Nearly 8 Million Afghan Children To Receive Polio Vaccination From UN

cgi.wn.com
United Nations, Mon 15 Mar 2010

United Nations agencies and the Afghan health ministry are conducting a three-day campaign aimed at vaccinating an estimated 7.7 million children under the age of five against polio.

Afghanistan is one of four countries – along with India, Pakistan and Nigeria – where the highly infectious disease which can leave patients totally paralyzed is still endemic.

The campaign which began yesterday is the second one launched this year by the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Afghan Ministry of Public Health, building on a series of national immunization days and house-to-house vaccination schemes which ran last year.

A similar polio vaccination campaign last month targeted an estimated 2.8 million children.
Meanwhile, WHO is boosting its stock of medical supplies in the southern province of Kandahar, in anticipation of a deteriorating security situation and possible population displacement, Nilab Mobarez of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) told reporters in Kabul today.

The agency has pre-positioned enough supplies to cover the essential health needs of 80,000 people for three months. Read more…

Amazing New Allergy Theory!

autismspectrum.wordpress.com
March 12, 2010

Did you know that there’s no such thing as a penicillin allergy? Or a peanut allergy? Isn’t it amazing?

I know, you’re thinking, what? She’s cracked..the move has pushed her over the edge. But I assure you, I’m not.

After all, if we follow the “vaccines are fine, you anti-vaccine people are bringing back diseases and you’re harming society” theory of late, if vaccines are safe for everyone, penicillin, peanuts, you name it, must be okay for everyone, right?

If vaccines can’t cause adverse reactions in anyone — you know, that conglomeration of preservatives, aluminum and aborted fetal cells — then penicillin, peanuts and anything else that results in rashes, hives or anaphylactic shock can’t cause adverse reactions either. I mean, really, if they’re good for ‘most’ people, then they must be okay for everyone, right?

Now we know this isn’t true. We know allergies exist — some mild, some deathly. We don’t go around telling them that the side-effects of ingesting an allergen are really something else. No, of course not. Instead, we created epi-pens and we adapt our environments. Most importantly, we don’t scoff at those who suffer and tell them they’re wrong, that peanut really didn’t just make them swell up to the point of needing an injection or an ER trip. We don’t tell the person covered in itchy hives that he’s wrong, after all, that penicillin doesn’t make everyone sick, so therefore it can’t make anyone sick.

Not everyone who gets vaccinated has autism; not every person who takes penicillin breaks out in hives or has to be hospitalized. One’s accepted, the other isn’t. Read more…

Scientists reveal negative impact of Roundup Ready GM crops

(NaturalNews) Five studies published in the October 2009 issue of The European Journal of Agronomy reveal the negative impacts of using Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, a formula developed specifically for the company’s line of genetically modified (GM) “Roundup Ready” crops. The papers, which were not released in the United States, offer a solid indictment against GM crops and the plight of using the Roundup herbicide.

Robert Kremer, a microbiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, co-authored one of the five papers and offered insight into their premise during an interview with The Organic & Non-GMO Report, a monthly newsletter that offers recourse in addressing the challenges of fighting GM foods.

Kremer and his colleagues began studying the effects of Roundup on soil back in 1997. They found that the herbicide was causing an increase in parasitic colonization at the roots of Roundup Ready soybeans and corn. They also observed an increase in fungal growth that leads to sudden death syndrome (SDS) in the plants.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is systemically changing the soil composition in the fields where it is used, leeching from plant roots into the ground. It is also disrupting the normal microorganism balance on plants and in soil, spurring the growth of harmful bacterial colonies that are destroying the beneficial ones.

According to Kremer, the most apparent disruption by glyphosate is observed in rhizobia, a type of bacterium that fixes nitrogen in the soil. Glyphosate’s toxicity inhibits rhizobia from enriching soil with nitrogen, preventing plants from receiving this necessary element. Read more…

H1N1 Protection Added To Next Season’s Flu Shots

A CDC advisory panel recommends nearly everyone in the U.S. receive the new enhanced vaccine.

By Christine S. Moyer
www.ama-assn.org
March 8, 2010.

At the peak of the influenza A(H1N1) virus epidemic last year, Atlanta internist Sandra Fryhofer, MD, had to refuse vaccine for some patients because they did not fall into the priority groups set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That shouldn’t be a problem during the next flu season, as the Food and Drug Administration has decided to include a pandemic 2009 H1N1 virus in the Northern Hemisphere’s 2010-11 seasonal influenza vaccine.

