Lancet Retracts Study Linking Autism to Measles Vaccine

Leading medical journal The Lancet on Tuesday issued a full retraction of a controversial and immensely influential 1998 paper that had linked autism to the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination (often referred to as the "MMR" vaccine).

The retraction came after a ruling made the previous week by the General Medical Council (GMC) found Dr. Andrew Wakefield - the lead researcher on the 1998 paper - and two fellow colleagues to have broken various research rules and standards while developing the paper. The GMC is the regulatory body responsible for licensing doctors and supervising medical ethics in the United Kingdom (UK).

More than 30 charges were found proven against Wakefield, including counts of mistreating developmentally challenged children by causing "high-risk," invasive research - such as spinal taps and brain scans - to be carried out without ethical approval and against their best health interests. Another example mentioned by the GMC of Wakefield's "callous disregard" for the children he was studying was the time he went around to children guests at his son's fifth birthday party and offered them £5 for blood samples. The GMC is still debating whether or not to strike Wakefield from the medical register.

The GMC also affirmed that Dr. Wakefield's research had been at least partially funded by lawyers and other representatives acting on behalf of parents who believed that their children had been medically harmed by the MMR vaccine. In 2004, Brian Deer of The Sunday Times (UK) led an investigation that exposed a deal made by Wakefield with a lawyer named Richard Barr. Barr, in the late 1990's, was preparing a civil suit against the manufacturers of the MMR vaccine. Deer also discovered that Wakefield had patented a single measles vaccine - which seemed to suggest that Wakefield was more interested in heading a successful business coup against the makers of MMR vaccine than in legitimate (and ethical) medical discovery.

The Lancet stated that Wakefield's unethical practices compromised the results of his studies beyond repair. In their official statement, the editors of The Lancet said: "In particular, the claims in the original paper that children were 'consecutively referred' and that investigations were 'approved' by the local ethics committee have been proven to be false. Therefore we fully retract this paper from the published record."

Following the initial publication of the paper in 1998, sales of the MMR vaccine plummeted, resulting in a rise in the measles throughout Europe and North America. The paper also instigated what has become an ongoing debate regarding the possible dangers of many types of vaccines - including the more recent concern of possible negative consequences of H1N1 and seasonal influenze vaccines.

Since 1998, a number of other studies have disproved Wakefield's findings, and it is generally the consensus of the medical community that the MMR vaccine is safe. In fact, in 2004, The Lancet issued a partial retraction.

Whether or not this latest retraction will reignite trust in the MMR vaccine is yet to be seen; according to Deer, writing for The Times (UK) Online, Wakefield had vocal support at the GMC hearing from the "hard core of the families of children with autism." The subject remains divisive and heatedly debated.

To learn more about autism and autism spectrum disorders, visit Healthline's autism learning center.

Labels: autism, measles, medical ethics, MMR vaccine, the Lancet

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Celebrities and Schoolkids: Money for Haiti Coming from All Directions

The citizens of the world are responding en masse to the January 12 disaster in Haiti, mainly in the form of money. The Chronicle of Philanthropy has been tracking the overwhelming response to fund-raising efforts across the US. In a January 18 report, it estimates that donors have contributed more than $210 million to major US relief groups.

Politicians, celebrities, major charity groups, universities, local schools, and various small organizations are all getting into the mix. Sandra Bullock donated $1 million to Doctors Without Borders. Drake University students put together 50,000 much needed meals to send to Haiti. Elementary schools across the country are having bake sales and silent auctions to raise funds. Social media outlets, texting technology, and websites have been used effectively to raise millions of dollars. The following is an abbreviated list of events and groups that are sending money to Haiti (Source: Chronicle of Philanthropy website):

Charity Groups
• As of January 18, the American Red Cross (ARC) had raised more than $112 million for relief efforts - with approximately $22 million of that coming from its texting campaign that encourage people to donate $10 per text. By comparison, the ARC raised $200,000 via text campaigns during the 2008 hurricane season.

• The Salvation Army had raised $3.32-million online as of Saturday.

• Save the Children USA had raised more than $7.5-million as of Saturday morning. The group has set a fund-raising goal of $20-million.

• Catholic Relief Services had secured $10.6-million in gifts and pledges as of Saturday. Approximately $6-million was donated online.

• American Jewish World Service had raised $1.5-million as of Friday.

• Islamic Relief USA had raised more than $500,000 online and another $100,000 from fund raising at mosques as of Saturday.

• Lutheran World Relief had raised nearly $550,000 in online gifts as of Saturday

• Convio, the company that provides software to charities, has processed nearly $110-million since Tuesday as of 10 a.m. CST Saturday. As a yardstick, the company processed $20-million on December 31, 2009, typically the biggest fund-raising day of the year.

