Universal Immunization
UNIVERSAL IMMUNIZATION
Medical Miracle or Masterful Mirage
By Dr. Raymond Obomsawin
(This book first appeared at the Soil and Health Library, an important source of books
on holistic agriculture, holistic health, self-sufficient living, and personal
development)
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF: RAYMOND
OBOMSAWIN
PREFACE
ABSTRACT
Introduction
The Unresolved
Issue of UCI/EPI Effectiveness and Impact
The Unresolved
Question of Potential Adverse Effects
The Unresolved Issue of
Long-Term Adverse Effects
The
Unresolved Issue of Safer and More Effective Alternatives
The Unresolved Question of Ethics
Conclusion
SECTION I: MIRACLE IN THE MAKING: REALITY OR
DELUSION?
Introduction
EPI–Field Evaluation Experience
UNICEF’s General EPI
Strategy and Stated Achievements
Field Observations
Contra-Indications Screening
A Case History
Vaccine Scheduling
Immunization’s
Impact in the Declension of Infectious Diseases
Incomplete Statistical Reporting
The Developmental Implications of
UCL/EPI
Is Immunization Effectiveness a
Certainty?
Early Theoretical Foundations
Re-Examined
Artificially Induced
Immunity–Reality or Delusion?
An
Historic Overview of the Bacterial/Viral Theory of Disease Causation
The
Bacterial/Viral Versus the Cellular/Ecological Theory of Infectious Disease
Infectious Disease Tables I–XVIII
Immunization Effectiveness Data
Data on Diphtheria
Data on Measles
Data on Polio
Data on Pertussis (Whooping
Cough)
Data on Tetanus Toxoid
and Immune Globulin
WHO Smallpox Eradication Success
Reconsidered
Vaccine Associated
Dangers–General Observations
Of What Do Vaccine Products Consist?
Some
Observed and Potential Adverse Effects of Spacific Vaccines and Toxoids–Diagnosable in
the Short Term
Extent and Nature of
Observable Vaccine Damage
Long Term
(Delayed) Potential Adverse Effects of Immunization
Evidences for
Immunization Induced Immune Malfimction
The Ethics of Universal
Childhood Immunization
Bane or Boon?
Selective Medicine in Primary Health Care
SECTION II: TOWARDS MORE APPROPRIATE
PRIORITIES IN
DEVELOPING WORLD PRIMARY HEALTH CARE
THE REAL DETERMINANTS OF
HEALTH
Eclipsing the Spirit of
Alma Ata
Emerging–A More
Practicable Primary Health Care Model
SECTION III: A CONSIDERATION OF ALTERNATIVES
TO ENSURING NATURAL IMMUNITY
The
Soil as Chief Determinant of Health and The Foundation of Public Health Policy
Insightful Experiments
Soil
Re-Mineralization–A Return To Primeval Conditions
Soil Dietetics and Disease
Key Nutritional
Measures in Preventing Infectious Disease
Vitamin A
Vitamin C
I. Viral Infections
II. Bacterial Infections
III. Phagocytotic Activity
IV. Conclusion
A New and Better Strategy
General Conclusion on
Appropriate Alternatives
Conclusion
References to sections 1,2
& 3
ANNEX 1: PROBLEMS WITH DEVELOPING WORLD
MEDICALIZATION AND THE TRADITIONAL MEDICINE ALTERNATIVE
The
Disturbing Dilemma of Developing World Medicalization
India–An Alarming Case In Point
A Compelling Voice of Protest
The Traditional Medicine Alternative
Critical Conclusions and Directions
References
ANNEX II: AGROCHEMICAL AGRICULTURE–THE NEED
FOR A SANER ALTERNATIVE
The Dilemma of
Chemical Fertilization
Pesticide Poisons
Biologically Sound Alternatives
To Pesticides
The Promise of Clean Organiculture
Methods
A Recent International
Initiative in Clean Organiculture
References
BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCH OF: RAYMOND OBOMSAWIN
Raymond Obomsawin was born in the United States on August 16, 1950 and
holds dual US and Canadian citizenship. He married Marie-Louise in August of 1976, and
they have three, vibrant children: Sunrise, Sunbeam and Sundown. These children–two are
still in their teens, and one is twenty-one–have never received the prescribed regimen of
childhood vaccines, and due to a healthful lifestyle have exhibited total immunity to the
diseases that are common to the childhood years. (Time and again they’ve been physically
exposed to those ill from some of these very diseases.)
Dr. Obomsawin holds over two decades of cross-cultural experience–both in North America
and internationally–in the primary disciplines which impact on human bio-social
development. He holds a Baccalaureate Degree in Health Education and Communications,
Masters Degree in Development Education, and PhD with concentrations in Health Science and
Human Ecology.
He is currently serving as President of the Circle of Nations Institute of Life
Sciences & Sustainable Development an international R&D institution
legally established in Hawaii, and has previously served as: Manager of Overseas
Operations for CUSO (Canada’s largest International Development NGO); Evaluation
Analyst in the Canadian International Development Agency; Evaluation Manager with
the Department of Indian Affairs & Northern Development; Executive Director in
the California Rural Indian Health Board system; Director of the Office for
National Health Development NIB (Now Assembly of First Nations); Founding
Chairman of the National Commission Inquiry on Indian Health; and Supervisor of
Native Curriculum for the Government of the Yukon Territory.
Some key highlights of Dr. Obomsawin’s professional experiences and achievements follow:
- Chaired and served on regional, national, and international committees
holding development related policy, management, and research mandates. - Advised senior decision-makers–in both public and NGO sectors–providing
critical analyses and recommendations on international development policies, project, and
programming initiatives in health, education, agriculture, nutrition, agro-forestry,
environmental sustainability, and multi-year country planning. - Spearheaded the first world-wide inter-sectoral review funded by a
Western government on Indigenous Culture Based Knowledge Systems in Development. The study
elicited the involvement of public and NGO sector bio-social development, technical and
research institutions in all world regions; and entailed exploratory field missions to the
Andean and Upper Amazon regions of South America, as well as East Africa, South and
Southeast Asia. - Organized, administered, and executed socio-politically sensitive
evaluation studies on complex bio-social service interventions, as well as educational and
development initiatives internationally, eg, as a team member evaluated: UNICEF’s
Integrated Services Project which served over 900 villages in Northeast Thailand; and
other development projects at the Asian Pacific Development Centre, Malaysia; Asian
Institute of Management, and The Woman for Woman Foundation, Philippines; and Institute of
Social and Administrative Studies, University of the South Pacific, Fiji. - Coordinated (in Canada and Norway) the initial development of Terms of
Reference for a comprehensive evaluation of the United Nations World Food Program–operant
in 90 countries under the trilateral sponsorship of Canada, Norway, and the Netherlands. - Spearheaded the establishment and chaired Canada’s National Commission
Inquiry on Indian Health which served as a national–grass-roots mandated–indigenous
health policy development body. - Presented–in plenary session–the paper "From Selective to
Indigenous Medicine: Repossessing the Ancient Wisdom,’ at the International
Development Research Centre and National Institutes of Health sponsored International
Workship on Traditional Health Systems and Public Policy. - Presented the keynote address "Re-Discovering Our Roots: The
Ancient Wisdom of Sustainable Societies" at the Community Sustainability
Resource Institute’s 3rd Annual Conference, USA. - Experienced multi-cultural exposure including private, voluntary, and or
public sector interchange in over 25 countries on five continents, as well as Australasia
and select Pacific island nations, and - Produced academically and professionally over 75 articles, reports,
proposals and publication documents.
PREFACE
TO THE THIRD EDITION
(MAY 1998)
Dr. Raymond Obomsawin, PhD
This extensive report focuses on the current massive international
effort to administer artificial immunization to the children of the world. The actual
launching of the World Health Organizations’s Universal or "Expanded Program on
Immunization" (EPI) occurred in the year 1983. Its overriding purpose was to achieve
maximum immunization coverage of the world’s children. Under the influence of the
WHO–which is a United Nations created and sustained multilateral agency–all national
political leaders (then representing 158 nation states) made a commitment to achieve 80%
immunization coverage in their respective countries by the year 1990. In that year the WHO
set a new standard for the governments of the world, ie, a more intensified goal of
achieving 90% immunization coverage by the year 2000. As a review document, this report
poses an open challenge to the scientific, developmental, and humanitarian basis of this
global public policy, in turn urging national governments to establish a far more
rational, effective and harmless inter-sectoral approach in seeking to ensure that the
children and families of our world community enjoy lifelong natural immunity to infectious
diseases.
The research covered in this document tackles the issue of universal immunization from a
very broad perspective, thereby going well beyond the more obvious realities of its being
a "medical racket" hatched by a pharmaceutical industry beholden to its
investors, and religiously dispensed and defended by allopathic medicine men. Through
employing trans-disciplinary and integrative analyses it draws upon wide-ranging
disciplines and fields of thought as it considers the purposes, policies and practices
surrounding mass immunization. The effort to research and pull together this report
occurred while I was serving as an Evaluation Analyst in the Evaluation Division at the
Canadian International Development Agency. My initial research began early in 1991,
contextual to conducting a field evaluation of the EPI component of a major UNICEF project
then affecting several hundred communities in Northeast Thailand. The report is being
distributed and or sold in its present form under the auspices of a non-profit public
health advocacy organization, the Health Action Network Society, Burnaby, British
Columbia, Canada. (As author, I will receive no royalties from either its sale or
distribution.)
Since the first edition came out in the early 1990s, the many serious issues and concerns
which are raised in this study have not by any means been properly addressed or resolved.
The medico-industrial complex has neither wavered nor modified its posture of providing a
white washed endorsement and promotion of what is largely an unproven technological fix of
dubious origin, which carries its own seeds of disease and death. For the most part, the
same can be said for the public sector policies whereby government such as that of the
United States place themselves in an untenable conflict of interest position by playing a
direct role in the development of new vaccines, the active promotion and enforcement of
mandatory artificial immunization, and the monitoring of vaccines for adverse side effects
thereby setting its own criteria and degree of liability in the compensation of victims.
(Only one in four vaccine injury victims, who apply for compensation under US law, are
compensated for their often catastrophic vaccine injuries. Government qualifying rules
require that the onset of adverse symptoms must have occurred within four hours of the
administration of the vaccine. Despite these severe limitations in legal liability, since
passage of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, up to February 28, 1998,
compensatory payments have totalled $871 million 800 thousand.)
Sad to say, the public sector’s world-wide reliable monitoring for adverse side effects
(not excluding that of the US Government) does not appear to have noticeably improved from
its abysmal state since the initial issuance of this report. As well, multilateral
development agencies such as UNICEF continue to push this unproven
and essentially spurious technology on a largely uninformed and intimidated public
throughout the Developing World nations. On a positive note, within First World nations
public awareness of the problems and dangers associated with mass immunization programs
appear to have broadened and intensified. Vehicles of the information revolution, such as
the Internet have helped considerably. Even physicians themselves are at long last waking
up to and advocating the truth, e.g., in France, 200 doctors have called on their
govemement to immediately halt the hepatitis B vaccine program because of the many cases
of neurological disorders and multiple sclerosis being caused by this vaccine, and in
Switzerland, 500 doctors continue to oppose their govemement’s MMR vaccine campaign.
Lawsuits for vaccine damages have as well become increasingly common. In the summer of
1997, various news reports in the Commonwealth countries reported that Dawbams law firm in
Norfolk, England is carrying forward a major class action lawsuit for widespread damages
arising from Britain’s 1994 MMR campaign. In a public statement issued by this law firm it
is affirmed that:
We know of hundreds of children who were fat and well before being
vaccinated, but who are now chronically ill or seriously mentally or physically disabled.
Of some 600 cases: the most common are autism (202); serious digestive problems (110);
epilepsy (97); hearing and vision problems (40); arthritis (42); behaviour and learning
problems (41); ME (24); diabetes (9); paralysis (9); blood disorders (5); brain damage
(3); and death (14).
Bolstering the firm’s case is the fact that the affected children’s
pediatricians and neurologists continue to state in British radio and TV documentaries
that the children’s varied injuries were in fact caused by administration of the MMR
vaccine.
Additionally, growing numbers of affected parents and professionals have been instrumental
in the emergence of multiple research and activist organizations such as the Immunization
Awareness moni Society (IAS), New Zealand; Vaccine Awareness Network (VAN), Australia;
Association for Vaccine Damaged Children (AVDC), Canada; Global Vaccine
Awareness League (GVAL), California; and the National Vaccine Information Center
(AWIC) in the Greater Washington DC area. This phenomena tells us that there are still
some heroic and honest hearted people left in our world who are willing to stand together
for the right, and make personal sacrifices of their time, resources, and reputations in
the face of the combined efforts of government and industry to both slander and silence
them. In fact, in recent weeks a prominent member of the IAS has been in touch with me,
and shared information which included the fact that a 1992 survey by their organization
found an almost 500% greater incidence of asthma among New Zealand children who’ve
received routine childhood vaccines, than among those who haven’t.
It is also of interest that on September 13-15, 1997, more than 500 parents, physicians,
university scientists, health officials, legal experts, ethicists, journalists and
activists from 34 states and five countries convened for the First International Public
Conference on Vaccination. This historic session was organized under the auspices of the
National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC). According to information provided by the NVIC,
the Conference inter alia examined issues such as vaccines and infant dealth; biological
mechanisms of vaccine injury; vaccines and learning disorders; hepatitis B vaccine
injuries; viral vaccinces and chromosome damage; polio vaccine contamination; and vaccine
regulation. A number of the more important observations made by the presenters at the
conference further corroborate and complement the alarming findings that are raised in my
report. Some key observations follow:
- The "P" in the old DPT vaccine is so highly toxic to the human
brain that the whole cell pertussis vaccine should be immediately withdrawn from the
market. - Vaccines which cause brain inflammation and severe brain damage, such as
DPT, are also biologically capable of causing milder forms of brain damage, such as
learning disabilities and Attention Deficit Disorder. - Live viral vaccines are implicated in brain injuries, such as the MMR
vaccine which is now linked to autism, while the same vaccine has never been fully
investigated for its long term effects on human immune and neurological systems. - Live viral vaccines may also be implicated as a cause of genetic damage
in humans. - There are many reports of adults in Canada, who have suffered central
nervous system and immune dysfunction or death following hepatitis B vaccination. - Polio vaccines contaminated with monkey viruses may have caused the
development of HIV- I and rare forms of bone, brain and lung cancers in humans. - Children injured by vaccines and other toxic insults, have disturbances
in biochemistry such as imbalances in fatty acid metabolism and neurologic dysfunction
such as autistic spectrum disorders and seizure disorders. - Data from New Zealand and several European countries suggests that early
childhood vaccination has caused an increase in juvenile diabetes. - A combination of multiple vaccinations and multiple exposures to
environmental and chemical toxins may cause immune and neurological dysfunction in the
general population like that being suffered by Gulf War veterans. - Government health officials in federal health agencies have withheld
information about vaccine risks from the public.
The general consensus among research scientists in attendance was that
current immunization programs are causing injuries and deaths because of inadequate
vaccine safety research, testing, manufacturing and monitoring for long term effects.
What’s new? (Conference proceedings are available to the public from the National Vaccine
Information Center: #206-512 W. Maple Avenue, Vienna, VA, USA, 22180, Telephone:
1-800-909-SHOT.)
It also bears mentioning that I recently came across a June, 1995 interview with an old acquaintance, the veteran
physician to the Aboriginal People of Australia, Dr. Archie Kalokerinos. The interview was published in the International
Vaccination Newsletter (Krekenstraat 4, 3600 Genk, Belgium). Archie is in many ways a
man deserving of great recognition for his brave struggle with the establishment forces in
his country, who attempted to block his efforts to expose and reverse the massive death
rates (as high as 50%) being caused by mass immunization in a population at great risk to
its dangers. In this interview he states that it was this "extreme hostility"
that:
. . . forced me to look into the question of vaccination further, and
the further I looked the more shocked I became. I found that the whole vaccine business
was indeed a gigantic hoax. Most doctors are convinced that they are useful, but if you
look at the proper statistics and study the instances of these diseases you will realize
that this is not so . . .My final conclusion after forty years or more in this business [medicine] is that the
unofficial policy of the World Health Organization and the unoffical policy of the ‘Save
the Children’s Fund’ and … [other vaccine promoting] organizations is one of murder and
genocide. . . . I cannot see any other possible explanation. . . . You cannot immunize
sick children, malnourished children, and expect to get away with it. You’ll kill far more
children than would have died from natural infection.
Although the public sector in Canada hired a
biomedical protagonist of artificial immunization to attack and undermine the original
findings and observations contained in this document, nothing was effectively challenged
or disproven in this determined effort, nor has there been any challenge from any other
quarter since. Furthermore, I’ve received some very good news from a reliable source in