“This will make vaccine strategies much simpler so we can focus on getting people vaccinated and protected rather than trying to figure out which group they’re in or should they get [the vaccine] now or later,” said Dr. Fryhofer, clinical associate professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and a member of the American Medical Association Council on Science and Public Health.

The FDA announced Feb. 23 that an A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)-like virus would be included in next season’s flu vaccine. This is the same virus used in the 2009 H1N1 monovalent vaccine.

Also included in the upcoming influenza vaccine will be an A/Perth/16/2009 (H3N2)-like virus and a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus.

The FDA’s move was followed a day later by a federal panel’s recommendation to administer next season’s flu vaccine to nearly all Americans, including healthy young people, a group that was disproportionately affected by H1N1.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the CDC on vaccine issues, on Feb. 24 voted to expand seasonal flu immunization to everyone except babies younger than 6 months.

Previous vaccine recommendations applied to about 85% of the population, but did not include healthy people age 19 to 49 unless they had close contact with others considered at high risk for the flu, according to the CDC.

ACIP’s proposal will go to the CDC and Dept. of Health and Human Services. If approved, it would become policy and be considered the standard practice of care for vaccines, said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner.

“The 2009 H1N1 pandemic showed us that elderly people aren’t necessarily the only ones at high risk for serious consequences of influenza,” Skinner said. “The committee thought the time was now to really recommend everyone get a flu vaccine.”

But there is concern that the increased demand for seasonal flu vaccine, caused by expanding the recommendations, could leave practices waiting longer than usual for requested doses, said family physician Tamarah Duperval, MD, MPH. Mile Square Health Center in Chicago, where Dr. Duperval is the medical director, typically receives seasonal flu vaccine near the end of November.

Meanwhile, a new seasonal flu immunization, Sanofi Pasteur’s Fluzone High-Dose, will be available for adults 65 and older. This vaccine is formulated so that each 0.5 mL dose contains 180 micrograms of influenza virus hemagglutinin, rather than the 45 micrograms contained in other currently licensed seasonal flu vaccines for adults. Read more…

Hospital Confirms Radiologists Did Not Review 57,000 X-Rays

www.breakingnews.ie

Ireland — Tallaght hospital in Dublin is at the centre of a cancer misdiagnoses scandal after it was confirmed that more than 57,000 x-rays taken between 2005 and the end of last year, were not reviewed by a consultant radiologist.

The hospital said that the x-rays involved were for a variety of tests including cancer, orthopaedics and cardiac checks.

The hospitals designate CEO Professor Kevin Conlon said he became aware of the issue when he was appointed last December and admits he was “stunned”.

The x-rays weren’t reviewed by a consultant radiologist but would have been examined by another clinician – something Professor Conlon said is “not acceptable”.

The hospital said that to its deep regret, two patients had a delayed diagnosis as a result.

One died last summer and another is undergoing treatment for cancer.

Extra staff were appointed to clear the hospitals radiology backlog – so far more than 34,000 of the x-rays involved have been reviewed and reports finalised.

Tallaght hospital hopes the remaining 23,169 x-rays will be reviewed by May.

For anyone concerned a special helpline has been set up – the number is 1800 283 059

Researcher who said mercury in vaccines do not cause autism, forged documents to steal $2 million from University

Danish Scientist Absconds with $2 million — Key character who “proved” vaccines don’t cause autism

www.capwiz.com

A Danish scientist who was a key researcher in two studies that purport to show that mercury used in vaccines and the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine do not cause autism is believed to have used forged documents to steal $2 million from Aarhus University in Denmark according to reports in the Copenenhagen Post Online and a statement from Aarhus University.

Poul Thorsen, MD PhD, headed up a research unit at Aarhus University that was hired by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prepare a series of studies that would exonerate thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative and adjuvant used in vaccines, and the MMR vaccine from any role in causing autism. The veracity of the two studies he co-authored is now in doubt.

These studies formed the foundation for the conclusions of several Institute of Medicine reports that claimed that it was highly unlikely that thimerosal or MMR were implicated in autism.

In a statement Aarhus University officials said that believe Thorsen forged documents supposedly from the CDC to obtain the release of $2 million from the University. Thorsen resigned abruptly in March 2009 and left Denmark. Since then Thorsen has held several jobs in the US, first at Emory University in Atlanta and then at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Documents show that as late as January 22, 2009. Thorsen was employed at Drexel. Any reference to Poulsen has now been deleted from the Drexel website.

