No Link Between Vaccination and Cambodian Disease Outbreak

          In a vain effort to keep up with the latest in alternative and complementary medicine nonsense, I’ve recently subscribed to a number of RSS feeds so that the newest stories at the cutting edge of ignorance and quackery would magically appear on my phone as they happen. This hasn’t reduced the frustration I experience reading these stories but it has at least condensed this anger into a smaller and less time-consuming format. Of all these websites, NaturalNews.com is far and away the worst, regularly taking half-baked ideas and conspiracy theories from unreliable sources and relaying them to their readers without ever having the mental capacity to determine if this information is accurate or reliable.

               

           In one of the latest stories from this fountain of ignorance, Ethan A. Huff suggests that a recent outbreak of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) in Cambodia may have been caused by measles vaccination. This outbreak has led to the hospitalisation of 59 children, the majority of whom were under three years old, and has caused the deaths of 52 of these children. The article annoyed me for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is poorly researched and plainly wrong. Secondly, Huff displays a flippant attitude to the tragic deaths of these children by making wild assumptions about the cause of their deaths. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this article contributes to the body of misinformation that is undermining peoples trust in measles vaccination and in vaccination in general.

      

          Huff wrongly describes this outbreak as both a “mystery illness” and “vaccine injury” and speculates that measles vaccination must by making a variety of inaccurate claims including:

• ·         The outbreak was caused by a programme of measles vaccination initiated in early 2011
• ·         The WHO claimed that the disease was not contagious
• ·         It occurs only young children of vaccine age
• ·         Smallpox vaccination was the cause of the rapid growth of AIDS 

        First of all, this outbreak is not caused by a “mystery illness”. The WHO update states that the Cambodian government was investigating likely causes including dengue fever, HFMD and Chikungnuya. Initial investigation has revealed that HFMD is the likely cause as many of the children affected tested positive for a virus called Enterovirus 71 (EV-71). HFMD is usually caused by a virus called Coxsackievirus A and results in a mild illness that does not require any treatment other than keeping the child hydrated and giving mild painkillers such as paracetamol to relieve the symptoms. EV-71, however, produces a more severe disease that may affect the nervous system, heart and lungs and occasionally results in death. Since the virus was discovered in 1969, outbreaks have occurred across the world. The Asia-Pacific region has been specifically affected since 1997, with outbreaks occurring in Sarawak, the Malaysian Peninsula, Taiwan, Singapore and Australia. It has been suggested that these epidemics are caused by the ability of EV-71 to rapidly mutate and adapt, resulting in the production of virulent strains to which humans have no immune defence. Far from being an isolated incident associated with vaccination, the Cambodian epidemic is one of a number of outbreaks that have occurred in recent years recently in neighbouring countries. These epidemics have been widely reported and are obvious after even a quick google of the possible causes of this outbreak. While the rates of fatality are higher in the Cambodian outbreak than in other countries, this is largely explained by the poor quality of healthcare in Cambodia. In 2000, Cambodia ranked 148^th out of 191 countries for overall effectiveness of health care. In contrast, Singapore ranked 30^th and Australia 2^nd. Also, 85% of Cambodia’s population live in rural areas while only 13% of government health workers work there. This may have led to delayed diagnosis of the disease resulting in children attending a poorly-equipped hospital later and with more serious disease than they would have in a more developed country.  Mr. Huff has no excuse for his ignorance and appears to be just another lazy reporter with a poorly-informed agenda against vaccination.

  The article’s claim that the WHO has stated that this disease is not contagious is blatantly false. A WHO update on the outbreak stated that the Cambodian Ministry of Health followed standard guidelines and reported the outbreak as the “underlying agent or disease or mode of transmission is not formally identified.” This does not imply that the cause of the disease cannot be determined or that the disease is not contagious but only that further investigation is required to ascertain these facts. Huff’s misinterpretation of these can only be due to either an inability to comprehend the vocabulary of the sentence or a concerted effort to mislead and misinform the reader.

        

  Huff not only confuses correlation with causation when he claims that a vaccination programme initiated in 2011 is responsible for the recent outbreak of HFMD but once again displays how little research he has conducted. Measles vaccination began in Cambodian health centres in 1986, with outreach initiatives for rural areas introduced in 1990 and 2000. None of these events were associated with any kind of disease outbreak or with an increased incidence of HFMD. The 2011 vaccination programme is not a new idea but the latest in a series of measures introduced in an effort to eliminate measles in the country. If vaccination was the cause of this epidemic, surely it would have occurred before, not only in Cambodia but in other countries across the world.

Mr. Huff also claims that because this illness has only affected children of “vaccine age” it must have been caused by measles vaccine. This once again demonstrates his lack of understanding and his unbelievable ability to find a link between two completely unrelated phenomena. HFMD occurs most commonly in children younger than 10 years old regardless of whether they have been vaccinated or not. Linking vaccination to HFMD is like linking vaccination to any aspect of childhood such as chickenpox, wetting the bed or wearing Batman pyjamas. It’s completely ridiculous and once again makes me wish a certain level of intelligence was required to post anything online.

The wildest claim made in this article is that the AIDS epidemic was caused by the introduction of smallpox vaccination to central Africa in the 1970s. The reference Hunt provides for this claim is from a London Times article published in 1987. This theory has been completely discredited by 25 years of HIV and AIDS research. Perhaps, Huff’s reliance on such an old and out-of-date source is part of the naturopathic ethos of recommending all things ancient and mystical. A more likely explanation for the simultaneous rise in HIV infection and smallpox vaccination is the use and re-use of non-sterile needles for vaccination in poor and underdeveloped African countries in the 1970s and 1980s. In fact, a 2010 study has indicated that smallpox vaccination may theoretically protect against HIV infection and that the cessation of vaccination due to the eradication of smallpox could have led to the increase in infection rates. In claiming that vaccination is responsible for the spread of HIV infection, Huff once again displays his lack of knowledge on the subject and his inability to source and interpret accurate information.

As I think I’ve shown, Mr. Huff’s argument that this epidemic was caused by measles vaccination is completely baseless, biased and ridiculous. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that it won’t influence people’s opinions on vaccination as NaturalNews.com presents itself as a trustworthy and knowledgeable authority on all things health-related. Mr. Huff would like you to believe that vaccination is an evil and dangerous procedure while in fact it has produced dramatic benefits in countries such as Cambodia. Far from being a harmless disease, measles is the largest preventable cause of death in children worldwide and the number of lives saved by vaccination can be measured in a very real and measurable way. In 2001, Cambodia had one of the highest rates of measles infection in the world, resulting in the deaths of 1,700 children. In 1980, before vaccination, more than 32,000 children were infected. With the introduction of routine vaccination, this rate of infection had been reduced to 2,500 in 1990 and just 722 cases of measles infection in a population of over 14 million people in 2011. Along with other health measures, vaccination has reduced death rates in under fives from 117 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 90 in 2008. These initiatives to save the lives of vulnerable children in developing countries and the efforts of those people who implement these measures are undermined by poorly-informed, biased and senseless reporters such as Ethan A. Huff and NaturalNews.com.