Politicians, Celebrities, Athletes
• Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush joined President Obama at the White House on Saturday to announce that they would spearhead a bipartisan effort to raise money for the Haitian relief effort from corporations, foundations, and American citizens.

• Bill Clinton's foundation has already raised more than $7 million for relief efforts.

• University of Kentucky men's basketball coach John Calipari, along with Lexington, KY, business owners, planned an impromptu telethon, “Hoops for Haiti,” to raise money for the Red Cross. Kentucky basketball players manned the phones, as former coaches, players, and local/regional celebrities made appearances and were interviewed by Coach Calipari on the air. Through donations from Kentucky sports fans and matching funds by participating business, the telethon raised more than $1 million.

• Sandra Bullock, Madonna, Brad Pitt, and Angelina Jolie are among a list of celebrities that have given six- and seven-figure donations to various organizations, including Doctors Without Borders.

• Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti Foundation has raised more than $2 million through a text-messaging system that allows people to instantly donate $5.

• NFL wide receiver Dante Stallworth pledged to donate $1 per Twitter follower that he had by midnight Sunday, Jan. 17. His friend and former teammate Wes Welker (WR, New England Patriots) jumped on board to match the funds. As word spread, the followers came in droves. By the end of the day, the pair of wide receivers had raised $68,400 for Project Medishare.

• George Clooney and MTV are organizing a telethon for Jan. 22. Wyclef Jean will co-host, and music megastars Justin Timberlake and Bono are set to perform.

Follow all of Healthline's Haiti Coverage:
On the Ground in Haiti: Anil Menon's Blog 
The World Rushes to Haiti
Haitian Health Concerns Grow Due to Devastating Quake

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The World Rushes to Haiti

As Haitians waited for international aid to arrive, their shock turned to desperation in the absence of food and medical care. After many logistical hurdles in the days immediately following the earthquake, international aid groups began arriving in Haiti over the weekend – ranging from search-and-rescue teams with large equipment for digging through the rubble to health organizations that are setting up field hospitals and distributing food.

However, many food-distribution efforts turned to chaos in the absence of an organized security force, as mobs of people fought for food. Reports of looting and violence are increasing. The local police force has been decimated, either injured, killed, or simply not reporting to work because of their own desperate situations. Nine thousand UN troops are in Haiti. Monday morning, 2,200 US Marines arrived in Haiti, and 10,000 total are being deployed. President Obama has called up reserve military personnel and ordered a Coast Guard unit to head to Haiti to provide support in several areas, including security.

After heavy equipment arrived, search-and-rescue teams began digging through rubble and, miraculously, found survivors who had been trapped for four to six days. US Ambassador Kenneth Merten reported that, as of Monday afternoon, 75 people had been rescued, and rescue crews continue to dig for both the living and the dead. Paul Antoine Bien-Aime, Haiti's interior minister, told Reuters that around 50,000 dead bodies have been collected. He expects the death toll to be between 100,000 and 200,000 people, while admitting that they will never know the exact amount. With much of the media focused on the devastation in Port-Au-Prince, little attention has been given to other parts of Haiti affected by the earthquake. Haiti's Ministry of Interior and Civil Protection is reporting that approximately 10,000 people were killed in the towns surrounding the capital city. And 80% and 90% of the homes were destroyed in the towns of Gressier and Leogane, respectively.

Health Concerns Increasing
In terms of health issues, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been submitting daily status updates. Scarcity of basic provisions, such as food and water, remains the biggest challenge, and a major concern is the sheer overwhelming numbers of the injured and the lack of facilities and medical supplies to treat them. The WHO is reporting that at least eight hospitals were destroyed or severely damaged in the earthquake. At least five are functioning in some capacity. According to the WHO, "Untreated trauma wounds and infection of wounds are major health concerns that need priority attention." Similarly, Doctors Without Borders (Medicins Sans Frontieres) is reporting that, because of limited treatment capacity, injuries that were minor three days ago are now life-threatening due to infections that come from the lack of immediate medical attention.

Groups from all over the world are in or are headed to Haiti to set up field hospitals. Teams from the US, Israel, Colombia, France, Canada, Indonesia, Russia, and more have arrived or are on the way to set up hospitals or provide medical care in existing hospitals. Supplies are coming in by the ton; however, there is no organized distribution process or method of tracking what is actually in each shipment. As a result, surgical supplies are ending up in places that aren’t equipped to use them, when that same field hospital is lacking basic items such as splints and sterile bandages.