Montreal, Canada, that a number of practicing physicians in that city have ceased using
vaccines in their practice after having read this report. I fully trust that it will prove
of lasting value in informing and influencing other professionals, parents and interested
lay persons who may be honestly seeking to explore both sides of the controversy for the
first time.
Finally, it is my sincere hope that the re-issuance of this document will provide a
considerable source of valuable documentation and commentary for those who are at the
forefront in the battle for biomedical truth and right in a world largely beholden to the
bottom line of capitalists who value their profits above seemingly everything else. In the
end, the truth with prevail.
"Discovery Consists In Seeing
What Every body Else Has Seen
And Thinking What Nobody
Else Has Thought . . . "
Albert Szent-Gyorgi
Introduction
Despite the widely accepted view that millions of children now enjoy freedom from various
life threatening infectious diseases, and thus improved health, because of highly
effective and safe vaccine programs, at the outset of the 90′s an Evaluation of
Canada’s International Immunization Program Phase I (CIIP–I), concluded that in fact
there are "many pressing questions which remain to be investigated within EPI
(Expanded Programs of Immunization) and Primary Health Care." A range of critical
issues relative to Universal Childhood Immunization (UCI) and EPI programs have been
examined and responded to in the main report. These follow:
The Unresolved Issue of
UCI/EPI Effectiveness and Impact
The verifiable measurement of UCI/EPI effectiveness and impacts, has been pervasively
deficient in the major immunization programming investments made by The Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA)–approaching $150 million–in the 1986-1991 time
period. The aforenoted CIIP–I evaluation study further noted that the actual impact of
UCI/EPI on mortality levels remain essentially undetermined and unsubstantiated. To quote:
"at present it appears that there is no conclusive evidence on the impact of
immunization on child mortality from all causes. . . . It may be that EPI’s
effect is merely to bring about replacement mortality, whereby children . . . succumb to
other diseases instead. The uncertainty over the impacts of EPI remain a major question in
PHC [primary health care] programming." In light of the compelling need for the
proper and periodic evaluation of the impacts of publicly financed programs, this
deficiency remains a very serious one.
Unexpected and unexplainable outbreaks among "immunized" persons, have led
immunologists to now seriously question whether their current understanding of what
constitutes reliable immunity is in fact trustworthy. For example, the admission is being
made that immunity (or its absence) cannot be determined reliable on the basis of history
of the disease, history of immunization, or even history of prior serologic determination.
There is as well an emerging body of mathematically based epidemiological research which
suggests significant problems with UCI/EPI targeted efforts for the control and
eradication of measles in the Developing World, where in spite of high measles
immunization coverages, measles epidemics are being reported with surprising frequency.
Vaccine failures in the Oman polio epidemic could not be explained by failures in the cold
chain, nor on suboptimum vaccine potency. It was further observed that the efficacy of OPV
in inducing humoral immunity has been lower than expected, and that primary reliance on
routine immunization may be inadequate to achieve the goal of eradicating polio by the
year 2000. (Similar polio outbreaks have been occurring in other highly vaccinated
populations, e.g., the Gambia, Brazil, and Taiwan.)
The Unresolved Question
of Potential Adverse Effects
Another basic issue that has never been addressed in UCI/EPI programming is the need for
the effective monitoring and evaluation of potential vaccinal adverse effects. Past
estimates on the degree of adverse reactions are both unreliable and optimistic since
actual monitoring efforts have generally been negligible. Furthermore, many physicians and
nurses are not cognizant of the importance of reporting untoward reactions, and or remain
unaware of their clinical features. Overall, the evidence strongly suggests that the
chronic underreporting of vaccine-induced morbidity, disability, and mortality is in fact
the norm, whether in the Developing or Developed Worlds. The first definitive policy
statement on this issue by the World Health Organization (issued on April 1991) indicates
the WHO’s recognition of the significance of this problem. It should be considered as a
priority issue in future UCI/EPI research, monitoring and evaluation.
The Unresolved Issue of
Long-Term Adverse Effects
A minority of qualified scientists are now postulating that the full vaccine schedule as
routinely employed in early childhood vaccination inevitably weakens the immunologic
system of the child, leaving this system crippled in its ability to protect the child
throughout life, and in turn opening the way for other infectious diseases due to such
immunologic dysfunction. It is also being postulated by such scientists that mass
immunization is directly contributing to the now widespread escalation of various
auto-immune, degenerative disease and allergic conditions.
The Unresolved
Issue of Safer and More Effective Alternatives
Sufficient evidence now suggests that an increasing awareness of the potential dangers
that are being increasingly associated with mass vaccination programs, will serve to
precipitate public demand for greater research investments in the further exploration and
testing of promising and danger-free alternative prophylactic methods. A considerable body
of literature on lifestyle (especially nutrition) based prophylaxis and treatment for both
bacterial and viral infectious diseases suggest that this is the optimum alternative to
the artificial immunization dilemma.
The Unresolved Question of Ethics
UCI/EPI–as presently conceived and executed–represents two major departures from the
time honoured ethics and traditions of medicine:
- that all forms of treatment should be individualized, particularly when
prescribing or injecting substances which carry the potential for disease, disablement,
and death; and - the objectively informed patient (or parent) should always have absolute
freedom to accept or reject any given measure or therapy, and have reasonable opportunity
to consider alternatives.
Conclusion
The foregoing observations indicate that there is a genuine need for world governments to
reconsider their policies with respect to universal childhood immunization, ensuring
particular focus on clarifying the vital issues of the short and longer term impacts of
UCI/EPI, and the pressing need to establish far safer and more effective alternatives.
SECTION l
MIRACLE IN THE MAKING:
REALITY OR DELUSION?
INTRODUCTION
Universal Childhood Immunization (UCI)–in its more localized context referred to as
Expanded Program of Immunization (EPI)–stands worldwide as a top health programming
priority among various multilateral, bilateral, and nongovernmental (NGO) international
development agencies. This appears to be the case because immunization programs are widely
accepted and actively promoted as offering recipient beneficiaries more substantive
disease prevention benefits than any other modality in the arsenal of modern medicine,
coupled to its unique capacity to offer the surest and "quickest" results. When
compared to the more basic intersectoral and developmental requisites for public health
sustenance and disease prevention, UCI/EPI is generally considered to be the easiest to
implement programmatically, promote publicly, and defend politically. The World Health
Organization (WHO) has gone on record to affirm that, "Immunization is one of the
most powerful and cost-effective weapons of modern medicine. Immunization services,
however, remain tragically under-utilized in the world today."1
Despite the Canadian govemment’s confirmed support of the comprehensive primary health
care approach–as defined in the Alma Ata Declaration–the majority of increases in the
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) Health Sector disbursements, in the last
half of the 1980s, have been for the selective and vertical modality of UCI/EPI. In fact,
according to observations made in the 1989, Evaluation Assessment of CIDA Investments
in the Health Sector, immunization has become the dominant health activity supported
by CIDA. "Annual disbursements over the past three years have risen from $3 to $22,
to $49 million."2 The lion’s share of this increase stemmed from the launching of Canada’s
International Immunization Programme (CIIP), covering the period of 1986-1991. (An October
10, 1991 Fact Sheet on Canada’s Role in Immunization, states that of the $43
million expended by CIIP in the period 1985-1990, involved the execution–by more than 30
nongovernmental organizations–of over 100 projects in more than 50 countries. When we
include the government-to-government [bilateral] program, total CIDA funds committed to
UCI/EPI in the 1986/1987-1990/1991 fiscal year periods equal some $143 million. At the end
of 1991/1992 it was the intention of the government to expend roughly another $50 million
on UCI/EPI over the next five years, with about $30 million for CIIP II.) According to a
Mid-Term CIIP Operational Review completed November 20, 1989, UNICEF took almost
$27 million from the Program for 37 EPI projects, amounting to 67% of CIIP funds.
Additional CIIP funding passed indirectly to UMCEF, via Rotary for vaccine purchases, and
via Canadian partners who purchased project equipment from UNICEF stockpiles.3
Speaking of this major shift in priorities, wherein by the end of the 1980s immunization
support accounted for one half of all health sector disbursements, the CIDA Health
Sector Evaluation Assessment recommended that "this situation merits examination
on the grounds of both the heavy focus by CIDA on this one type of health program and the
nature of immunization efforts . . . Primary Health Care is more complex and multifaceted
then the provision of this one . . . technology."4 This need to re-examine immunization
support was further affirmed when the Assessment identified certain "important am
that merit further review," including: case studies of the health impact of projects
involving or crossing varied sectors; the level of sustainability achieved in completed
CIDA health projects; and areas of large spending or of controversy, i.e.,
immunization."5
Although the Assessment did not go on to define the nature of the controversies
surrounding immunization, mass immunization programs have been seriously questioned on
both developmental and scientific grounds. It will be the purpose of this report to
proceed with a detailed examination of the issues of controversy, draw some conclusions,
and make appropriate recommendations. The critique of these issues stems from a careful
review and evaluation of wide ranging biomedical literature sources of relevance to the
subject. This work has been carried out in the spirit of honest inquiry, thus affording a
fresh and critical analyses of the fundamental issues.
Although the conclusions as reached visibly sustain "one side" of what is
largely a hidden and professionalist dominated debate on immunization, the reader should
note that this is done in order to provide a long neglected and constructive
counterbalance to the predominating supportive declarations of the establishment, and in
turn the parroted promotion of the same view by the popular media.
It must further be appreciated that past and ongoing investments in the drive for
universal immunization extend well beyond the mere allocation of substantial government
and publicly donated funds (which translates into biennial expenditures of a billion US
dollars, 63 percent of which comes from Developing World countries themselves)6 to include:
- extensive public and private sector commitment to meeting the
infrastructural, service, product and marketing requirements of the world-wide
medico-industrial complex which employs tens of thousands of people in drug companies,
private laboratories, universities, governmental health departments, hospitals etc.
(furthermore it is estimated that there are 25,000 professional national and international
staff who directly oversee hundreds of thousands of field workers involved in the annual
vaccination of 60 million children);7 - related domestic and international legislation and politics; and
- massive public educational indoctrination initiatives that are largely
predicated on promoting the unquestioned effectiveness and relative safety of
immunization, and which by design engender an impelling fear in those
"unprotected."
UNICEF’s Executive Director has gone on record in many fora to herald
the substantive value and potency of immunization. In advance of the inception of Canada’s
current and greatly expanded International Immunization program he gave a full and
unqualified assurance that "Expanded immunization–using newly improved
vaccines" will "prevent the six main immunizable diseases from killing an
estimated 5 million children a year and disabling 5 million more."8
The front page of the January/February, 1988, issue of Development Forum, published
by the U.N. Department of Public Information, unequivocally affirms that
"immunization is the success story of the decade. In the Developing World
immunization has reached 50 percent for DPT vaccine and 40 percent for measles, and is now
saving over 1.3 million lives annually." Everyone is encouraged–bordering on
religious fervor–to get on the bandwagon.
UNICEF.. calls for a ‘Grand Alliance’ of all possible resources
teachers, and religious leaders, mass media and government agencies, voluntary
organizations and people’s movements, business leaders and labour unions, women’s groups
and health services to create an informed public demand for. . . the methods which could
now bring about ‘a revolution’ in child survival and development. In Turkey, for example,
200,000 school teachers and 54,000 imams have helped to treble the nation’s immunization
coverage. In Syria and Egypt, television has succeeded in getting the immunization message
into every home . . . UNICEF argues that ‘there is no greater cause in which to march.’ 9
Indeed, immunization has of late gained the distinction of being
considered the "leading edge" in primary health care, and is extolled by its
advocates as "the single most successful component of the child survival
program." Its high acceptance and apparent success relate to a number of factors:
A technological package that is easily understood and readily
available . . . the fact that vaccination does not require substantial behaviourial
change; the relative ease of measuring coverage and its offer of an opportunity for
political leadership at all levels to be visibly involved. Finally, it is the single
component of PHC that provides the greatest opportunity for the private sector to
participate through the supply or production of vaccine and cold chain equipment.10
It is accepted wisdom among medical professionals and in turn the
public, that millions of children now enjoy improved health and freedom from various
life-threatening diseases because of safe and effective vaccines. In the words of
Fulginiti, "morbidity and deaths secondary to the contagious diseases have either
been eradicated, measles greatly reduced in occurrence, and rubella, mumps, pertussis, and
other diseases significantly lessened in terms of their impact."11
EPI–FIELD EVALUATION EXPERIENCE
This general examination of Immunization as a central modality in the prevention of common
infectious diseases in the Developing World will begin with some salient extracts taken
from the writer’s findings in a field evaluation he carried out on a UNICEF–Expanded
Program of Immunization and Primary Health Care initiative in Northeast Thailand, in March
of 1990. The data derived from evaluating the EPI component is being provided as basic
background information because it provides some useful insights on comparable UNICEF-EPI
initiatives that are now occurring throughout the Developing World, and points to some
critical issues meriting further investigation. (EPI was one of eight components in the
Integrated Services Project for Children, extending over a five year period, at a cost
exceeding $8,500,000.(Cdn). This funding was primarily provided by the Canadian
Government, and supplemented with public contributions. The Project was executed by UNICEF
Thailand, in cooperation with the Royal Thai Government.)
The EPI in Northeast Thailand proved to be a considerable undertaking. It included: the
execution of a cluster survey on immunization coverage in all 59 districts (in which there
are over 900 villages); provision of EPI training for 600 Village Health Volunteers,
Village Health Communicators, and religious leaders; similar training for 200 health care
providers, and 40 multiple WHO staff, EPI information strengthening and finally social
mobilization to vaccinate, viz. provide BCG/OPV/DPT and measles coverage for all 59
districts. It further involved the equipping of 373 tambon (subdistrict) health centres
with sufficient numbers of. refrigerators; vaccine carriers with four icepacks; BCG
vaccine kits; thermometers; cold chain monitoring cards; and steam sterilizers.
The EPI initiative placed its strategic concentration on the following areas:
- EPI training of village and religious leaders
- emphasis on reaching progressively higher annual vaccination targets
- provision of cold chain equipment and support to targeted Tambons
- information campaigns in primary and elementary schools
- public education campaigns in targeted villages
- increased vaccine production; and
- strengthening the EPI information system at the district and provincial
level.
In reviewing figures for the project covering the first three years
(1985-1987), the priority emphasis on immunization is evident. Project expenditures for
this component reached 126 percent of the original target for immunization, compared to
only 28 percent for primary health care. Food and nutrition fared somewhat better at 60
percent of the target, a little under the project average of 61 percent. A budget analysis
conducted on the project for this period states that "Implementation of the community
action component is . . . low. However, the savings obtained here will be passed on to the
EPI and pre-school components . . ." The reason given for exceeding the original
budget projections for EPI, was "because of the demands and opportunities for support
presented."12
Recognizing the central importance of "health care outcomes," both the
evaluation exercise and this broader examination of the issues have purposely focused on
concerns surrounding the qualitative issue of EPI health care outcomes and effectiveness.
However, it became readily apparent in the evaluation of the Program that–due to the
absence of base line data on any sample of the recipients, let alone the additional need
for a comparable control group, and the control or monitoring of intervening variables it
was not really possible to proceed with any accurate or verifiable determination of health
care outcomes (i.e., to establish a cause and effect relationship) for EPI.
This need to provide verifiable measurement of a program’s health care outcomes appears to
be pervasively deficient throughout most health programming directed to the Developing
World. The implications of this general deficiency to the specific measurement or
determination of EPI effectiveness, remains a serious one, and will be addressed more
thoroughly at later points in this report.
UNICEF’S GENERAL EPI
STRATEGY AND STATED ACHIEVEMENTS
