Parents warned on 'natural' jabs
Comment: The British Homeopathic Association is a group of medical doctors
who also use homeopathy. Miller is one of the authors of the Taylor report,
and a committed vaccinator.
john
Parents warned on 'natural' jabs
Lois Rogers, Medical Correspondent
July 1, 2001
http://www.***.com/
THOUSANDS of parents are turning to homeopathic vaccines rather than
conventional ones to protect children against killer diseases. The {*filter*}
vaccines, based on diluted saliva or tissue from affected individuals, are
used with remedies intended to boost the immune system.
The trend is condemned by the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS), which
is engaged in a drive to convince people that vaccines such as the one for
measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) are safe. The British Homeopathic
Association also opposes non-conventional vaccines.
Last week it was revealed that uptake of MMR is at its lowest since a scare
began over possible links to autism and the bowel condition Crohn's disease.
Only 86.4% of children are being vaccinated, with pockets of much lower
take-up.
Experts fear a resurgence of measles. Although it does not cause long-term
harm to most children, it killed or brain-damaged hundreds every year before
the advent of routine vaccination in the 1960s. The last death in Britain
was in 1992.
Christina Head, http://www.***.com/
London, says she has given the homeopathic measles vaccine to 2,000
children. Head, who is not otherwise medically qualified, admitted that some
had developed the disease but she insisted that homeopathic remedies used
with the vaccine prevent the infection being serious.
She blamed conventional vaccines on rising rates of cancer and said some
contained aluminium, which is linked with Alzheimer's disease. "Measles is a
wonderful disease for developing the immune system," she added.
A naturopath at an alternative clinic in London said Britain lags behind the
developed world in using homeopathic vaccines. The practitioner, who did not
want to be named, said: "I'd never let my children near a needle. I know how
effective homeopathy is."
Others are more equivocal. John Morgan, the managing director of Helios, a
manufacturer of homeopathic remedies in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, said there is
no evidence that they work, although many practitioners are convinced. His
business has had a growth in turnover of 15-20% since the 1980s.
Morgan, who is also a traditionally trained pharmacist, said homeopathy is
based on the principle that "like cures like", and that without an epidemic
of a specific disease being present, it is impossible to know what remedies
to use.
Elizabeth Miller, the head of the PHLS immunisation division, condemned
homeopathic vaccines as "naive". She said there is a large body of evidence
that vaccines, which are based on weakened strains of disease-causing
agents, do work, and that MMR is not associated with autism.
"Before you can use any vaccines in humans they have to go through a
rigorous process to show they do not contain any disease-causing agents,"
she said. "They are highly purified, and there is no evidence at all for
these claims."