Another issue that is beginning to take shape is the potential stress that this disaster is putting on the health of the Dominican Republic's population. Because of the influx of patients from Haiti, hospitals in the surrounding countryside and border towns of the Dominican Republic are overflowing, denying those sick from normal illnesses (unrelated to the earthquake) the access to medical care. For example, a 20-bed hospital in the Dominican Republic border city of Jimani saw 2,000 people on Saturday and conducted 200 major surgeries. The overflow from that hospital is being sent on to Santo Domingo.

Many ongoing medical efforts in Haiti are being severely disrupted. Around 70,000 babies are born annually in the country, and the overwhelmed health centers and hospitals are focusing on trauma injuries from the earthquake instead of obstetric care. Furthermore, the Haitian Health Organization (HHO) normally runs an obstetrical transport ambulance that performs around 20 emergency evacuations of pregnant women every month. Expecting mothers use cell phones to call the ambulance when they need help. The HHO is reporting that this service has been halted because all cell towers have been knocked out by the quake, and there is no way to communicate with the pregnant women.

As reported in our Friday blog post, Haiti's numerous existing health issues – tuberculosis, HIV/Aids, malaria, respiratory diseases, diarrhea, disease associated with intestinal worms, dengue fever – will only be escalated by the disaster. Furthermore, as masses of people flee the dangers and chaos of Port-Au-Prince and crowd into other towns and tent cities, other health concerns will arise. "Displaced people are at high risk from outbreaks of water-, sanitation-, and hygiene-related diseases, as well as foodborne diseases, due to reduced access to safe water and sanitation systems. Salmonella typhi (causing typhoid fever), hepatitis A and hepatitis E are present and have epidemic potential," the WHO reports on its website. "Population displacement can result in overcrowding in resettlement areas, raising the risk of transmission of certain communicable diseases spread from person-to-person, such as measles, tetanus, and diphtheria." Other concerns include malnutrition, skin infections, reproductive health, and even non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular issues.

Catch up on Healthline's Haiti Coverage:

Celebrities and Schoolkids: Money for Haiti Coming from All Directions 

Haitian Health Concerns Grow Due to Devastating Quake 

Healthline Bloggers in Haiti:

Anil Menon's  Blog

 

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News, January 15, 2010

Green Tea May Reduce Risk of Lung Cancer

Taiwanese researchers have discovered that green tea may reduce the risk of lung cancer in both smokers and non-smokers. A study presented this week at conference jointly sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer compared the smoking and green tea consumption habits of 170 lung cancer patients and 340 healthy patients. The results showed that among smokers and non-smokers, those who did not drink green tea were over five times more likely to have cancer than those who drank at least one cup a day. Smokers who did not drink green tea were nearly 13 times more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer than those who did.

In an AACR press release, lead researcher I-Hsin Lin stated that the study "may represent a clue that in the case of lung cancer, smoking-induced carcinogenesis could be modulated by green tea consumption and the growth factor environment.” Nevertheless, drinking green tea can only modulate the negative effects of smoking, and will not reverse them. The best thing you can do to prevent lung cancer is to quit smoking. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States and in Taiwan. Learn more about this deadly - and often preventable – form of cancer.

Judge Orders FDA to Stop Blocking Import of E-Ciggs

This week, Judge Richard J. Leon of the Federal District Court in Washington issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought against the FDA. The injunction effectively lifted an import ban that the federal regulator had placed on "e-cigarettes" from China. Judge Leon agreed with the distributors who brought the suit, arguing that e-cigarettes are not meant to be medical devices to help smokers quit, but rather are a safer substitute that gives users the nicotine they crave but with less negative side effects than traditional cigarettes. In a statement made to the FDA website, the agency reiterated its growing concern regarding the current lack of regulation of e-cigarettes. "The public health issues surrounding electronic cigarettes are of serious concern to the F.D.A. The agency is reviewing Judge Leon’s opinion and will decide the appropriate action to take.”

Read our smoking cessation expert, Dr. Jonathan Gould's take on e-cigarettes at his blog, Freedom From Smoking.


Raising Kids Lowers Blood Pressure

New research out of Brigham Young University suggests that raising children can lower your blood pressure, and more so in women than in men. This, of course, flies in the face of the conventional wisdom of parenthood, popularly thought of as a full-time job of chasing, worrying about, disciplining, and caring for active and often unruly kids. But the study’s author, BYU psychologist Julianne Holt-Lunstad, found that the existential side of parenting wins in the end. “While caring for children may include daily hassles, deriving a sense of meaning and purpose from life’s stress has been shown to be associated with better health outcomes,” Holt-Lunstad said in a news release.

