Vaccinations and Autoimmune Disease

Autism, Hemolytic Anemia, and the Association with Pet Studies

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Feb 17, 2009 Elaine Moore

A connection between canine vaccines and autoimmune diseases offers insight into autoimmune conditions in humans.

A federal panel recently declared that childhood vaccines don’t cause autism. However, numerous studies have shown that vaccines can trigger autoimmune diseases, including Guillain-Barre syndrome. Animal studies agree.

Because of early concerns regarding canine vaccines, the Haywood Foundation funded several studies, which were published by Purdue University in 1999. The studies found that vaccinated dogs developed autoantibodies to many of their own proteins, including fibronectin, laminin, DNA, albumin, collagen, cytochrome C, and cardiolipin. These antibodies were not found in non-vaccinated dogs.

Targeted Proteins

The Purdue researchers found that vaccines cause the production of antibodies that target proteins involved in cell replication, cell maintenance, cell differentiation, and cell repair. The researchers found that normal cell functions necessary for the maintenance of life were being damaged by autoantibodies.

Autoantibodies

Autoantibodies are antibodies produced by the immune system that attack our own cellular proteins. Certain autoantibodies seen in dogs have corresponding antibodies in humans. Anti-cardiolipin antibodies are seen in humans with antiphospholipid syndrome, a common cause of miscarriage and stroke, and in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Autoantibodies to collagen and connective tissue interfere with the body’s ability to maintain bone and tissue. In canines, these autoantibodies lead to problems with mobility. In particular, problems with the rear hind legs often occur in vaccinated dogs.

Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia

It’s also widely acknowledged that canine vaccines can cause a sudden, often fatal, disease called autoimmune haemolytic anaemia (AIHA). Without proper treatment, and frequently with treatment, dogs often die within days.

However, no one warns the pet owners before their pets are subjected to an unnecessary booster, and very few owners are told the causes of AIHA.

Other Vaccine-Induced Diseases

The UK veterinarian, Catherine O’ Driscoll noted an increased rate of arthritis among vaccinated canines. In reviewing the literature in humans she found an article in Internal Medicine, which reported that it’s possible to isolate the rubella virus from affected joints in children vaccinated against rubella. It also told of the isolation of viruses from the peripheral blood of women with prolonged arthritis following vaccination with the rubella vaccine.

Research in early 2000 showed that polyarthritis and other diseases like amyloidosis, which affects the pancreas and other organs in dogs, were linked to combination vaccines. Studies confirm that vaccines can cause a wide range of brain and central nervous system damage. Merck itself states in its Manual that vaccines can cause encephalitis:

Brain inflammation/damage. Merck states that "examples are the encephalitides following measles, chickenpox, rubella, smallpox vaccination, vaccinia, and many other less well defined viral infections."

In surveys, dog owners report that following vaccines, a high percentage of vaccinated dogs developed short attention spans and/or epilepsy within three months of vaccinations.

Of the many dogs affected by hind paralysis caused by vaccines, it’s noted that "paresis" is listed in Merck's Manual as a symptom of encephalitis. Encephalitis can cause partial or incomplete paralysis, resulting from lesions at any level of the descending pathway from the brain. Hind limb paralysis is one of the potential consequences.

Organ failure should be suspected when it occurs shortly after a vaccination. Dr Larry Glickman, who led the Purdue research, reported that the heart conditions in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels commonly occurring after vaccines could be the end result of repeated immunizations by vaccines containing tissue culture contaminants that cause a progressive immune response directed at connective tissue in the heart valves.

Source:

Catherine O'Driscoll, Shock to the System, 2005

Purdue Vaccination Studies

Merck Veterinary Manual - Handbook Of Diagnosis And Therapy For The Veterinarian - Fourth Edition by O. H., Editor Siegmund, 1973.

Duval, D. and Giger,U. (1996). "Vaccine-Associated Immune-Mediated Hemolytic Anemia in the Dog", Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 10:290-295.

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The copyright of the article Vaccinations and Autoimmune Disease in General Medicine is owned by Elaine Moore. Permission to republish Vaccinations and Autoimmune Disease in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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