Investigations also revealed that while employed full-time for the University of Aarhus in Denmark, Thorsen simultaneously held a fulltime position at Emory University in Atlanta, and drew salaries from both Universities despite a contract with Aarhus forbidding outside employment. According to the statement from Aarhus University.

Autism advocacy groups have published extensive analyses on Thorsen’s studies and found many problems in methods, assumptions and conclusions that are supported by the data. And Thorsen is the lynchpin in the series of studies used to dismiss concerns about thimerosal and MMR causing autism.

More sex education means more teenage pregnancies…always

By Peter Hitchens
www.dailymail.co.uk
03rd March 2010

Sex education has failed. So the Establishment decrees that we must have more of it, and in fact that there shall be no escape from it.

What I don’t grasp is why the people of this country put up with so many separate insults to their intelligence in any given week.

And why this particular blatantly obvious sequence comes round year by year and nobody even laughs, let alone draws the correct conclusion.

Despite the casual massacre of unborn babies in the abortion mills, and the free handouts of morning-after pills (originally developed for pedigree dogs which had been consorting improperly with mongrels), and the ready issue of condoms to anyone who asks, and the prescription of contraceptive devices to young girls behind the backs of their parents by smiling advice workers, and the invasion of school classrooms by supposedly educational smut, the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy has failed, is failing and will continue to fail.

In the week that figures clearly showed that the Government’s supposed target for cutting teen pregnancy by half is never going to be reached, compulsory smut education – a key part of this ‘strategy’ – was forced on all English schools by law for the first time.

There will be no opt-outs. The new liberal gospel of ‘do what thou wilt – but wear a condom while thou doest it’ will be taught by order of the State.

Some years ago, I wrote a short history of sex education in this country. I didn’t then know about its first invention, during the Hungarian Soviet revolution of 1919, when Education Commissar George Lukacs ordered teachers

to instruct children about sex in a deliberate effort to debauch Christian morality.

But what I found was this. That the people who want it are always militant Leftists who loathe conventional family life; that the pretext for it has always been the same – a supposed effort to reduce teen pregnancy and sexual disease; and that it has always been followed by the exact opposite.

It was introduced into schools against much parental resistance during the early Fifties. And, yes, the more of it there was, the more under-age and extramarital sex there seemed to be.

By 1963, in Norwich, parents were told that their young were to be instructed in sexual matters because the illegitimacy rate in that fine city had reached an alarming 7.7 per cent (compared with a national rate of 5.9 per cent). The national rate is now 46 per cent and climbing, so that was obviously a success, wasn’t it?

Well, yes it was, because the people who force these peculiar classes on our young are lying about their aims. You can see why.

Most of us, in any other circumstance, would be highly suspicious of adults who wanted to talk about sex to other people’s children. But by this sleight of hand – that they are somehow being protected from disease and unwanted pregnancy – we are tricked into permitting it. Read more…

Antidepressants During Pregnancy Cause Premature Birth

(NaturalNews) Women who take strategic serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants during pregnancy are twice as likely to give birth prematurely as women who do not take the drugs, according to a study published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine and funded by the Danish Medical Research Council.

Many of the most popular depressants are SSRIs, such as Prozac.

Researchers compared rates of premature birth between different women receiving prenatal care at the same hospital in Aarhus, Denmark. They compared women who were depressed and taking SSRIs with those who were depressed and not on any drugs, as well as those who did not suffer from depression.

Women who took SSRIs while pregnant were two times as likely to give premature birth as those who did not take the drugs. On average, they gave birth four to five days earlier (relative to their due dates) than women who did not take the drugs.

The researchers also found that the risk of an infant needing intensive care immediately after birth was significantly increased by SSRI use during pregnancy. While only 7 percent of babies born to non-depressed mothers needed intensive care, along with only 9 percent of those born to depressed mothers who were not taking drugs, 16 percent of babies born to women who had used SSRIs while pregnant required treatment in an intensive care unit.

Babies born to SSRI-using mothers also appeared less healthy than other babies, the researchers said, based on measures including skin color, activity level after birth, pulse, breathing and response to external stimuli.

Previous studies have confirmed that SSRIs can cross the placental barrier into the fetal bloodstream, and that infants born to women who used the drugs during pregnancy can suffer from withdrawal symptoms.

Health professionals recommend that women who are taking SSRIs and are pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant speak with a doctor about their options, rather than stopping treatment abruptly. Side effects of antidepressant withdrawal can be severe.

Sources for this story include: www.guardian.co.uk.