In a UNICEF sponsored research study on immunization coverage conducted in Thailand in the
mid 80′s, the following general observation is made:
[The] immunization programme has been proven to be an efficient, and
relatively inexpensive method of disease prevention in both developing and developed
countries. In the last decade, we have seen an increase in immunization usage, public
acceptance, improved delivery techniques and more stable vaccines. The more extensive use
of vaccines has resulted in a dramatic decrease of many leading communicable diseases in
all parts of the world. However, this condition is by no means true in developing
countries where most of the vaccine preventable diseases like diphtheria, pertussis,
neonatal tetanus, poliomyelitis and measles remain to be a serious health menace among
infants and children in these countries."13
The view as expressed here–during the early stages of this
project–provides a fair representation of the rationale behind UNICEF’S resolve to
proceed with its universal disease eradication drive, via vaccine induced immunization.
(It is of no passing interest that WHO and UNICEF sponsored literature, such as above, now
embody a new nomenclature, in which one does not refer to preventable diseases, but more
precisely "vaccine preventable diseases" thus tending to convey the
unsubstantiated conclusion that such diseases are only preventable through the use of
vaccines.)
In UNICEF’s Fourth Progress Report on this project issued in 1989, it was affirmed that,
"Impressive progress has been made towards the achievement of Universal Child
Immunization (UCI). Immunization coverage has been increased and the incidence of
immunization diseases reported has reduced." This achievement was reported as taking
place despite such persistent obstacles as: insufficient "awareness and knowledge
among health officials and community leaders;" inadequate "availability of
vaccines and cold chain in remote areas;" and the problem of "drop-out due to
ignorance, distance, and fear of side effects."
FIELD OBSERVATIONS
On the basis of structured and semi-structured interviews in five provinces, five
districts, and nine villages visited, the following facts came to light:
- The EPI component objectives were comprehensively and successfully
implemented, exceeding the original numerical targets - EPI was reported as the "only activity that is implemented and
recorded entirely by government (health) officials" - All parents had been informed that: immunization was an effective, and
essential life-guarding measure, and although it could result in fever or a minor rash for
their infants, this should be expected as normal (a small price to pay for the benefits
received); and that otherwise the procedure was very safe and should pose no cause for
fear or alarm - The most commonly reported side effect of infant vaccinations was fever,
with village reports ranging from a low of 6% of infants immunized to "99%."
(Rashes were the second most commonly reported side effect) - Fever reducing drugs are either routinely administered to vaccinated
infants, or administered on request of parents (however, one village did report the
effective use of water instead of drugs to reduce fever), and - Sisaket province reported that "rare" cases of post-vaccination
shock have occurred, attributing this to vaccinal "overdose." Surin province
reported that there were cases of post-vaccination shock in various other provinces, but
not in Surin. Such cases were attributed to the vaccine vial not being "sufficiently
shaken."
CONTRA-INDICATIONS SCREENING
Evidence indicated that the EPI program did not incorporate adequate measures for
contraindications pre-screening and post-monitoring.
- All infants received the vaccines regardless of their weight or
nutritional status (only one village indicated that vaccines were not given to infants
severely underweight, and only one province reported post-vaccination monitoring of
infants under 3 kg). - Actual nutritional status assessment does not appear to be conducted on
infants (excepting the body weight factor) before administering vaccination. - There did not appear to be any procedural requirements for checking
family histories to determine whether there existed any history of neurological disorders
before administering vaccination.
The official view historically held and still articulated by the World
Health Organization (WHO) is that both the provision of screening for contraindications,
and post operation monitoring for adverse reactions are uncalled for in the context of
Developing World EPI campaigns. The underlying rationale has been that the life saving
benefits of EPI so far outweigh any risks, that attention to potential risk factors and
the potential for vaccine induced damage in vaccinates remains impracticable, and thus a
non-issue.14
Despite this unqualified optimism, according to information provided by CIDA’s Health and
Population Directorate sector, the WHO effective October, 1990, instituted a policy for
"adverse event monitoring" in Developing World Immunization activities. A
definitive policy statement on this issue titled Monitoring of Adverse Events Following
Immunization, has been available since April 1991. (The implications of WHO’s
recognition of the significance of this issue in setting UCI/EPI research, monitoring and
evaluation priorities should be apparent.)
It is thus important to point out that there is by no means a consensus on this issue
within the Bio-science community (including the inconsistencies exhibited in the public
pronouncements, and policies of the WHO). In one of the most recent scholastic manuals
available on immunization practice, noted authority, George Dick–Professor Emeritus of
Pathology, London University–provides the following cautions relative to the traditional
assumptions of the WHO:
- Before considering immunization it must be determined that the disease in
question is of sufficient severity, frequency or other importance to justify immunization
against it. Furthermore, "if the infection is readily treatable, there is seldom
justification for immunization." - "immunization is indicated only when the classic methods of control
are [demonstrably] impracticable or unsuccessful." - Before any vaccine is introduced "there must be good evidence that
the vaccine is effective and relatively safe . . . Sufficient time has not yet elapsed to
predict with any certainty the durability of immunity with the live virus vaccines, which
are now in common use, such as poliomyelitis, measles . . . [etc.]" - "The best type of active immunization follows a clinical or
subclinical natural infection. With many diseases this often gives lifelong protection at
little or no cost to the individual or to the community." - The pre-immunization era declines in infectious diseases "should
make one careful in attributing changes in the epidemiology of some diseases to the result
of a specific treatment or immunization."15
He further confirms that in the following conditions, the EPI vaccine as
noted should not be administered. (Obviously pre-vaccine screening measures must be in
place in order to ensure that these guidelines are met.) Dick’s recommendations follow on
Table A.
| Diphtheria | acute febrile illness (fever) |
| Whooping Cough (pertussis) |
acute febrile illness |
| a history of seizures, convulsions or cerebral irritation in the neonatal period |
|
| any neurological defects | |
| any severe local or general reaction to a previous dose of pertussis |
|
| "Children whose parents or siblings have a history of idiopathic epilepsy or neurological defects require careful assessment as to the advisability of imunization." |
|
| Polio | acute illness including diarrhoea, or other (OPV) acute intestinal dysfunction |
| sever hypogammaglobulinaemia | |
| anyone on corticosteroids or immunosuppressive therapy | |
| Measles | acute febrile illness |
| immune mechanism deficiencies | |
| anyone on corticosteroids or immunosuppressive therapy | |
| Hodgkin’s disease and leukaemia, or other diseases of the lymphoid, or mononuclear phagocytic (reticuloendothelial) system |
Preliminary PHC and EPI research conducted for CIDA’s Evaluation Division indicates as
well that vaccines should not be administered to children who are suffering from
malnutrition due to associated immunodeficiency problems (of which–inter alia–chronic
infections are symptomatic). However, the official WHO position on this point is that
"Fever, respiratory tract infections, diarrhea, and malnutrition should not be
considered as contraindications to immunization." This is based on the relationship
between immunodeficiency status and increased risk of natural infection.16, 17, 18 (For a cross-sampling of other
reference sources which support a counter-view to the WHO stance on immunodeficiency and
contraindications to vaccines, please see ref.18)
The Project’s failure to address this issue–in a responsible manner–has undoubtedly
caused some very real harm, when only good was meant, as the following shows.
A CASE HISTORY
Upon completing the briefing session with a large contingent of Surin provincial and
Northeast regional health officials–at which the chief provincial spokesperson confirmed
that although post-vaccination shock was a problem in other provinces, there were no known
cases being reported in his province evaluation team members departed for their respective
village destinations. Upon entering the village of Kanjarong, in the Chom Phra district
(only 35 miles distant from the provincial capital) in company with the UNICEF Integrated
Services Project Monitor, we encountered and met with the village Head Man and the Deputy
Head Man.
In the course of the interview, the Deputy Head Man, with some intensity explained that
his own son had experienced what he considered as very serious damage as a result of
immunization. The Project Monitor and I returned the following day, at which time we both
interviewed the mother and observed the affected child during the interview. As a result
of this more careful and thorough interview, the following facts of the case were
ascertained:
- Up to the age of 3 months the infant had been breastfed. Breastfeeding
was terminated by the mother due to a diagnosed thyroid deficiency, per the
"doctor’s" request. She subsequently began feeding him powdered milk,
supplemented by egg, meat, and white rice. The use of fresh fruit and vegetables in the
infants diet remained very marginal. - At the age of 8 months the infant was taken in for his final DPT (triple
antigen) vaccine. He almost immediately went into what was diagnosed and described as a
state of "shock," for which he was duly treated by a physician. As well, a whole
series of serious problems began:- chronic sleeplessness
- high fever
- unbroken colds and runny nose continuing over several months
- unbroken crying (except when held) for a period exceeding 2 months
- in the eleven months following the vaccine (the child at time of
inter-view was I year 7 months) there appeared to be severely impaired weight and growth
developments.Although cognizant that this case
history could be construed (and in turn dismissed) as a rare anecdotal occurrence that was
only coincidental to the administration of the triple antigen vaccine, after careful
thought I’ve decided to included it in some detail for three basic reasons:I. evidence suggest that for multiple reasons–as noted throughout this
document–such adverse reactions are likely to be taking place at a significantly greater
level than is popularly believed;II. a calm, intelligent and caring mother’s direct experiential
observations and hindsight about her child represent a fully valid and trustworthy source
of information; andIII. overall, the clarity and force of the evidence was such that the
child’s reaction was clearly more than a mere coincidence, and thus not attributable to
other direct causes. (As well there is clear evidence suggesting that the occurrence and
severity of adverse reactions to vaccines–among infants–correlate proportionally to both
lack of breasffeeding, and Vitamin C deficiency (e.g., see refs. 17 & 18).
The following comments should be made with respect to points (a)-(e)
above:
- The evidence of unabated infections suggests general impairment of the
child’s immune system, i.e., vaccine induced immune malfunction. - The unbroken crying (its unfortunate that children under the age of one
can’t verbally explain the nature and extent of their distress) suggest the possibility of
permanent nervous system damage. (In observing the child walk about, it was visibly
evident that his general motor functions and coordination were impaired.)
The reported growth stunting effect was also visibly obvious, as the
child appeared to be at most the size of a one year old. (In that impaired growth is
generally not identified in the literature as a vaccine related or induced hazard, this
condition may well have been principally related to other factors bearing on the child’s
nutritional intake and or assimilative capacities.) The mother reported that his weight at
birth was 4 kilos (a very heavy baby by Thai standards) and at 5 months, 9 kilos. At the
time we visited–though now I year and 2 months older–his weight was unchanged, still at
9 kilos.
It is also worth noting that the mothers three month old grandson, who was present during
the interview, had been experiencing high fever, and continuous colds since having
received recent inoculations. Given that I visited only 9 out of over 900 participating
villages, and then only raised this issue with a fraction of respondents, poses serious
concern as to just how widespread and serious the problem of adverse side effects is.
It is known for instance that when mass immunization programs were enforced in Australia’s
Northern Territory among what was a generally malnourished Aboriginal population (the most
notable concern being Vitamin C deficiency) death rates doubled, in some areas approaching
50 percent i.e., "Every Second Child." According to the author of a book by that
title and veteran physician to the Aboriginals A. Kalokerinos:
A health team would sweep into an area, line up all the Aboriginal
babies and infants and immunize them. There would be no examination no taking of case
histories, no checking on dietary deficiencies. Most infants would have colds. No wonder
they died Some would die within hours . . . Others would suffer immunological insults and
die later from pneumonia, ‘gastroenteritis’or ‘malnutrition’.19
In Northeastern Thailand, in the villages visited practically all
mothers were breastfeeding, and were to some extent including fresh garden vegetables and
fruit in their diets. This in turn provided a fair degree of protection from the kind of
severe reactions and mortality just noted among Australian Aboriginals. Nonetheless, it is
apparent that there still remains a sizable number of malnourished. To quote C. Guthrie:
Malnutrition seems to be declining in the Northeast… Still,
malnutrition is widely prevalent. One does not need to go looking for it. In one school .
. . in Don Luang, 50 percent of the children were suffering from one level of malnutrition
or another. I found it somewhat disturbing to find that the objective expressed by most
officials was restricted to the eradication of 3rd degree malnutrition, in spite of the
wide prevalence of 1st and 2nd degree malnutrition.20
It appears that the mass coverage obsession common to UCI and EPI, have
run roughshod over the repeated qualifications, and warnings that have been issued against
administering vaccines to inimunodeficient infants and children, of which malnutrition is
a prime indicator. The fact that a March 1988 Annual Report on this Project (p. 5)
indicated that a WHO/UNICEF review team found that EPI "drop out rates were high,
because of the fear of side effects as expressed by mothers," suggests that the
prevalence of vaccine induced complications and morbidity in Northeast Thailand, may well
be more significant than heretofore thought. (The broader question and implications of
vaccine induced morbidity and mortality will be examined in more detail, later in the
report.)
VACCINE SCHEDULING
The rationale behind administering multiple vaccines and toxoids throughout the first 14
week period of an infant’s life (excepting measles) is that in the first year of
life–when the immune system is still relatively immature–a child is considered more
susceptible to most infectious diseases. However, this view fails to admit the corollary
that the immune and nervous systems of infants, are immature thus making them potentially
more vulnerable to the toxic effects of vaccines and toxoids.
Nonetheless, the argument is commonly raised that vaccines must be administered in accord
with the recommended schedule," (particularly in the Developing World), as the risk
of dangers is so marginal, and the dangers of widespread and unchecked infectious diseases
so great that the infant must have the vaccines–or else. Of course this view is
acceptable only insofar as the multiple beliefs surrounding UCI/EPI are valid, i.e., that
there are no better disease preventative measures; that the presence of such infections
cannot be safely handled or treated; and that vaccines are both highly effective and very
safe.
| At birth | BCG (Tuberculosis) and OPV-0 (Polio–Live Oral, Trivalent) |
| 6 weeks | DPT#L (Diphtheria Toxoid; Pertussis/Whooping Cough; and Tetanus Toxoid) and OPV#L |
| 10 weeks | DPT#2 and OPV#2 |
| 14 weeks | DPT#3 and OPV#3 |
| 9 months | Measles |
It is instructive to consider the experience of Japan in this regard. Delay of DPT
immunization until 2 years of age in Japan has resulted in a dramatic decline in adverse
side effects. In the period of 1970-1974, when DPT vaccination was begun at 3 to 5 months
of age, the Japanese national compensation system paid out claims for 57 permanent severe
damage vaccine cases, and 37 deaths. During the ensuing six year period 1975-1980, when
DPT injections were delayed to 24 months of age, severe reactions from the vaccine were
reduced to a total of eight with three deaths. This represents an 85 to 90 percent
reduction in severe cases of damage and death. 21
Although it is obvious that conditions in Japan remain distinctive from that of most
Developing World countries, it must be noted that insofar as susceptibility to infectious
disease remains greater in lesser developed countries, it clearly follows that
susceptibility to vaccine damage will also be proportionally greater. Thus the lesson from
Japan carries a valid message relative to the prevention of vaccine damage in Developing
World EPI campaigns.
IMMUNIZATION’S
IMPACT IN THE DECLENSION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Statistics indicate that over the life of this project, Thailand (and presumably the
Northeast region, for which direct figures were not available) has exhibited some degree
of declension in childhood infectious diseases (excepting measles) for which immunization
has–in recent years–been made generally available. However, it must be borne in mind
that prima facie improvement in morbidity levels–in end of itself–falls far short of
proving any actual interventional cause and effect relationship for EPI.
Direct discussions with the International Development Research Centre’s Health Sciences
Division confirms that in selective primary health care activities, such as EPI, there
exists "no good base line data from which to measure health care outcomes. SPHC
(Selective Primary Health Care) programs in the implementation of EPI appear to ignore
this whole issue," Due to the strong and widely maintained assumption that
interventions such as EPI serve inextricably and directly as the basis for health
improvement outcomes, there has been a general failure since the inception of the first
vaccine programs to establish genuinely verifiable evidence for their long term
