Word: hannah
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...difficult to draw any clear lessons from the case of Hannah Poling, other than the dire need for more research. One plausible conclusion is that pediatricians should avoid giving small children a large number of vaccines at once, even if they are thimerosal-free. Young children have an immature immune system that's ill-equipped to handle an overload, says Dr. Judy Van de Water, an immunologist who works with Pessah at U.C. Davis. "Some vaccines, such as those aimed at viral infections, are designed to ramp up the immune system at warp speed," she says. "They are designed...
...there are circumstances that make Hannah's case a bit unusual. For one thing, she received an unusually large number of vaccines in 2000 (when thimerosal was still in use). Because of a series of ear infections, Hannah had fallen behind in the vaccine schedule, so in a single day she was given five inoculations covering a total of nine diseases: measles, mumps, rubella, polio, varicella, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, and Haemophilus influenzae. "That was just too many vaccines," says Terry Poling. "I didn't find out for several months that they had thimerosal, which contains mercury, a powerful neurotoxin...
Another confounding issue in Hannah's case is the finding that she suffers from a mitochondrial disorder - a dysfunction in basic cell metabolism. Mitochondria serve as power generators for each cell in the body, converting food and oxygen into energy. There are a wide range of these disorders, causing symptoms that vary widely but can include muscle weakness, cardiac or liver disease, diabetes, developmental delays and susceptibility to infection. In Hannah's case, the vaccine court determined that the underlying dysfunction of her mitochondria put her at an increased risk of injury from vaccines...
...John Shoffner, the Atlanta-based neurologist who identified Hannah Poling's mitochondrial disorder, is "genuinely puzzled" by the court's judgment. Shoffner, who has been studying and treating these disorders for 20 years, says it's impossible to say whether Hannah's mitochondrial disorder was, in fact, a pre-existing condition that set the stage for her autism (as the government contends) or if it developed along with her autism. A specialist in mitochondrial disorders, he is investigating the relationship between autism and these disorders and plans to present a paper on the topic at the annual meeting...
...Hannah Poling is now a third grader in public school, working one-on-one with teachers in a special-ed classroom. She continues to struggle with the effects of autism and also has seizures. Her parents are hoping her case will spur additional research into the causes of autism, including the roles of vaccines and mitochondrial disorders...