A strain accounted for 40 percent of drug-resistant cases.
* University of Iowa researchers found 19A accounted for 35 percent of penicillin-resistant infections in 2004-05, compared with less than 2 percent the year before the new vaccine came out.

This is just extracts of the article. You can see msnbc's article here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20825107/

Vaccines CAUSE Pneumonia!

The Rotavirus vaccine - an American vaccine against childhood diarrhea and dehydration - has been found to cause pneumonia!

It has already been withdrawn once for causing intersuption of the bowel (where the bowel sticks together - the condition can be life threatening if not treated).

Now the FDA have said that according to 11 trials, rotavirus vaccine causes pneumonia, bronchitis, convulsions and death.

63,000 children were given the vaccine and there was a 'statistically significant' increase in the number of pneumonia deaths compared with the placebo, and the rotavirus vaccine group also had more bronchitis and a higher rate of convulsions.

The FDA now want to bring in an oral rotavirus vaccine instead of using the injection.

Source: Reuters, 15 February 2008.

Editor's Comment: I wonder what substance the placebo were given? As this is a vaccine trial, it would not have been water or a sugar pill, but another vaccine or aluminium.

The most common cause of infant diarrhea is bottle feeding. Breast fed babies do not normally get diarrhea. Most life threatening cases of diarrhea and dehydration are in the third world, not in Western countries.

Here it can easily be remedied by doctor's educating on the importance of breast feeding and giving plenty of water.