effectiveness, and safety. 22
The general nature of this problem in Selective Primary Health Care activities is well
expressed by prominent Medical Sociologist J. Williamson, when he says there has been a
failure to "assess explicitly the degree of validity and sufficiency of the evidence
linking care structures (facilities, personnel), and processes (what providers do, e.g.,
EPI) to outcomes of care in general and to health outcomes in particular."23
Epidemiological science is largely predicated on the reality that changes in morbidity and
mortality in populations are necessarily linked to a whole series of contributive
factors." (Noted authority George Dick states that: "Many infectious diseases
can be prevented without immunization, because once the natural history of the disease is
understood, the source may be eliminated or transmission prevented [e.g.,] . . . . When it
was discovered that cholera and typhoid epidemics were regularly transmitted by faecal
contamination of water, the provision of clean water supplies nearly eradicated these
diseases from many countries without recourse to immunization.")24
It is widely acknowledged that factors such as: nutrition,
sanitation, potable water; the natural and social environments (e.g., agricultural
practices, food supply, education and income), all play vital roles in determining the
onset, severity, and eradication of both infectious and degenerative diseases. Diseases
such as cholera and typhoid, have been strongly linked to water and sanitation, whereas
evidence continues to accumulate that nutrition remains likely the most critical
determinant factor in the full range of infectious and degenerative human diseases.25
The very fact that in this UNICEF project–as in many others–EPI is implemented over a
period of years in the midst of a whole series of other natural and basal socioeconomic
improvement measures, each having their own critical impact on any population’s health
status (including epidemicity levels) suggests that EPI could actually be playing a
negligible or even a negative role, and no one would really know the difference.
According to the recently completed comprehensive Program Evaluation of the Canadian
International Immunization Program–Phase 1, this poses a situation in which the
relative impact of expanded immunization programs on mortality levels in the Developing
World remain largely unsubstantiated. To quote: "at present it appears that there is
no conclusive evidence on the impact of immunization on child mortality from all causes .
. . It may be that EPI’s effect is merely to bring about "replacement
mortality," whereby children . . . succumb to other diseases instead. The uncertainty
over the impacts of EPI remain a major question in PHC programming."26
In a similar vein, Debabar Banerji, Chairman of the Centre of Social Medicine and
Community Health at Jawaharlal Nehru University raises serious concerns with the UNICEF
sponsored Universal Childhood Immunization program in his own nation. He suggests that:
If we turn to the epidemiological analysis of UCI-90 in India, we are
astonished to learn that such a gigantic program has been launched without having even the
most basic data on infectious diseases . . . Then how will it be possible to determine the
cost-effectiveness of the program? Actually, there ought to have been much more detailed
analysis. . . .For example, with regard to disease levels and factors, he urges that very basic questions
should have been addressed before implementing UCI, such as: . . . how different are the
rates in different parts of the country and what are the ecological, cultural, social and
other factors which affect the rates–through influencing the balance between the host,
the parasite [i.e., virus or microbe] and the environment. Information should have been
provided on what are the trends in the epidemiological behaviour of the different diseases
over a time period, what should be the epidemiological strategy for intervention in the
natural histories of the diseases, and so on. Paying scant attention to such critical
epidemiological considerations, the crusaders of UCI-90 have opted in favor of saturation
spraying with "silver bullets " [vaccines]. Over and above this, there are also
the important questions of efficacy of the vaccines. . .Administratively, the exponents of UCI-90 seem to indulge in collective amnesia to wish
the bitter experiences of major vertical [top down] programs like the mass BCG Campaign,
the National Malaria Eradication Program, and the three [national] efforts at eradication
of smallpox . . . Also actively shunned are the many lessons from the failures of vertical
programs for trachoma, leprosy, filariasis, cholera, and sexually transmitted
diseases." 27
INCOMPLETE STATISTICAL REPORTING
Selectively slanted and incomplete reporting of the true statistical picture is not an
infrequent problem in the promotive oriented reporting on EPI impact data. For example,
the following Tables B and C, were based on data presented in Section 4.3 "Expanded
Programme of Immunization," in UNICEF’s Fourth Progress Report CUC/CIDA
Development of Basic Services for Children in Thailand, covering the period
January–December, 1988.
| Year of Coverage |
1982 |
1983 |
1984 |
1985 |
1986 |
1987 |
1988 |
| Percentage Immunized |
06 |
26 |
44 |
60 |
63 |
| Year |
1982 |
1983 |
1984 |
1985 |
1986 |
1987 |
1988 |
| Number |
27,691 |
34,713 |
47,205 |
32,156 |
19,659 |
42,051 |
32,498 |
| Case Rate Per 100,000 |
(57.1) |
(70.2) |
(93.7) |
(62.2) |
(37.1) |
(78.1) |
59.1) |
The following comment is made with respect to the expansion of the measles
vaccination program, ". . . the immunization coverage for measles has increased from
6 percent in 1984 to 63 percent in 1988, leading to a reduction in measles prevalence from
93.7/100,000 in 1984 to 37.1/100,000 in 1986."
What the report fails to indicate though is that although the 1986 inununization coverage
of 44% had increased by 1987 to 60%, the measles infection rate in the same period
actually more than doubled, with an increase from 37.1 to 87.1 per 100,000. It is also
noteworthy that the culminating maximum immunization coverage of 63% achieved in 1988,
correlates with a 1988 infection report rate of 59.1 /100,000–which in fact poses higher
level of measles infection than the 1982 reported infection rate of 57.1 /100,000, which
was a time when measles immunization was not being provided in Thailand. (The higher per
capita infection rate–after five years of expanding coverage–obviously reflects very
negatively on the assumed efficacy of the vaccine, and may have been deliberately
obfuscated in the reporting. No evidence was seen to suggest that the post-immunization
increases in disease rates were attributable to case reporting improvements.)
THE DEVELOPMENTAL IMPLICATIONS OF
UCI/EPI
Clearly, Universal Childhood Immunization stands in contradiction to the strategically
development based primary health care principles as embodied in the Alma Ata Declaration.
(The issue of intersectoral primary health care versus selective medicine remains an area
of major controversy. It will be examined in considerable detail later in this paper). In
fact, Developing World analysts such as D. Banerji, forcefully contend that short term,
"top down" approaches to health care–such as EPI threaten to reverse Alma Ata’s
historic gains for more self-directed and sustainable health care. In his view the
shifting emphasis toward selective medicine including UCI/EPI:
- Negates the principle of community participation and control as
exemplified in "bottom up" development - Accords resource allocations only to certain target groups, ignoring the
needs of the total family and community - Reinforces elitist authoritarian attitudes, thus increasing oppression.
- Has a fragile basis in science
- Displays questionable moral and ethical values, in which a questionable
commodity of foreign and elite interests, is promoted to and imposed on the majority of
the people.28
In his own words, the Universal Childhood Immunization initiative,
constitutes the efforts of ruling interests in Donor nations:
. . . to hit out at the very core of the philosophy of primary health
care by imposing technocentric vertical programs against a few diseases in the name of
saving children . . .This movement not only tends to fragment a health care system and
take it away from a wider ecological, intersectoral, and integrated approach, but it also
actively hinders community self-reliance and seriously erodes the democratic rights of the
people to participate in decisions which so vitally concern them. This is perhaps the most
malignant facet of the present efforts to impose specialized . . . programs from outside,
using social marketing techniques to sell them." 29
Researchers like Rifkin and Walt maintain that interventions such as
EPI, are essentially based on the (now fading) view that human health is dependent upon
and arises from a force of elite professionals who hold privileged knowledge–coupled with
corresponding power and control–to effect their disbursal of technocentrically contrived
benefits, to relatively ignorant and passive recipients.30 It goes without saying that any programmed encouragement of this mind
set–despite the very best of intentions–constitutes an inimical force to those
principles and processes whereby intelligent self-development, and informed self-care can
prevail.
In reference to the developmental implications of UCI/EPI, medical sociologist L.J.
Chetelat notes that:
Health professionals, by taking and promoting easily executed
interventions, such as immunization, create a demand for these programs and raise
expectations which are seldom realized.. SPHC by identifying specific techniques (such as
EPI) and strongly supporting them, diverts attention and resources from the process of
development, to highlighting specific programs with exaggerated and often unpredictable
outcomes. In reality, technocratic and "instant" successes, put into danger the
long slow process that leads to sustained improvements. They are creating a climate of
short-term expediency, rather than long term change.31
IS IMMUNIZATION EFFECTIVENESS A
CERTAINTY?
It can well be said that real "ignorance is not knowing, but knowing what isn’t
so." The question of whether vaccines in fact protect recipients from the diseases
for which they are given, might seem absurd on the face of it. As already noted, when we
closer examine the question of statistical evidence for immunization’s effectiveness,
there remain significant epidemiological uncertainties. The literature further reveals
some critical problems in data gathering, interpretation and reporting practices. These
basic concerns are succinctly summarized by Professor Gordon Stewart, recent head of the
Department of Community Medicine at Glasgow University:
What kind of immunization is this for which success is being
claimed?… What kind of epidemiology is this which advocates immunization b excluding,
consideration of factors other than immunization? . . . "at kind of editorial policy
is this which publishes incomplete data and promotes far reaching claims about the
efficacy of immunization, but refuses to publish collateral data questioning this
efficacy? 32
We are thus confronted with an unenviable situation where in the general
absence of verifiable multifactored and controlled studies, EPI remains
today–scientifically speaking–as a basically unproven program intervention. In fact,
there is a substantive and growing body of data that call into serious question the
soundness and effectiveness of mass immunization programs. This data not only calls into
question EPI effectiveness, but further details adverse side effects and potential long
term dangers of this widely implemented medical intervention.
EARLY THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS
RE-EXAMINED
In order to better grasp the issue of vaccine effectiveness, it would prove helpful for us
to go back to the early theoretical foundation upon which current vaccination and disease
theories originated. In simplest terms, the theory of artificial immunization postulates
that by giving a person a mild form of a disease, via the use of specific foreign
proteins, attenuated viruses, etc., the body will react by producing a lasting protective
response e.g., antibodies, to protect the body if or when the real disease comes along.
This primal theory of disease prevention originated by Paul Ehrlich–from the time of its
inception–has been subject to increasing abandonment by scientists of no small stature.
For example not long after the Ehrlich theory came into vogue, W.H. Manwaring, then
Professor of Bacteriology and Experimental Pathology at Leland Stanford University
observed:
I believe that there is hardly an element of truth in a single one of
the basic hypothesis embodied in this theory. My conviction that there was something
radically wrong with it arose from a consideration of the almost universal failure of
therapeutic methods based on it . . . Twelve years of study with immuno-physical tests
have yielded a mass of experimental evidence contrary to, and irreconcilable with the
Ehrlich theory, and have convinced me that his conception of the origin, nature, and
physiological role of the specific ‘antibodies’ is erroneous.33
To afford us with a continuing historical perspective of events since
Manwaring’s time, we can next turn to the classic work on auto-immunity and disease by Sir
MacFarlane Burnett, which indicates that since the middle of this century the place of
antibodies at the centre stage of immunity to disease has undergone "a striking
demotion." For example, it had become well known that children with
agammaglobulinaemia–who consequently have no capacity to produce antibody–after
contracting measles, (or other zymotic diseases) nonetheless recover with long-lasting
immunity. In his view it was clear "that a variety of other immunological mechanisms
are functioning effectively without benefit of actively produced antibody."34
The kind of research which led to this a broader perspective on the body’s immunological
mechanisms included a mid-century British investigation on the relationship of the
incidence of diphtheria to the presence of antibodies. The study concluded that there was
no observable correlation between the antibody count and the incidence of the
disease." "The researchers found people who were highly resistant with extremely
low antibody count, and people who developed the disease who had high antibody counts.35 (According to Don de Savingy of IDRC, the
significance of the role of multiple immunological factors and mechanisms has gained wide
recognition in scientific thinking. [For example, it is now generally held that vaccines
operate by stimulating non-humeral mechanisms, with antibody serving only as an indicator
that a vaccine was given, or that a person was exposed to a particular infectious agent.])
In the early 70′s we find an article in the Australian Journal of Medical Technology
by medical virologist B. Allen (of the Australian Laboratory of Microbiology and
Pathology, Brisbane) which reported that although a group of recruits were immunized for
Rubella, and uniformly demonstrated antibodies, 80 percent of the recruits contracted the
disease when later exposed to it. Similar results were demonstrated in a consecutive study
conducted at an institution for the mentally disabled. Allen–in commenting on her
research at a University of Melbourne seminar–stated that "one must wonder whether
the . . . decision to rely on herd immunity might not have to be rethought.36
As we proceed to the early 80s, we find that upon investigating unexpected and
unexplainable outbreaks of acute infection among "immunized" persons, mainstream
scientists have begun to seriously question whether their understanding of what
constitutes reliable immunity is in fact valid. For example, a team of scientist writing
in the New England Journal of Medicine provide evidence for the position that
immunity to disease is a broader bio-ecological question then the factors of artificial
immunization or serology. They summarily concluded: "It is important to stress that
immunity (or its absence) cannot be determined reliable on the basis of history of the
disease, history of immunization, or even history of prior serologic determination.37
Despite these significant shifts in scientific thinking, there has unfortunately been
little actual progress made in terms of undertaking systematically broad research on the
multiple factors which undergird human immunity to disease, and in turn building a system
of prevention that is squarely based upon such findings. It seems ironic that as late as
1988 James must still raise the following basic questions. "Why doesn’t medical
research focus on what factors in our environment and in our lives weaken the immune
system? Is this too simple? too ordinary? too undramatic? Or does it threaten too many
vested interests . . ?" 38
ARTIFICIALLY INDUCED
IMMUNITY–REALITY OR DELUSION?
Physiologist, S.K. Claunch raises an reasonable postulate when he suggests that the body’s
capacity to initiate a "vigorous reaction" (i.e., the acute processes of
elimination associated with viral and infectious diseases) hinges essentially on its level
of vitality, and thus such reactions are most commonly found in children. In contrast, it
is generally acknowledged that the very feeble and or chronically diseased–who have
significantly lower vital energy levels–tend to remain relatively free from such acute
reactions. This observation in turn lead him to express the concept that:
If any child has its vitality lowered and its health impaired to the
degree that it is no longer strong enough to develop an acute disease, it is, for the time
being, at least "immune." This is the exact clinical picture one observes when
serums, vaccines and "biologicals" are shot into a child . . . its vitality is
so lowered that it is no longer healthy enough to protest or react against them. So long
as its vitality stays down, it will be "immune." 39
A number of detractors have legitimately raised the question of how the
injection of foreign disease matter into the human system can constitute a legitimate
approach to the sustenance of human health. After all, we don’t seek warmth of icebergs,
is there thus any more logic in seeking health from substances which are intimately
associated with disease and death? The articulate view of physiologist H.M. Shelton is
that:
To interfere with the all-important composition of the blood in the
haphazard manner serologists do, results in incalculable disturbance of its physiological
equilibrium . . . health depends, not upon killing bacteria [& viruses] but upon
building up the soundness . . . integrity [and] functional vigor . . . of our own tissues
and organs. . . . Normal resistance can be achieved only by use of the same means by which
it was originally built and maintained.Nature makes no mistakes and violates no laws. She is uniformly governed by fixed
principles and all her actions harmonize with … [nature's governing] laws . . . The
best, indeed the only method ofpromoting public health is to teach people the laws of
nature and.. how to preserve health. Immunization programs are futile, and are based on
the delusion that the law of cause and effect can be annulled Vaccines and serums are
employed as substitutesfor right living; they are intended to supplant obedience to the
laws of life. Such programs are slaps in the face of law and order." 40
AN
HISTORIC OVERVIEW OF THE BACTERIAL/VIRALTHEORY OF DISEASE CAUSATION
In order to provide some further background to the reader, this section will briefly
recount some of the most significant observations of earlier scientists on the broader
question of what is the actual role bacteria and viruses play in human infectious disease.
