Children with health problems require extra attention and can be very expensive to treat. And a new study, published in the journal Pediatrics this week, shows how demanding one condition in particular can be. The study surveyed almost 40,000 children with special needs. Children with autism were shown to create some of the highest financial burdens for families.

Through occupational therapy sessions, Devon Heit, 7, is learning some basic life skills a little later than most children. That`s because he`s autistic. His mother Kristie spends a lot of money on Devon`s therapy and on countless of other types of treatments she says are necessary to his development. And while this session is covered by insurance, Kristie says that isn`t always the case.

“A lot of therapies are considered natural or alternative, and those are not covered by insurance in any way, shape or form.”

What`s more, Devon`s nine year-old brother has also been diagnosed with a form of autism called Asperger`s Syndrome. Both boys take supplements to regulate their digestive systems.

“Kids with autism tend to have problems with their gastrointestinal systems,” says Kristie, “They`re not able to absorb the nutrients from foods that normal people are.”

So she dishes out hundreds of dollars a month to give her sons supplements. Because the supplements aren`t considered pharmaceutical drugs, insurance companies won`t cover them. Another expense she incurs is the unusual gluten-casen free diet that most children with autism need to be on.

Kristie says most daycares won`t accept children with autism due to safety risks and behavior issues. As a result, many parents are forced to cut work hours or hire special help around the home. Sherris Richards had to quit her part time job to take care of her autistic daughter, Faith, 6. She says just getting Faith ready for school is a full time job..

“Faith is usually not on time because there is usually such a struggle with the behaviors of getting her dressed. We had to teach her how to put on her shoes, how to take off her shoes. Every little thing that she knows, we had to teach her.”

Like Kristie, Sherris says she and her husband were caught off guard by the high price of having a child with autism. But it`s a price both families say they`re willing to pay.

“I need to get my kids better. I need to do what I can,” says Kristie.

The study found seven of the children with autism had mothers who took an epilepsy drug while pregnant, four of those children were exposed to valproate while a fifth child’s mother took a combination of valproate and lamotrigine. The children whose mothers were given valproate during pregnancy were seven times more likely to develop autism compared to children whose mothers did not take an epilepsy drug while pregnant. This risk was not seen with the other epilepsy drugs. None of the children in the study had any known family history of autism.

“The potential risk for autism in this study was substantial for children whose mothers took valproate while pregnant, but more research needs to be done since these are early findings,” says study author Gus Baker, PhD, FBPsS, of the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom.”However, women who take valproate while pregnant should be informed of the possible risks of autism and are encouraged to discuss them with their doctor. Those who are taking valproate should not stop their treatment without speaking to their doctor first.”

Other studies have shown that valproate is more likely to cause birth defects than other epilepsy drugs.

Symptoms of autism include difficulty in language development, a lack of attention, social problems and the inability to understand other people’s feelings.

The study was conducted by the Liverpool and Manchester Neurodevelopment Group, a multidisciplinary group consisting of psychologists, geneticists, neurologists, midwives and support staff.

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Let me tell you about my story. I have two children on the Autism Spectrum. Both my children received their immunization shots until my youngest reached the age of approximately 18 months (my children are two years apart). My youngest, after receiving his mumps/measles/rubella (MMR) shot at this age got a rash and high fever the day after. I remember my husband rushing him to the clinic and being isolated from the rest of the patients. The diagnosis he had was roseola, a form of measles, and to watch his temperature and the rash so it did not get worse. My son was meeting all his developmental milestones until this moment. He was using single words, making eye contact and making reciprocal gestures but after that fateful day, it all changed. He withdrew, stopped talking and started mumbling and had horrible, horrible tantrums. From that day forward, we were on a new path. I researched and read as much as I could about the link between immunizations and autism and feel, in my personal journey, that the MMR vaccine, the combination of the virus’s and the preservative, thimerosal (mercury based) were all contributing factors to my son’s autism. Many vaccines, including whooping cough, diphtheria, MMR, and especially hepatitis B, contain mercury (thimerosal) in amounts far in excess of those cited as dangerous by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1998.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Association of Family Practitioners recommend removing mercury from immunizations. So has the World Health Organization, and the prestigious American Associations of Physicians, who also requested single dose vaccines so mercury would be unnecessary. I feel there is an overload on a young child when you administer so many different foreign substances into their little bodies in such a short period of time. Do I believe that this MMR injection brought on my son’s autism? Absolutely. But I also would say that he may have been pre-genetically disposed to having this happen (such as whether someone will get cancer at a certain age) and I do believe environmental factors contribute as well such as the use of chemicals and hormones in food and meat.