The study followed 198 adults – parents and non-parents – for 24 hours. Each person wore a monitoring device that recorded BP levels at random intervals, even while they were sleeping. The study accounted for other factors known to influence BP – age, body mass, gender, exercise, employment and smoking – and found that parents scored 4.5 lower on systolic BP (top number) and 3 points lower on diastolic BP (bottom number) than non-parents. The differences were greater for mothers – 12 points and 7 points lower, respectively, than non-mothers. This does not meant that more kids equals lower pressure, Holt-Lunstad said. The study simply connects parenthood, in general, to lower BP.

Find out how you can lower your blood pressure today. 

Labels: blood pressure, cigarettes, e-cigarettes, lung cancer, Smoking, tylenol

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Haitian Health Concerns Grow Due to Devastating Quake

As President Barack Obama pledges one of the biggest relief efforts in recent history and begins the 3,500-soldier and 2,200-marine rescue mission to Haiti, it is becoming clear through various correspondents that the situation in the major cities of the island nation is becoming increasingly desperate. Tens of thousands are estimated to be dead – 50,000 is the Red Cross's best guess at this time – and over 3 million affected. Thousands are buried under the rubble of fallen buildings and the search and rescue teams currently working on the ground lack the necessary heavy lifting equipment to help the trapped victims. Medicine, food, and water are in short supply and growing more scarce by the hour as groceries and food stores are raided by people who have lost their own homes and places of work. In a written statement to the Washington Post, former President Bill Clinton called the quake "one of the great humanitarian emergencies in the history of the Americas."

One of the most disastrous effects of the quake is the current shortage of health care and supplies. Nearly all the hospitals and health care facilities in Port-Au-Prince, capital of Haiti and epicenter of the earthquake, have been severely damaged or destroyed completely. In any case such structural damage would be detrimental to relief efforts, but in the case of Haiti the damage may lead to an inconceivable crisis. Before the quake, Haiti had appalling levels of public health issues: 80% of the population of Haiti lives below the poverty line – the nation is by far the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere – and there are abnormally high rates of tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, malaria, respiratory diseases, diarrhea, disease associated with intestinal worms, dengue fever, and many other health concerns on the Haitian side of the island of Hispaniola.

The main cause of Haiti's health concerns prior to the earthquake were the poor conditions of the country's water and sanitation infrastructure. The majority of Haitians lacked access to clean drinking water before; the earthquake has wrought unimaginable further damage to an already broken system, and the consequences may be dire and long-term.

Doctors Without Borders (or Medecins Sans Frontieres) stated in a recent CNN article that even before the earthquake, basic health services in Port-au-Prince were essentially nonexistent due to poor management, lack of supplies, and limited trained personnel. The few hospitals that did exist were already stretched to their limits. According to Fox News correspondent Dr. Manny Alvarez, "the people of Haiti are going to be at increased risk of developing gastrointestinal diseases, food poisoning, as well as worsening of injuries sustained by those in high-risk groups like children and seniors."

International aid and rescue teams are beginning to arrive on the island, but it is still unclear how much they will be able to help; though the airport runway outside Port-Au-Prince is functional, the tower communications system is not working. An Air Force Special Forces unit has been deployed to set up temporary air-traffic control systems that will handle the waves of international aid headed to Port-Au-Prince. But as of now, many parts of the city remain inaccessible except by helicopter.

Healthline.com's Chief Medical Officer and outdoor health expert Dr. Paul Auerbach is en route to Haiti to provide emergency medical care. He’s going with the International Medical Corps, along with a small group from the Stanford Medical Center, with which he is affiliated. We hope to receive on-the-ground correspondances from Dr. Auerbach in the coming weeks. Please check his blog http://www.healthline.com/blogs/outdoor_health/ for updates.

How You Can Help

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the American Red Cross are urging Americans who wish to help to text "Haiti" to the number 90999 – doing so will automatically add a $10 donation charge to your monthly cell phone bill. 100% of the funds donated will go to support Red Cross efforts in Haiti. You can print a receipt through mGive, a foundation that helps nonprofits take advantage of mobile technology.


You may also make a donation to the American Red Cross International Response Fund at Redcross.org or by calling 1-800-RED-CROSS. Here's a list of a few other nonprofits currently working in Haiti:

• UNICEF is the United Nations Fund focusing on children. Donate here.
• Doctors Without Borders is an international NGO that sends doctors and medical supplies to places in need. Donate here.
• Mercy Corps is an NGO with a lot of earthquake-specific relief experience. Donate here.
• Partners in Health is an NGO that focuses on delivering medical supplies and staff in emergencies. Donate here.
• Wyclef Jean’s Haiti-focused foundation, Yele. Donate here, or give $5 by texting YELE to 501501.

For even more places to donate, see MSNBC's comprehensive list here.

Labels: disaster, Earthquake, Haiti

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