The debate on this issue–although an old one remains highly relevant and timely in that
the whole edifice of Western selective medicine, both preventive and therapeutic, hinges
upon a correct perspective on and resolution of the question.
Indeed, it remains remarkable that whether we go to recent or more distant history, we
find that fundamentally critical scientific discoveries and observations which serve to
clarify these issues, and point in a more appropriate direction, continue–at least in
practice–to be largely unknown and or ignored. (Some researchers would suggest that this
failure arises because such discoveries–if genuinely applied–would significantly curb
what amounts to annual income totaling multiple billions of dollars in the exploitation of
human disease.) However, it is apparent that the factors underlying this failure are in
reality much broader and more complex.
Due to the need for brevity, only two cases of historic significance will be considered.
Earlier in this century, C.E. Rosenow of the Mayo Biological Laboratories began a series
of experiments in which he took distinctive bacterial strains from a number of different
disease sources and placed them in one culture of uniform media. In time the distinctive
strains all became one class. By repeatedly changing cultures, he could individually
modify bacterial strains making them some harmless or "pathogenic" and in turn
reverse the process. He concluded that the critical factor allowing demonstration of the
polymorphic nature of bacteria was their environment and the food they lived upon. These
discoveries were first published in the year 1914 in the Journal of Infectious
Disease." 41
Rosenow’s work was corroborated and expanded upon about two decades later by R.R. Rife,
developer of the Universal Microscope which was developed concurrent with RCA’s initial
marketing of the electron microscope. Rife’s alternative was a 5,682 component, 150,000
power (60,000 diameters of magnification) instrument which made live bacteria visibly
"clear as a cat on your lap." This microscope was a light transmitting
instrument with a resolution of 31,000 diameters (traditionally electron microscopes had
resolutions of up to 25,000 diameters) which overcame the chief weakness of the electron
scope, i.e., the inability to view living cells structures and bacterial and viral
organisms in their unaltered living state.(An alternative was required, as living matter
when viewed under the electron scope, becomes altered and distorted due to bombardment by
a virtual hailstorm of electrons, with such distortions increasing proportionally with the
intensity of magnification. Consequently, the extremely high magnification levels found in
the latest electron microscopes actually serve to exacerbate this major flaw.)
Modern microscopy texts suggest that with light microscopes it is impossible to obtain
extremely high magnifications of objects and still retain visual clarity. For example
Novikoff and Holtzman affirm that in such instruments a point is reached after which the
image is "increasingly blurred and nothing is gained by further magnification. Thus,
light microscopes are rarely used at magnifications greater than . . . 1500 X." 42
However, Rife’s invention with its 14 separate crystal quartz lenses and prisms, was able
to bend and to polarize light in such a way that a specimen could be illuminated by
extremely narrow portions of the spectra, and even by a single light frequency. This
combined with the shortening of projection distance between prisms, and other innovative
technical features permitted high resolutions without distortion at extremely high
magnifications, never before or since attained in light microscopy.43
Rife showed that by altering the environment and food supply, friendly bacteria such as
colon bacillus could be converted into varied "pathogenic" bacteria.
For example, Rife also observed that bacillus coli could in time
be modified into the bacterial agent associated with typhus, and the
process actually reversed. In Rife’s words:
In reality, it is not the bacteria themselves that produce the
disease, but we believe it is . . . the unbalanced cell metabolism of the human body that
in actuality produce the of disease. We also believe if the metabolism of the human body
is perfectly balanced . . . it is susceptible to no disease.44
This observation closely parallels Alexis Carrel’s earlier research at
the Rockefeller Institute where he was able to control the rates and levels of infectious
disease mortality among mice. Beginning with the standard diet he observed a corresponding
death rate of 52 percent. By making specific dietary improvements he was able to reduce
mortality rates downward to 32 percent, then 14 percent, and finally to a rate of 0.45
Not too long after Rife’s and Carrel’s reported observations, scientist Rene Dubos (also
at the Rockefeller Institute) reaffirmed their open and direct challenge to the
conventional thinking and practice of the scientific community at large. He suggested that
the presumed relationship between microbes and the onset of human disease has been
"so oversimplified that it rarely fits the facts of disease. Indeed it corresponds
almost to a cult . . . undisturbed by inconsistencies and not too exacting about
evidence." He expanded upon this view in suggesting that we need to objectively
account for the fact that extremely virulent:
. . . pathogenic agents [i.e., bacterial and viral micro-organisms]
sometimes can persist in the tissues without causing disease, and at other times can cause
disease even in the presence of specific antibodies. We need also to explain why microbes
supposed to be non-pathogenic often start proliferating in an unrestrained manner if the
body’s normal physiology is upset. . . .During the first phase of the germ theory the property was regarded as lying solely within
the microbes themselves. Now virulence is coming to be thought of as ecological . . . This
ecological concept is not merely an intellectual game; it is essential to a proper
formulation of the problem of microbial diseases and even to their control " 46
Indeed, Dubos–in time–came to voice the conclusion that "Viruses
and bacteria are not the cause of disease, there is something else." In his classic
work Mirage of Health, he states "The world is obsessed by the fact that
poliomyelitis can kill and maim . . . unfortunate victims every year. But more
extraordinary is the fact that millions upon millions of young children become infected by
polio virus, yet suffer no harm from the infection."47 This view closely corresponds to the oft quoted conclusion arrived at in later
life by R. Virchow (popularly reputed as father of the "germ theory") when he
stated, "If I could live my life over again, I would devote it to proving that germs
seek their natural habitat, diseased tissues, rather than being the cause of
disease."
Since Dubos’ time, researchers have estimated that the quantity of symptom free exposure
to viruses out number clinical illnesses by at least one hundred-fold.48 This conclusion is based on the "high
proportion of adults who have virus-neutralizing substances in their serum and the number
who, during an epidemic, excrete virus without becoming ill.49
Further corroborative conclusions have been recently reached by some prominent scientists
in their critical examination of the popular view that Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)
is the key, if not the singular cause of the Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
Evidence is in that the popularized view that HIV causes AIDS is far more a political
necessity, than a genuine scientific conclusion. (Although the observed action and effects
of viruses, and retroviruses–such as HIV–do in fact significantly differ, what is being
called into question is the validity of labeling microbes–of whatever form–as the key
and or sole "cause" for disease, or as in this case of acquired
immunodeficiency.)
Peter Duesberg (Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Calif.- Berkeley;
considered by many to be the world’s leading expert on retroviruses; and Nobel Prize
candidate for his work in discovering oncogenes in viruses) provides compelling evidence
that lifestyle based factors serve as the primal determinants in the evolution of the 20
plus neoplastic and degenerative diseases that are now associated with AIDS. Employing his
own research–complemented by 196 cited references–an article entitled "HIV and
AlDs: Correlation but not causation," was published in 1989 in the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences USA. This article indicates that "Free" HIV
virus (Free meaning that the retrovirus is already part of the genome) is not detectable
in most cases of AIDS;" "Pure HIV does not cause AIDS upon experimental
infection of chimpanzees or accidental infection of healthy humans;" and
"Epidemiological surveys indicate that the annual incidence of AIDS [to be understood
as a condition symptomized by various secondary infections for which natural immunity has
been lost] depends critically on non-viral [related] risk factors . . . defined by
lifestyle, health, and country of residence."
In an interview published nearly five years later Dr. Duesberg is more convinced than ever
that the HIV retrovirus is not the cause of AIDS, or of the mortality associated with
AIDS. Some of the key points he makes in this important interview follow:
- There are roughly seven and a half million people world wide who are
known carriers of HIV, and who continue to remain free of the immune deficiency symptoms
associated with AIDS, and there’s not one authenticated case "where you get infected
today and get a disease. . . years later . . . infectious agents work immediately or
never." - HIV has been found to be totally absent in the system
of over 4,600 persons diagnosed with AIDS, so to save political face the US Centers for
Disease Control have been forced of late to give such cases a new name i.e.,
"idiopathic CD 4 Iymphocytopenia." - There are a million Americans with HIV and their T cells are normal,
indeed, "HIV is one of the most harmless viruses you could possibly have. It never
claims more than one in 1,000 cells every other day" during which time your body
replaces "at least 30 out of 1,000" cells. - AIDS is not an infectious disease, but rather arises from "party
swinger lifestyles" that includes: the widespread and abundant use of various immune-
depleting drugs both legal and illegal such as cocaine, alcohol, marijuana, amphetamines,
aphrodisiacs, amyl or butyl nitrites (poppers), combined with correlated conditions of
malnutrition, inadequate sleep, and poor hygiene. - Another key cause of AIDS and the mortality arising from it is medical
treatment in itself, viz. AZT has become "AIDS by prescription" and design. In
other words in the US alone 200,000 persons (most of whom have normal health) who’ve
tested positive for HIV antibodies, are given 250 mg of AZT every six hours. This highly
toxic drug destroys bone marrow, as well as red blood cells thus precipitating cellular
oxygen starvation destroys white blood cells; causes anemia, weight loss, muscle loss,
nausea, and worsening immune system deficiency coupled with the ensuing infectious
diseases commonly associated with AIDS, and finally death. (The very same sequence of
rapid physiological deterioration, immune deficiency and infections has been documented in
healthy persons who were tested positive for HIV, and quickly submitted to medical
treatment, but were later confirmed as false positives.)50
Bio medical scientist and AIDS researcher Joseph Sonnabend speaks of
". . . the failure of our scientific and medical institutions to have provided an
even rudimentary understanding of the pathogenesis of this disease in the eight years
since its first description, let alone to have developed interventions…that might
significantly alter its course." His well researched conclusions include the view
that "The association of HIV seropositivity with AIDS could . . . derive from the
possibility that the expression of HIV (and consequent seroconversion) is an effect,
rather than a cause of AIDS. . ."51
In summary, if we retum to Robert Koch’s 19th century postulates of the "Germ
Theory," viz. in order to cause disease particular "bacterium:" a) must be
found in every case of the disease; b) must never be found apart from the disease; and c)
must consistently produce the same disease as that manifested by the body from which the
disease related germs were taken; we find that in reality each postulate has been
disproved time and again by varied experience and experimental data.52
Nonetheless, it appears that to this day there remains only a marginal acknowledgment or
practical recognition that it is the condition of the body-mind complex and its internal
and external environments, which are the principal determinants of the nature, prevalence
and role of bacteria, viruses, and even retroviruses.
THE
BACTERIAL/VIRALVERSUS THE CELLULAR/ECOLOGICALTHEORY OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE
As a result of the re discovery of many of these earlier scientific investigations, as
well as more recent observations in molecular biology, there has arisen among more
independent scientists and primary health practitioners a new concept that has been coined
as the cellular theory of infectious disease. This seemingly more logical and updated
view, poses a serious challenge to the present unquestioned emphasis on supporting mass
selective medicine approaches (including artificial immunization) in the Developing World.
The traditional Bacterial–Viral and the emerging Cellular–Ecological theories of disease
are contrasted in the table which follows. The practical acceptance of the cellular theory
as delineated would entail a substantive shift away from both preventive and therapeutic
interventions which are heavily predicated on Western selective medicine, i.e., vaccines
and drugs, and toward fundamental health improvement measures such as sound nutrition,
potable water, sanitation and overall enhancement of the human physical and social
environments.53
Considerable experimental, historical and epidemiological evidence supports the cellular
ecological theory, as outlined in Table D.
|
Bacterial/Viral Theory |
Cellular/Ecological Theory |
| 1. Disease arises from micro-organisms originating outside the body. |
1. The evolution of and susceptibility to disease arises from conditions arising within the cells of the body. |
| 2. As the primary cause of disease, micro-organisms are generally considered as vicious, needing to be destroyed. |
2. These micro-organisms are primarily endogenousto more complex living organisms and normally function to assist the life sustaining and/or metabolic processes of such bodies. |
| 3. The appearance and function of specific micro-organisms is constant. |
3. The appearance and function of these micro-organisms undergo pathogenic changes when the host organism is weakened or injured, which injury may be mechanicallly, biochemically or emotionally induced. |
| 4. Every disease is associated with a particular micro-organism. | Every disease is asssociated with particular factors and conditions. |
| 5. Micro-organisms are primary causal agents. | 5. Micro-organisms become pathogenic, i.e., associated with disease, only when the integral health of the body deteriorates. Hence, psycho-physical integrity is of first importance, as it constitutes the key factor in the prevention, or the remediation of human disease in all its forms. |
| 6. Disease is inevitable and can "strike" anybody, anytime. |
6. Disease arises from the persistent violation of natural laws, and correlated unhealthful conditions. |
| 7. To prevent and cure disease, it is necessary to war upon pathogenic micro-organisms (using toxic aqnd pathogenic weaponry) that as well, destroys the health of the body-mind complex. |
7. To prevent or cure all forms of disease, one need only to ensure that the primal requisites of health ore met, which includes sysstematic compliance with natural physical, psychological, and spiritual law. |
In that major declines in infectious disease took place before the advent of specific
vaccines and antibiotics, scientists and or physicians such as Dubos, Dettman, Illich,
McCormick, Taylor, Buttram, and Hoffman agree that the overall eradication of varied
infectious diseases were due to basic improvements in nutrition, sanitation, housing,
education and related socioeconomic conditions. For example, Canadian physician
W.J. McCormick was able to make this telling observation at
midpoint in the present century.
The usual explanation offered for this changed trend in infectious
diseases has been the forward March of medicine in prophylaxis and therapy; but, from a
study of the literature, it is evident that these changes in incidence and mortality have
been neither synchronous with nor proportionate to such measures . . .. . . . the decline in diphtheria, whooping cough and typhoid fever began fully fifty
years prior to the inception of artificial immunization and followed an almost even grade
before and after the adoption of these control measures. In the case of scarlet fever,
mumps, measles and rheumatic fever there has been no specific innovation in control
measures, yet these also have followed the same general pattern in incidence decline.54
INFECTIOUS DISEASE TABLES
Tables I–X
Span several decades–with some going back to the mid-nineteenth century–and reveal the
evidence upon which McCormack’s observation is based.
Tables XI & XII
Provide more recent data which suggest the apparent failure of Expanded Programs of
Immunization in the reversal and prevention of whooping cough (pertussis) and diphtheria
in Nigeria, with notable increases in these diseases occurring soon after implementation
of widespread immunization (tables in the source article for measles, polio and tetanus,
although not included, each suggest that the impact of EPI was negligible).
Tables XIll–XVIII
Represents the period of a decade in the Dominican Republic (a visually parallel
micro-cosm to the longer decline periods exhibited in the Western world) where there
occurred a general pattern of significant multiple infectious disease declines–prior to
the advent of expanded immunization–with a general pattern of moderate increases in
various disease levels occurring soon after full implementation of specific immunization
interventions, followed by a return to the earlier decline pattern.
FURTHER BACKGROUND NOTES ON TABLES
- It is a rarely excepted rule that when increases and or decreases in
disease specific mortality occur, there will be corresponding changes in morbidity, (e.g.,
see parallel death, and case bar lines on tetanus and tuberculosis in Canadian
Immunization Guide, 3rd
Edition, 1989). - The only tables which are not essentially visual reproductions of tables
found in the documented "Source References," are Tables XIII- XVIII. The reason
follows: In reviewing a series of 6 UNICEF evaluation studies (Evaluation Pub. No’s 1-6)
on EPI efforts throughout the 1980′s in Nigeria, Burkino Faso, Turkey, Cameroon, Senegal,
and the Dominican Republic, only Pub. No. 6 on the Dominican Republic provided sufficient
epidemiological data to permit the drawing of any definite conclusions on EPI impacts.
Because EPI intervention data was not included in the evaluation report’s morbidity
tables, original tables were prepared. - The designation "natural decline," simply indicates infectious
disease declines free from adventitious immuno-prophylaxes. As in the West, significant
and enduring non-artificial immunization factored declines have occurred in the Developing
World. This has occurred despite what are considered to be normal cyclical down and
up-swings in infectious disease levels.
Table 1: Deaths of Children Under 15 Years (England & Wales)