Brian O’Connor also states “Public health in general right across the board has no evidence to suggest that autism is any way linked to a vaccination process.” In fact there is no evidence to support it is not linked to autism. It is a case of he said/she said; one group pitted against the other over an issue that may never be resolved until scientists know exactly what gene causes autism and what environmental factors can trigger the switch that turns it on. When my son was diagnosed, the ratio of diagnosis was 1 in 10,000 children. It is now 1 in 150, which is staggering and during this time the immunization schedule, the multiple injections and addition of new vaccines (chicken pox and HPV), has increased.

To have Mr. O’Connor also state “Although (Jenny) McCarthy has suggested children with weaker immune systems shouldn’t be overloaded with vaccinations, O’Connor stated the opposite to be true.” How can he state this? Where is the data to support his statement? A child has a weak immune system and you think injecting foreign bodies into this child is supposed to make him stronger? If Mr. O’Connor has not already, maybe he should read Ms. McCarthy’s book. She does not state she is against immunization; she is against the immunization schedule. She suggests single injections (not multiple like the MMR), the removal of thimerosal and a longer immunization period should be the standard.

Parents need to make an informed decision on both sides of the case. Do your research, talk to parents of both immunized and non-immunized children. Find out the reasons why they did what they did.

If I could turn back the hands of time and not inject my children, I would. I beat myself up on a regular basis that I did not do my homework before I chose the immunization path, but now that we are on that path with autism as its result, we just keep moving forward and accept what we cannot change.

Nearly one in four (24 percent) said that because vaccines may cause autism it was safer not to have children vaccinated at all. Another 19 percent were not sure. This at a time when the Centers for Disease Control reports that autism affects one in 150 children born in the United States.

Scientists say there is no evidence linking vaccines and autism, but the lingering fear is leading to fewer parents having their children vaccinated and a growing number of measles infections. The New York Times reported in August that measles cases in the first seven months of 2008 grew at the fastest rate in more than a decade and cases in Britain, Switzerland, Israel and Italy are said to be soaring.

The public’s concern over vaccines stems from a controversial 1998 British study linking autism and the MMR vaccine, which at the time contained the mercury-based preservative thimerosal. The study was later retracted by most of its authors and thimerosal was removed from all childhood vaccines in 2001, but responses to the just-completed survey show the public is still confused.

Florida Institute of Technology commissioned the survey, which asked specifically about the link between the preservative and autism. Nineteen percent of the respondents agreed with the statement “Autism is caused by a preservative once found in childhood vaccines.” An additional 43 percent were not sure, meaning fewer than half (38 percent) of the respondents believe no link exists between the vaccine and autism.

Part of the confusion may stem from the fact that the cause of autism is unknown, according to Florida Tech Assistant Professor of Psychology Celeste Harvey. More than three in four respondents (76 percent) to the national survey agree with the statement: “At this time, scientists don’t know exactly what causes autism.”

“Fear of the unknown, coupled with anxiety over the growing incidence of the disease, may be leading people to draw their own conclusions,” said Harvey.

The first national survey of the public’s knowledge and understanding of Autism was conducted for the School of Psychology at Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Fla. The survey includes responses from 1000 men and women, 21 years old or older, randomly selected from throughout the nation. The poll has a plus or minus 3.1 percent confidence interval at a 95 percent level of confidence. The telephone interviews were conducted between August 1 and August 29 by GDA Education Research, Mount Pleasant, S.C.

In addition to asking whether a link exists between autism and childhood vaccines, the survey explored people’s knowledge of the disease, their exposure to people with autism and their support for early intervention programs.

Jared Wright, 11, of Texas, was given six vaccines during the first year-and-a-half of his life.

Five of the vaccines contained the mercury-based preservative, thimerosal. Jared’s parents, Howard and Jacqueline Wright claim the mercury in the vaccines caused Jared’s autism.

The vaccine makers named in the product liability lawsuit were Aventis Pasteur Inc., Merck & Co. Inc., and Wyeth.

But Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Arnold L. New granted the companies summary judgment and wrote that the drug makers are shielded from liability by the federal National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act.

22(b) of the Vaccine Act expressly pre-empts claims of design defects or a failure to warn the public about a vaccine’s dangers.

“Congress clearly intended when it enacted the Vaccine Act to exercise its constitutionally delegated authority to preempt all state design defect claims without case-by-case determination that the side effects are unavoidable,” New wrote.