HPV vaccine left teen blind and is ineffective against Cervical Cancer

by Christina England
www.weeklyblitz.net
March 3, 2010

A teenage girl aged sixteen has been left blind after the HPV vaccine according to a report shown be the One Click News group who reported yesterday that a perfectly healthy girl was left almost totally blind, just 10 days after her second HPV vaccine. The report states that initially, there was a visual loss reported in the right eye with a left side headache, however, these symptoms worsened over the next 24 hours to include her left eye with a more severe headache. The report states -

“It is possible that human papilloma virus was the precipitant for the demyelinating event in the patient presented here. It is tempting to speculate whether there may be a specific immune mechanism initiated with human papilloma virus not yet identified, which resulted in not only acute demyelinating encephalomyelitis but also in an unusual clinical course that resulted in persistent visual loss.”

However, research shows that this is not the only reported case of eye problems following a HPV vaccine. In a paper by Steven M Cohen MD Multiple Evanescent White Dot Syndrome After Vaccination for Human Papilloma Virus and Meningococcus he reports of a case where a 17 year old presented with eye problems after she had the HPV vaccine and Meningococcus vaccine which are two vaccines recommended by the CDC to be given together. Cohen writes -

“Multiple evanescent white dot syndrome is a rare cho­rioretinopathy causing transitory vision loss, usually in fe­males and generally in one eye. In 2007, widespread vac­cination of older children against human papilloma virus and meningococcus was recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A 17-year-old girl pre­sented with multiple evanescent white dot syndrome 1 month after receiving these two vaccinations.”

These cases are more evidence pointing to the dangers of this vaccine. One could say these conditions presented themselves too long after the vaccines to be related and this is a tactic often used by Governments and Big Pharma to avoid accountability especially when it comes to vaccines induced injuries. However, Dr Diane Harper, an expert, who worked in the vaccine trials says that the majority of vaccine injuries actually occur in what she calls the ‘biologically plausible time frame’ which is, she says, up to 42 days after a vaccine.

In fact it is a well known fact amongst many professionals that adverse reactions to vaccines can occur weeks after a vaccine. A fact sheet for adverse reactions to vaccines states that-

“Most reactions occur within minutes to a few days of vaccination. Live vaccines, such as MMR and chickenpox may have reactions 1-4 weeks following immunization. Killed or subunit vaccines such as Pentacel (DTaP-IPV-Hib) can have reactions up to 7 days later. Immune-mediated events may occur up to 8 weeks following vaccination.”

It is a pity that those in authority do not, or will not, take this on board. Could this be more to do with the fact that if they dare to acknowledge this important issue then more adverse reactions would be reported and this could be very damaging to both big pharma and governments alike? Read more…

EU authorises GMO potatoes

BRUSSELS (AFP) – – The European Commission on Tuesday approved the cultivation of genetically-modified potatoes, but environmentalists and some European ministers slammed the so-called “frankenfoods”.

The first approval of genetically modified foods in Europe for 12 years was criticised by the Friends of the Earth group and others as a threat to human health, though the potatoes will not be for human consumption.

“This is a bad day for European citizens and the environment,” Friends of the Earth said of the green light given for the Amflora potato to be developed by German chemical giant BASF.

The EU Commission also allowed three GM maize products to be placed on the European market, though not grown in Europe.

Modified vegetables and cereals have long been a matter of fierce debate in Europe and the commission stressed that the Amflora would only be for “industrial use” including animal feed.

“We are against the decision taken today by the European Commission,” Italian Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia said in a statement.

Prior the potato, only MON 810, a strain of genetically modified maize made by Monsanto, has been authorised for cultivation in Europe since 1998.

The EU Commission said its latest decision was “based on a considerable volume of sound science”.

“Responsible innovation will be my guiding principle when dealing with innovative technologies,” EU Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner John Dalli assured.

“After an extensive and thorough review of the five pending GM files, it became clear to me that there were no new scientific issues that merited further assessment,” he added.

The EU’s food safety agency has said the potato is safe for all uses. It is designed to produce industrial starch for use in areas such as paper making.

Amflora is also modified to produce pure amylopectin starch in technical applications.

Conventional potatoes produce a mixture of amylopectin and amylose starch.

But the potato also contains a marker gene resistant to antibiotics, fuelling environmentalists’ fears over the risks of contamination for non GMO varieties.

Friends of the Earth said the Amflora potato “carries a controversial antibiotic resistant gene which it cannot be guaranteed will not enter the food chain.” Read more…

Next Page »