Table I–shows that in England and Wales there was a 90 percent decline in child mortality
from the combined infectious diseases of scarlet fever, diptheria, whooping cough, and
measles in the period of 1850 to 1940. The first vaccine made available was for
Diptheria
in the early 40′s, whereas the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine became available in the
early 50′s and the measles vaccine in the late 60′s (no vaccine was provided for scarlet
fever).55
Table II: Whooping Cough (England & Wales)

Table II–indicates that in England and Wales the annual death rate of
children (under age 15) from whooping cough declined by roughly 98.5 percent in the period
covering 1868 to 1953, after which the pertussis vaccine became generally available.56
Table III: Measles (England & Wales)

Table III–shows that in England and Wales the annual death rate of
children (under age 15) from measles declined from over 1,100 per million in the
mid-neneteenth century, to a level of virtually 0, by the mid 1960′s.57
Table IV: Smallpox (England & Wales)

Table IV–reveals that in England and Wales there was a continuing
decline in the annual death rate from smallpox, with a reduction in mortality of roughly
300 per million to virtually 0, taking place in the 60 year period following the middle of
the last century. This table further illustrates that the progressive rate of decline was
severely disrupted–with a roughly 275 percent increase in mortality from the
disease–occurring immediately after smallpox vaccination laws were enforced.58
Table V: Infant Mortality Rate (Australia)

