Age: 1.6
Sex: F
Vaccine: DTAP, HIBV, IPV, MMR, VARCEL
Symptoms: Crying, Encephalopathy, Irritability, Laboratory test abnormal, Lethargy
Clinical narrative: It has been reported as part of a published article entitled above and from a newspaper article concerning a 9 year old girl who had a medical history of frequent episodes of fever and otitis media that eventually necessitated placement of bilateral polyethylene tubes. "Study after study had failed to show any link between vaccines and autism, but many parents of autistic children remain unconvinced." "Several parents" expressed concern that vaccines might cause autism, and for the skeptics, "the case of a 9-year-old girl showed that they have been right along. "The government had conceded that vaccines may have hurt her, and it had agreed to pay her family for her care. Advocates said the settlement reached last fall in a federal compensation court for people injured by vaccines, but disclosed only in recent days was a long-overdue government recognition that vaccinations can cause autism". ""Government officials said they have made no such concession. Let me be very clear that the government has made absolutely no statement indicating that vaccines are a cause of autism,""stated the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday. That was a complete mischaracterization of the findings of the case and a complete mischaracterization of any of the science that we had at our disposal today. The child clearly had difficulties with language, speech, and communication. But those features of her condition considered autistic were part of a global encephalopathy caused by mitochondrial enzyme deficit." "The child was 19 months old and developing normally in 2000 when she received five shots against nine infectious diseases, Hib (unspecified carrier), DTaP (manf. unknown), Varicella (manf. unspecified), MMR II (MSD, lot number not provided), and Polio (manf. unspecified). Two days later, she was lethargic, irritable, febrile, cried inconsolably and refused to walk. Ten days after vaccination, she developed a rash consistent with vaccine-induced varicella. Months later, with delays in neurologic and psychological development, she was diagnosed with encephalopathy caused by mitochondrial enzyme deficit. Her signs included problems with language, communication, and behavior- all features of autism spectrum disorder. Over the next seven months she spiraled downward, and in 2001 she was given a diagnosis of autism. Although it was not unusual for children with mitochondrial enzyme deficiencies to develop neurologic signs between their first and second years of life, the child's parents believed that vaccines had triggered her encephalopathy." The childs father, was a neurology resident at the time, and she underwent an intensive series of tests that found a disorder in her mitochondria, the energy factories of the cells. Such disorders are uncommon, their effects can be significant but varied, and the problems associated with them can show up immediately or lie dormant for years. There are two theories about what happened to the child, said her mother. The first is that she had an underlying mitochondrial disorder that vaccinations aggravated. The second is that vaccinations caused this disorder." The government chose to believe the first theory. We don't know that she had an underlying disorder. "In a news conference on Thursday, director at the agency, said, I don't think we have any science that would lead us to believe that mitochondrial disorders are caused by vaccines. The physician explained that children with mitochondrial disorders often develop normally until they come down with an infection. Then their mitochondria are unable to manufacture the energy needed to nourish the brain. As a result, they regress. Without data that clearly exonerates vaccines, it could be argued that children with mitochondrial enzyme deficiencies might have a lower risk of exacerbations if vaccines are withheld, delayed, or separated. But such changes would come at a price. Even spacing out vaccinations would increased the period during which children are susceptible to natural infections, giving a theoretical risk from vaccines priority over a know risk from vaccine-preventable diseases. This case has become a flashpoint in the long-runny controversy over thimerosal, a vaccine preservative containing mercury. Some people believe that thimerosal is behind the rising number of autism diagnoses. Among them is, director of an agency. Many of the vaccines the child received contained thimerosal. The disease control centers, the Food and Drug Administration, and other agencies have all largely dismissed the notion that thimerosal causes or contributes to autism. Five major studies have found no link, and since thimerosal's removal from all routinely administered childhood vaccines in 2001, there has been no apparent effect on autism rates. Many of those who believe in an autism-vaccine link dismiss all this evidence, and patient's case fuels their cause. Her story is very important because it echoes so many others, and its clear that thimerosal played a role said executive director of an agency. The family did not prove the case against thimerosal, but noted that there was no debate that vaccines had risks. They're not safe for everybody, he said, and one person for whom they proved unsafe happened to be my daughter." Follow up information was received from a newspaper article stating that the patients autism was linked to a series of jabs in July 2000 at 19 months. Her father discovered that the patient had a mitochondrial dysfunction. No further information is available.