The 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act was created as a no-fault system by the federal government to provide recovery of damages to people hurt by vaccines and to reduce the potential financial liability of vaccine makers due to injury claims.

The Wright’s attorney Marc P. Weingarten of Locks Law Firm, had argued that the drug companies were negligent because the public and doctors were kept in the dark about the use of mercury in vaccines.

But Judge New ruled that violating the protection provided by the Vaccine Act might destabilize the supply of child vaccines.

Weingarten said the case is “an extremely important issue to be heard by the courts of Pennsylvania” because of the federal pre-emption issues arising in pharmaceutical and medical device litigation in both state and federal jurisdictions.

Proponents of vaccines argue that major studies have not found a link between the use of thimerosal and neurological injury.

But scientists pointing to the case of Hannah Poling earlier this year, put the industry on notice that pre-existing conditions in children, such as mitochondrial disorder in Hannah, might result in autism after vaccinations.

In March, Julie Gerberding, head of the CDC, appeared with Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN and confirmed that vaccines can trigger autism in a subset of vulnerable children. That video is available via YouTube on the web site of Adventures in Autism.

To overcome this federal safety blanket for drug makers, the plaintiff would have to show the pharmaceutical companies engaged in fraud or wrongfully withheld information from the FDA; or failed to exercise due care even though the manufacturer complied with federal laws and regulations.

Ultimately, measures aimed at reducing the right to file liability lawsuits against drug and device makers is one tool of the tort reform movement. # From InjuryBoard.com

WASHINGTON - New research further debunks any link between measles vaccine and autism, work that comes as the nation is experiencing a surge in measles cases fueled by children left unvaccinated.

Years of research with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, better known as MMR, have concluded that it doesn’t cause autism. Still, some parents’ fears persist, in part because of one 1998 British study that linked the vaccine with a subgroup of autistic children who also have serious gastrointestinal problems. That study reported that measles virus was lingering in the children’s bowels.

Only now have researchers rigorously retested that finding, taking samples of youngsters’ intestines to hunt for signs of virus with the most modern genetic technology. There is no evidence that MMR plays any role, the international team — which included researchers who first raised the issue — reported Wednesday.

“Although in fact there was evidence that this vaccine was safe in the bulk of the population, it had not been previously assessed with respect to kids with autism and GI complaints,” said Dr. W. Ian Lipkin of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, who led the work published in PLoS One, the online journal of the Public Library of Science.

“We are confident there is no link between MMR and autism,” Lipkin said.

Added co-author Dr. Larry Pickering of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “I feel very certain that it is a safe vaccine.”

Significant spike in U.S. measles cases
Measles, a highly infectious virus best known for its red skin rash, once routinely sickened thousands of children a year and killed hundreds, until childhood vaccinations made it a rarity in this country. But so far this year, the U.S. has counted 131 measles cases, the most in a decade. Most patients were unvaccinated. Some were infants too young for their first MMR shot, but nearly half involved children whose parents rejected vaccination, the CDC reported last month.

No one knows just how many autism patients also suffer gastrointestinal disorders, pain that they may not be able to communicate. But Lipkin said that by some estimates, up to a quarter may be affected.

The MMR fear was that the vaccine’s weakened measles virus somehow lodged in and inflamed intestines, allowing waste products to escape and reach the central nervous system, Lipkin said. So his team had two questions: Does measles virus really persist in children with both disorders and not other youngsters? And did vaccination precede the GI complaints which in turn preceded autism?

Researchers studied 25 children with both autism and GI disorders, and another 13 children with the same GI disorders but no neurologic problems. The youngsters — the average age was 5 — all were undergoing colonoscopies for their GI conditions anyway, allowing tissue samples to be tested for genetic traces of measles virus. All had been vaccinated at younger ages.

The tests uncovered traces of measles genetic material in the bowels of one boy with autism — and one boy without autism. That doesn’t prove virus never temporarily lodged in more children, but it contradicts the earlier study that raised concern.

Nor was there a relationship with vaccine timing: Just five of the 25 autistic children had MMR precede GI complaints that in turn preceded autism symptoms.

Researchers consulted some prominent vaccine critics in designing the study. California advocate Rick Rollens praised the work but said it didn’t eliminate other vaccine concerns that deserve similar study. Meanwhile, he said it should draw much-needed attention to the suffering of patients like his son, who has both autism and GI disorders.

“No longer can mainstream medicine ignore the parents’ claims of significant GI distress,” he said.