Table V–Indicates that in Australia, approximately two thirds of the total decline in
infant deaths from all childhood infectious diseases, in the period covering 1881 to 1971,
occurred before the introduction of mass immunization offorts.59
Table VI: Declining Death Rates (US)

Table VI–reveals that in the United States–without benefit of any
vaccine–the tuberculosis mortality rate underwent a drop of roughly 96 percent in the
first 60 years of this century; and that in a little short of the same time span (although
the effectiveness of the vaccine has been seriously questioned by reputed scientists)
mortality from typhoid vanished.60
Table Vll: Declining Death Rates (England)

Table VII–shows that in England death rates from respiratory
tuberculosis underwent a roughly 87 percent decline in the period beginning 1855 and
ending in 1947, when antibiotics first came into wide use; and a further decline
approximating 93 percent by 1953, preceedin the introduction of the BCG vaccine.61
Table Vlll: Number of Countries Reporting Smallpox

Table VIII–reveals, in the 17 year period preceeding the WHO Smallpox
Eradication Program, a progressive drop to nearly one half, in the number of countries
reporting smallpox morbidity.62
Table IX: Acute Rheumatic Fever Death Rates (Britain)

Table IX–indicates that in Britain, the annual death rate from rheumatic fever underwent
a decline approximating 86 percent in the period covering 1850 to 1946, before penicillin
had become available.63
Table X: Scarlet Fever Death Rate (England &
Wales)

Table X–reveals that in the period of 1865 to 1935, before sulfonamides
had become available in England and Wales, the annual death rate from scarlet fever
declined by approximately 96 percent.64
Table XI: Diphtheria (Nigeria)

Table XI–shows that following a significant increase in the diptheria morbidity rate
which Peaked in 1977, the disease underwent two years of rapid natural decline–equivalent
to 73.5 percent–in the number of cases, with such decline occurring prior to the
immplementation of EPI in 1979. This decline pattern continued during implementation of
EPI to 1980, after which–by 1982–the incidence of diptheria exhibited a major increase
of nearly 30 fold.65
Table XII: Whooping Cough (Nigeria)

Table XII–shows that a significant increase in the whooping cough
morbidity rate (1973 to 1974), was followed by a sharp natural decline from 1974 to 1975
equivalent to 91 percent. The very slight incline which followed up to 1979–when EPI was
introduced–still posed an 86.5 percent lower morbidity level than in 1974. Post EPI data
indicate a short lived slight decline, followed by an increase in morbidity of 34 percent
over the ensuring two years.66
Table XIII: Poliomyelitis (Dominican Republic)

Table XIII–reveals that in the period of 1980 to mid 1983–before implementation of EPI
the poliomyelitis morbidity rate underwent a natural decline equivalent to 98.5 percent to
wheat is practically an eradication level of only 1 per million. EPI was followed by a
continuing natural decline to zero, however the incidence of poliomyelitis then underwent
a minor increase for two years, and gradually returned to a zero level in 1980.67
Table XIV: Measles (Dominican Republic)

Table XIV–indicates that in the period of 1980 to late 1985–before implementation of EPI
the measles morbidity rate underwent a natural decline equivalent to 88 percent. Upon
introduction of EPI in late 1985, the natural decline continued for a brief period, halted
and then measles more than doubled from its 1986 and 1987 levels.68
Table XV: Diphtheria (Dominican Republic)

Table XV–shows that in the period of 1978 to mid 1985–before implementation of EPI–the
diptheria morbidity rate underwent a natural decline equivalent to 81.5 percent. Upon
introduction of EPI in mid 1985, the natural decline continued for a brief period, and
then by 1987 the diptheria case rate more than doubled from its 1986 level. The disease
than returned to its natural rate of decline, proceeding to a very low level in 1989.69
Table XVI: Pertussis (Dominican Republic)

Table XVI–reveals that in the period of 1978 to mid 1985–before
implementation of EPI the pertussis (whooping cough) morbidity rate underwent a natural
decline equivalent to 84.5 percent. Upon introduction of EPI in mid 1985, there was a
slight rise and then return to the earlier natural decline pattern reaching its lowest
level by 1988. However, by 1989 the pertussis morbidity rate nearly tripled from its 1988
level.70
Table XVII: Tetanus (Dominican Republic)

Table XVII–indicates that in the period of 1979 to mid 1985–before implementation of EPI
the tetanus morbidity rate underwent a natural decline equivalent to 74 percent. Upon
introduction of EPI in mid 1985, the natural rate of decline continued for a brief period
to 1986. However, by 1988 the incidence of tetanus had more than tripled from its 1986
level, and then by 1988 returned to its earlier natural decline pattern, reaching a level
in 1989 still higher than its 1986 level.71
Table XVIII: Neonatal Tetanus (Dominican Republic)

Table XVIII–shows that in the period of 1978 to the end of 1985–before
the implementation of EPI (tetanus toxoid for expectant mothers)–the neonatal tetanus
morbidity rate underwent a natural decline equivalent to 98.5 percent. Upon introduction
of EPI in late 1985, the natural rate of decline continued for a brief period to 1987.
However by 1988 the incidence of neonatal tetanus had increased by nearly five fold over
its 1987 rate, and then by 1989 declined to a level still higher than it was in 1986.72
IMMUNIZATION EFFECTIVENESS DATA
Data on Diphtheria
Ekanem’s earlier noted research (Table XI), reveals an increase of 215 percent in the
number of diphtheria cases by the end of the three year period following implementation of
UNICEF’s Expanded Program of Immunization. Robert Mendelsohn (Assoc. Prof. of Preventive
Medicine and Community Health, University of Illinois) reports "that children who
have been immunized [for diphtheria] fare no better than those who have not." He went
on to describe an outbreak of diphtheria in which "fourteen of twenty-three carriers
had been fully immunized." This means that just over 60 percent of the carriers who
were presumed to be protected by the toxoid, contracted the disease. In his words
"Episodes such as these shatter the argument that immunization can be credited with
eliminating diphtheria or any of the other . . . childhood diseases."73
The following conclusion is extracted from the Minutes of the 15th Session (November
20-21, 1975) of the Panel of Review of Bacterial Vaccines and Toxoids with Standards
and Potency (data presented by the US Bureau of Biologics, and the Food and Drug
Administration).
For several reasons, diphtheria toxoid, fluid or absorbed, is not as
effective an immunizing agent as might be anticipated. Clinical (symptomatic) diphtheria
may occur . . . in immunized individuals–even those whose immunization is reported as
complete by recommended regimes . . . the permanence of immunity induced by the toxoid . .
. is open to question.74
Earlier historical data on protective toxoiding efforts in N. America clearly verify not
only the FDA’s conclusion, but the fact that the toxoid actually exacerbated the
seriousness of the disease. North American data on various diphtheria outbreaks in the
early 40′s, reveal the following facts.
- In the Halifax Canada epidemic, of the cases admitted for hospital
treatment, 66 had previously received one or more doses of diphtheria toxoid or antitoxin,
or were found Shick negative. In fact, of this number five cases had been immunized within
the preceding two month period.75 - In the Ottawa Canada epidemic, of 99 cases (all under the age of 15), 36
were found to have previously received all three doses of the toxoid.76 - In the Baltimore USA epidemic, 63 percent of all cases had a record or
history of prior immunization with toxoid. Among the fatal and more serious
"Bull-neck" cases, 77.8 percent had previously been toxoided.77 - During roughly the same historic period, we find in various European
countries a gripping picture suggesting that the use of Diphtheria toxoid in fact
precipitated epidemics of the disease.77 - Throughout 1941 to 1944 "The Ministry and Dept. of Health, Scotland,
admitted almost 23,000 cases of diphtheria in immunized children," with 180
fatalities.78 - By the year 1941, the majority of children in France had been inoculated
for diphtheria, the case rate standing at 13,795 by the end of that year. Mass
immunization efforts continued, and "by 1943, the diphtheria cases were more than
tripled to 46,750."79 - Diphtheria increased by 55 percent in Hungary and tripled in Geneva,
Switzerland after the introduction of compulsory immunization laws. In Germany, with
compulsory mass immunization "introduced in 1940, the number of cases increased from
40,000 per year to 250,000 by 1945, virtually all among immunized children." Norway,
during the same time frame–just noted–remained unvaccinated, and had only 50 recorded
cases of diphtheria. 80 - "In Sweden, diphtheria virtually disappeared without any
immunization."81 - According to Coumoyer’s research, official US Military records show that
enlisted men and women who are thoroughly vaccinated–manifest a morbidity and mortality
rate from diphtheria four times higher, than that of unvaccinated civilians.82
Data on Measles
As already noted earlier in this report, the national per capita case rate in Thailand for
measles in 1982, 2 years before the advent of the Expanded Programme of Immunization, was
lower than in the year 1988, i.e., 5 years after implementation of EPI. Per Ekanem’s
earlier cited research, the national per capita case rate in Nigeria for measles in 1973,
6 years before the advent of UNICEF’s Expanded Programme of Immunization, was lower than
in the year 1982, i.e., 3 years after implementation of EPI.83
The University of Alberta initiated special research on the question of measles immunity,
as a result of a measles epidemic which "swept" the University campus in 1987,
despite a "98 percent immunization rate." The research team’s head immunologist
R. Marusyk (who is also affiliated with the Alberta Provincial Public Health Laboratory)
has subsequently confirmed that it is an invalid assumption that vaccination programs for
measles–which are normally administered at 9 to 12 months, and a later childhood booster
shot–confers lifelong immunity. One of their findings indicated that 93 percent of
infants "who were studied" showed no immunity by the age of six months. The
mothers of the 120 babies had all been vaccinated. Normally, antibodies that have been
transferred at birth from the mother to the child remain present for a year."84 (According to D. de Saving at IDRC, this
transfer and retention of antibodies apparently occurs when the mother has had an actual
measles infection, and not just vaccination.)
Similar to the experience at the University of Alberta, the National Geographic in
its January 1991 issue article "The Disease Detectives," refers to a 1988
measles epidemic at Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado USA in these words:
"Surprisingly most who fell ill had been vaccinated. CDC (US Center for Disease
Control) investigators rushed to the campus during the 1988 outbreak to trace what had
gone wrong."
There are repeated reports of measles epidemics occurring in fully vaccinated populations.
These failures have occurred repeatedly since the vaccines introduction.85 Other documented research findings follow:
- A survey conducted in 1978–covering 30 states in the US–revealed that
"more than half of the children who contracted measles had been adequately
vaccinated;"86 - Moskowitz et al. found that in those states with comprehensive (k-grade
12) immunization requirements, between 61 and 90 percent of measles cases occur in persons
who received the recommended vaccines;87 and - A review of 1,600 cases of measles in Quebec, Canada in the period of
January to May of 1989, revealed that 5 8 percent of school-age cases had been previously
vaccinated.88
According to an unpublished WHO research study comparing what would be
defined as a "measles susceptible" group of children, to a control group that
had been immunized for measles, it was observed that the non-immunized group manifested a
normal contraction rate of 2.4 percent, whereas the immunized group exhibited a 33.5
percent contraction level. This implies a 15 times greater likelihood of infection by the
immunized.89 (The researchers
responded to these results with the comment that the vaccine must have been mishandled, or
perhaps the vaccine used was badly manufactured.)
It is of interest that there is an emerging body of mathematically based epidemiological
research which suggests practicable problems with EPI efforts in the control and
eradication of measles in the Developing World. For example, P. Kenya observes that:
Horizontal mass immunization campaigns at regular intervals may be
impractical in terms of costs and operational logistics. . . . In spite of high measles
immunization coverages, measles epidemics are often reported, not only in the less
developed regions but also in those developed countries with measles elimination targets.90
Data on Polio
An article in a major consumer journal titled "Twentieth-century miraclemaker,"
in extolling the value of Salk’s polio vaccine, indicated that in 1953, there were 15,600
cases of paralytic polio in the United States; by 1957, due to the vaccine, this number
dropped to 2,499." Since this popular conception persists to this day as an important
demonstration of the effectiveness of vaccination procedures in general, and the polio
vaccine in particular, it bears some re-examination.
Bernard Greenberg (late Dean–School of Public Health, University of N. Carolina)
who–during the polio epidemics of the 50′s–chaired the Committee on Evaluation and
Standards for the American Public Health Association, submitted testimony to the
Congressional Hearings on polio vaccines (HR0541, 1962). His evidence respecting
diagnostic modifications and statistical manipulation, seriously challenged the popularly
promoted view that the epidemics subsided as a result of vaccine intervention. In his
words "As a result of . . . changes in both diagnosis and diagnostic methods, the
rates of paralytic poliomyelitis plummeted from the early 1950′s to a low in 1957."
This involved:
- redefinition of what constitutes an epidemic
- redefinition of the disease; and
- mislabelling, and later reclassification (prior to 1954 "large
numbers" of presumed "paralytic polio" cases were actually "Coxsackie
. . . and aseptic meningitis," statistical reclassification of "polio"
cases (not leading to permanent paralysis) in the ensuing 4 year period became the norm in
virtually all regions of the country.
It is of further interest that Greenberg testified that after the
introduction of much more intensive and frequently compulsory immunization
programs–beginning in 1957–there was a correspondingly substantial increase in polio
cases (which were presumably paralytic, due to the aforenoted reclassification process).
In the period of 1957-1958 there was a 50 percent increase, and 1958-1959 an 80 percent
increase in such cases. He also indicated that during this period statistics were
manipulated and statements made by the US Public Health service, to give an opposite
impression.92
A distinguished interdisciplinary medical panel moderated at the 120th Annual Meeting of the Illinois State Medical Society, confirmed that in the year
1959, roughly 1,000 cases of paralytic polio occurred in persons who had previously
received multiple doses of the Salk vaccine. As a panel member,
B. Greenberg contributed the following observation:
One of the most obvious pieces of misinformation . . . is that the 50
percent rise in paralytic poliomyelitis in 1958, and the real accelerated increase in 1959
have been caused by persons failing to be vaccinated This represents . . . an
unwillingness to face facts and to evaluate the true effectiveness of the Salk vaccine. .
. . A scientific examination of the data and the manner in which the data were
manipulated, will reveal that the true effectiveness of the present Salk vaccine is
unknown and greatly overrated.93
When pediatrician R. Mendelsohn, was asked whether polio would return if
vaccinations were stopped, he replied "Doctors admit that forty percent of our
population is not immunized against polio. So where is polio? Diseases are like fashions,
they come and go . . ." Later on US National television he referred to
epidemiological records which revealed the disappearance of polio in Europe during the
40′s and 50′s, without benefit of immunizations.94
Speaking at an international health convention in 1978, A. Burton reported that
statistical data compiled by the University of New South Wales in Australia revealed that
polio immunization programs had no measurable impact in reversing what was a recent
epidemic in that country. He expressed the view that polio comes in cycles anyway, and
when it does subside, it is inadvertently considered "conquered" by vaccines.95 This naturally occurring cycle in polio
epidemics was well illustrated in Great Britain where polio peaked in 1950, and had
declined by 82 percent by the year 1956, at which time the vaccine was first introduced.96
Returning to the earlier cited US Congressional Hearings (HR 1054), we find that
the nation of Israel experienced a major "type I" polio epidemic in 1958. Mass
polio immunization had already been enforced and there was no appreciable difference in
contraction levels between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. Additionally, 3 years later in
1961, the state of Massachusetts experienced a "type II" polio outbreak in which
"there were more paralytic cases in the triple vaccinates than in the
unvaccinated".97
It is noteworthy that in one of the few double blind trials that have been conducted on a
vaccine, was for the Salk polio vaccine, in which trial over 200 individuals who received
the vaccine went on to contract polio, whereas no observed polio cases developed amongst
the controls. This trial was reported by Mendelsohn who in the same 1984 article wrote:
The evidence points to mass inoculation against polio as the cause of
most remaining cases of the disease . . . there is an ongoing debate among the
immunologists regarding the . . . killed virus vs. live virus vaccine. Supporters of the
killed virus vaccine maintain that it is the presence of live virus organisms in the other
product that is responsible for thepolio cases that . . . appear. Supporters of the live
virus type argue that the killed virus vaccine offers inadequate protection and actually
increases the susceptibility (to polio) of those vaccinated. . . . I believe that both
factions are right, and that use of either of the vaccines will increase not diminish the
possibility that your child will contract the disease.98
Thirteen scientists recently concluded that: vaccine failures in the major Oman polio
epidemic could not be explained by failures in the cold chain, nor on suboptimum vaccine
potency; the efficacy of OPV in inducing "humoral immunity" was lower than
expected; and primary reliance on routine polio immunization may be "inadequate"
to achieve the goal of eradicating polio by the year 2000. (They also noted similar
paralytic polio epidemics in other highly vaccinated populations,99 e.g., the Gambia, Brazil, and Taiwan.)
Data on Pertussis (Whooping Cough)
V. Fulginiti, Chairman of the American Academy of Paediatrics Committee on Infectious
Diseases made this incisive observation:
Despite more than 30 years of experience with pertussis immunization,
the reasons for recovery from the acute infection and subsequent immunity, are still
uncertain. It is known that second attacks are rare following natural disease. It is also
known that 45-95% of recipients of pertussis vaccine are susceptible to pertussis up to 12
years later . . . we do not understand the immunologic mechanisms involved in resistance
to infection after natural disease or immunization.
Is pertussis vaccine effective? . . . prior to the widespread use ofpertussis vaccine,
both the incidence of pertussis and the case-fatality ratio declined. A 50-fold reduction
in incidence and an 84% reduction in case-fatality were recorded in Great Britain in the
years between 1947 and 1972. . . . In England, protection provided by vaccines prior to
1968 was meager; no greater than 20% protection was noted. . . . Britain is in the
position of advocating use of a vaccine for which there are not hard data.100
G.T. Stewart’s observations as published in the British Medical
Journal indicated that "of 8,092 cases of whooping cough, 2,940 (36%) were fully
immunized, while only 2,424 (30%) were definitely not immunized."101
A Medical Tribune Report (January 10, 1979) details an outbreak of whooping cough
in which 46 out of 85 fully immunized children contracted the disease.102 (the reason that the other 39 did not
contract the disease could have been related to any number of predisposing factors).
Ekanem’s earlier noted research (Table IX) , reveals an increase of 21 percent in the
number whooping cough cases by the end of the three year period following implementation
of an Expanded Program of Immunization in Nigeria.103
Data on Tetanus Toxoid and Immune
Globulin
Neustaedter indicates that "Tetanus seems to be nearly eliminated from the United
States, primarily because of good hygiene and proper wound management." His research
suggests that in the period of 1982-1984 in the US, there were a total of nine tetanus
cases among both children and adolescents, in which there were no deaths.104 Whereas Coumoyer’s research points to
"contaminated umbilical stump infections" as a principal cause of tetanus in the
Developing World.105 Such
infections can be effectively rectified through providing appropriate information and
training to traditional birth attendants.
Both Cournoyer and Johnson indicate that there have been some reports of lock jaw death in
properly inoculated individuals.106 & 107 Additionally Cournoyer suggests that "Evidence in support of the (tetanus
toxoid) vaccine comes from epidemiologic studies which are by nature controversial, and
which do not satisfy the criteria for scientific proof.108
According to the data contained in Table XVII, in the Dominican Republic the incidence of
tetanus among children actually increased in the two year period following administration
of tetanus toxoid. Table XVIII indicates that in the same country, the rate of neonatal
tetanus–among mothers underwent an increase in the year following administration of
tetanus toxoid.109
WHO SMALLPOX ERADICATION
SUCCESS RECONSIDERED
Although smallpox is apparently now accorded to the history books, it will be necessary to
re-examine the issue of this disease having been universally eradicated, with particular
reference to the WHO eradication campaign. An honest look at this question is of
considerable importance, as the current worldwide UCI-EPI program gains much of its
legitimacy and inspiration from this widely acclaimed success story.
A strong challenge to this now popular view, is reflected in the post-campaign findings of
medical researchers like Buttram and Hoffman:
Most people probably credit the smallpox vaccine with playing the
major role in recent eradication of smallpox throughout the world, but let us examine the
facts. In the article ‘Vaccines a Future in Question,’ statistics showed that less than 10
percent of children in developing countries have received vaccines.
They went on to comment that with this level of coverage, the WHO
campaign was not a real factor in the eradication. Data obtained in their broad based
research also led them to conclude that "mass smallpox vaccination was not necessary
for the eradication of smallpox.110
In further examining this question from a longer historical perspective, it became readily
apparent that the WHO claim did not at all square with the earlier data, i.e., historical
smallpox eradication efforts. If we go back as far as the last century, we discover that
Creighton’s independent research findings as published in the Ninth Edition of the
Encyclopedia Britannica, strongly contradict the effectiveness of mass smallpox
immunization programs. A few revealing excerpts follow:
- . . . in Bavaria in 1871 of 30,742 cases 29,429 were in vaccinated
persons, or 95.7 percent. - Notwithstanding the fact that Prussia was the best re-vaccinated country
in Europe, its mortality from smallpox in the epidemic of 1871 was higher (69,839) than
any other Northern state. - According to a competent statistician (A. Vogt), the death-rate from
smallpox in the German army, in which all recruits are re-vaccinated, was 60 percent more
than among the civil population of the same age . . . although re-vaccination is not
obligatory among the latter. - It is often alleged that the unvaccinated are so much inflammable
material in the midst of the community, and that smallpox begins among them and gathers
force so that it sweeps even the vaccinated before it. Inquiry into the facts has shown
that at Cologne in 1870 the first unvaccinated person attacked by smallpox was the 174th in order of time, at Bonn the same year the
42d, and at Liegnitz in 1871 the 225th.111
As we move on into the earlier part of this century we find the same
dismal picture of increased susceptibility correlated with increased vaccination coverage.
Dettman and Kalokerinos describe a visit they
paid to the Philippines about 15 years ago:
. . . We were fortunate enough to address their own medical (and)
health officials where we reminded them of the incidence of smallpox in formerly
"immunized" Filipinos. We invited them to consult their own medical records and
asked them to correct us if our own facts and figures disagreed. No such correction has
been forthcoming, and we can only conclude that between 1918-1919 there were 112,549 cases
of smallpox notified, with 60,855 deaths. Systematic (mass) vaccination started in 1905,
and since its introduction case mortality increased alarmingly. Their own records comment
that "The mortality is hardly explainable." 112
Speaking at a 1973 environmental conference in Brussels, Professor
George Dick admitted that in recent decades, 75 percent of those that have contracted
smallpox in Britain, have had prior a history of vaccination. In that "only 40%"
of children were vaccinated (and at most 10 percent of adults), such figures clearly
indicate that the vaccinated–as in the much earlier historical record–continue to show a
higher tendency to contract the disease. Dick also admitted that smallpox had been
eradicated in certain tropical countries without mass vaccination.113 (Table VIII reveals that in the 16 year period preceding the year the WHO
eradication campaign was launched–38 additional countries had ceased to report any
smallpox cases.)114
A. Hutchison writing in the Journal of the Royal Society in 1974, referred to the
smallpox vaccines "lack of potency" and the inadequacies of other measures for
containment, in his words, "I have given details of the various outbreaks of smallpox
in Britain and where they were diagnosed. These clearly indicate that the (preventive)
measures are most ineffective.115
An article in the New Scientist indicates that "The smallpox family of viruses
is genetically unstable," and that new viral strains which threaten the "WHO
smallpox eradication programme, could emerge anywhere.116 It is thus of interest that in a 1980 article in the Australasian Nurses
Journal, Dettman and Kalokerinos pointed
out that electron-microscopy cannot distinguish between the various "poxviruses.117 (According to D, de Saving of IDRC, as of
1990 DNA sequencing can make the distinquishingment. What is not known though, is whether
this has any beating on the reporting of the various "pox" diseases worldwide.)
This fact led them to raise a vitally significant question "as to whether smallpox
may be declared conquered, (it’s estimated that only 10 percent of the world population
actually received the vaccine) with the possibility of it masquerading under the guise of
a similar pox." Their line of evidence and reasoning is summarily stated:
. . . we claim that if the evidence is honestly evaluated that
smallpox has actually been prolonged and that the so called protective vaccinations
actually put the recipient at risk from . . . the disease itself. Authorities now realize
this and the ‘top world’ countries are making vociferous protests about third world
countries continuing use of smallpox vaccination because (a) suddenly it has become
recognized that it is an extremely dangerous procedure, (To give some idea of the
vaccine’s dangers, it was reported–in the late sixties–that annually, roughly 3,000
children were experiencing varying degrees of brain damage due to the smallpox vaccine;
and according to G. Kiftel in 1967, smallpox vaccination damaged the hearing of 3,296
children in West Germany, of which 71 became totally deaf.117) and (b) it has now been conquered. The ultimate in ingenuity. . . .118
In turning to recognized textbooks on human virology and vertebrate
viruses we find that attention has been given since 1970 to a disease called
"monkeypox," which is said to be "clinically indistinguishable from
smallpox." Cases of this disease have been found in Zaire, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ivory
Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone (by May 1983, 101 cases have been reported). It is
observed that " . . . the existence of a virus that can cause clinical smallpox is
disturbing, and the situation is being closely monitored."119 (For a highly detailed account of the history of this disease and efforts to
eradicate it, which further corroborates these observations, see, Razzell P., The
Conquest of Smallpox, Caliban Books, United Kingdom, 1977.)
VACCINE ASSOCIATED
DANGERS–GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
Another basic issue that has never been raised in the programming, or evaluation contexts
of Official Development Assistance supported mass immunization, is the requirement for
effective monitoring and research on potential vaccinal adverse effects. The issue of
vaccine dangers and damage is obviously a rather unpleasant subject that no one really
enjoys thinking or talking about. In fact it appears to have been totally ignored in both
the planning and execution phases of Canada’s International Immunization Programme(CIIP).
Furthermore, the recently completed Qperational Review of CIIP 1986–1991, which
according to its sub-title was supposed to address inter alia ". . . lessons learned
in the first three years," failed to even raise the two very fundamental issues of
vaccine effectiveness, and vaccine damage.120
In special PHC-EPI research conducted for the CIDA Evaluation Division, the conclusion was
reached that the extensive literature written on the subject of immunization, adverse
reactions and contra indications, points clearly to the reality that "massive
immunization programs carry with them a number of very real risks and hazards.121
According to information recently provided by CIDA’s Health and Population Directorate the
World Health Organization as of October, 1990 has instituted a policy for "adverse
event monitoring" in Developing World Immunization activities. A definitive policy
statement on this issue titled Monitoring
of Adverse Events Following Immunization, is apparently available as of April 1991.
The implications of VMO’s recognition of the significance of this issue to the setting of
public policy priorities for EPI research, monitoring and evaluation should be apparent.
In order to provide some background on why the WHO is now taking these measures, a few
critical observations follow.
In recognition of potential vaccine dangers, David Karzon of the Vanderbilt University
School of Medicine raises important policy considerations with respect to mass
immunization programs in the Editorials section of the New England Journal of Medicine.
. . . there are two compelling reasons for reinspection of the
process offormulating and implementing our immunization program: the emergence of new
societal considerations and responsibilities; and the need for a fuller public disclosure
of the costs of disease prevention . . . we as a society have not recognized and accepted
all the costs . . . costs measured not only in dollars spent or saved, but also as adverse
biologic reactions.Literally no drug or procedure used in medicine is risk free. Immunizing antigens,
originating from complex biological materials or arising as genetically attenuated live
agents, have their own peculiar endogenous hazards, Complications . . . are particularly
apt to be visible in mass immunization campaigns. . . . The quality of the data base for
national decisions is critical because any vaccine recommendation carries such a vast
Potentialfor harm or good.122
It is unfortunate that UNICEF EPI field reports tend to dismiss the
concerns raised by "targeted" locals to the issue of vaccine damage, as based on
misinformation provided by unreliable local health staff, or the ignorance of fearful
mothers, both of whom need re-education. For instance a recent UNICEF annual project
report in discussing EPI stated, "A WHO-UNICEF team found that drop out rates were
high because of the fear of side effects as expressed by mothers, (and) misinformation
about contraindications . . . as communicated by health workers. . . . As a result,
increased attention is being directed toward health education. . . ."123
To say the least, it seems incongruous that this issue is paternalistically ignored as an
insignificant concern raised by the misinformed and the ignorant, when Canadian citizens
are being alerted by the media that the Canadian Government is expected to announce
"disaster relief" to families "of vaccine damaged children."124 This relatively recent report suggests that
vaccine damage is likely more pervasive a problem than is generally acknowledged or
believed. In fact, it appears that chronic under-reporting of vaccine-induced morbidity,
disability, and mortality appears to be the norm. Probably the most erudite scholar who
has thoroughly investigated the issue of vaccine hazards, is Sir Graham Wilson. As
Honorary Lecturer in the Department of Bacteriology at the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine, the following observations are excerpted from an earlier lecture series
delivered at that school.
The risks attendant in use of vaccines and sera are not as well
recognized as they should be. Indeed our knowledge of them is still too small, and the
incomplete knowledge we have is not widely disseminated.. a very small proportion [of the
actual numbers of vaccine accidents] . . . have been described in the medical literature
of the world.. . . a large number of accidents–I suspect the majority–have never been reported in
print, either through fear of compensation claims, or of giving a weapon to
antivaccinationists . . . I have come to the conclusion that no vaccine or antiserum can
be regarded as completely safe . . . no vaccine or antiserum that has yet been used has
been free from complications or accidents . . . [with respect to assessing the
"degree of possible danger" he indicates that] Unless both the numerator and the
denominator are known, quantitative assessments may fall wide of the true mark. Moreover,
the risk, even for a single vaccine, is not uniform. It varies, among other things, with
the immunological status of the population concerned..The inherent danger of all vaccination procedures should be a deterrent to their
unnecessary or unjustifiable use. Vaccination is far too often employed, especially in the
developing countries . . . and should not be used as an [instead] excuse from applying the
well tried standard methods for the prevention of infectious disease. Most important is it
to realize the potential dangers of mass immunization. In such an operation time does not
permit an inquiry into the suitability of each individual subject for vaccination.125
A strong echo of Wilson’s conclusion that vaccine damage is chronically
under reported, is found in the official minutes of the 15th session of the US Panel of Review of Bacterial Vaccines and Toxoids with
Standards and Potency.
Many physicians are not cognizant of the importance of reporting
untoward reactions, or may be unaware of their clinical features. Further, both physicians
and manufacturers have been held liable for damage suits by patients who may suffer
adverse effects from established vaccines. All of these factors undoubtedly discourage
reporting; without some other form of surveillance, definition of the rates and
significance of untoward reactions to current and future vaccines cannot be ascertained.126
H.S. Martland, former Chief Medical Examiner for Essex County New York,
describes how the above unawareness actually translates into practice:
Deaths from brain and spinal cord diseases (poliomyelitis,
encephalitis, and meningitis) resulting from . . . immunizations sometimes are attributed
to other causes, because doctors are not sufficiently alerted to the connection between
immunizations and the deaths. . . .127
Neustadter maintains that the research on vaccine side effects by the
pharmaceutical industry remains seriously marginalized due to a significant number of
vaccine reactions going unreported, and the fact that it is often difficult to attribute
delayed effects with a vaccine. He further suggests that the reason that the
medico-pharmaceutical industry has consistently failed to address the unanswered question
of the long term effects of vaccines, stems largely from their overriding interest in the
active promotion, and rapid marketing of vaccines. Investigation of their adverse side
effects generally remains a non-priority issue, insofar as such efforts may undermine the
public’s acceptance of their products.128 On the other hand, Snead suggests that when laboratories go public to the media
and confirm that "no known problems" exist, this does not mean that scientists
have researched to the limits of their knowledge and found no side effects, but rather
that no research has actually been done.129
Although there is compelling evidence that vaccine induced damage remains chronically
under-reported, it is of interest that B. Bloom of the Albert Einstein College of
Medicine, openly admits that there is today an emerging reluctance on the part of
medico-pharrnaceutical industry to further develop vaccines, for both the developed and
Developing Worlds. According to Bloom, this reluctance stems from the fact that financial
losses due to the "liability" of established vaccines, actually exceed the
"profits" derived from them.130 In this vein, Mendelsohn indicates that vaccine costs have
"skyrocketed" as a consequence of multiple jury awards to damaged children. In
his words:
As more and more parents begin to recognize the link between vaccines
and their child’s condition–epilepsy, convulsions, mental retardation, cerebral palsy,
Sudden Infant Death, etc.–lawsuits have become commonplace. As drug companies exit the
vaccine field, public health authorities worry about vaccine shortages. 131
OF WHAT DO VACCINE PRODUCTS CONSIST?
It would be instructive to consider the range of substances–additional to the attenuated
virus etc. normally found in vaccine products. Specific viruses and bacteria are grown in
the following substances, with their foreign proteins (antigens) including those derived
from: pig or horse blood; rabbit brain tissue; dog and monkey kidney tissue; chicken and
duck egg; and calf serum. (It is generally acknowledged that any foreign substances
including proteins–which have not been filtered through the body’s normal digestive
assimilative, and excretory processes, can be highly toxic when freely ranging in the
lymphatic and blood systems.) Other foreign additives normally found in various vaccines
include:
- formaldehyde–(a known carcinogen)
- thimerosal–(an organomercurial antiseptic–49% mercury–although the
mercury is "closely bound," it nonetheless is a toxic metal difficult for the
system to eliminate) - aluminum potassium sulphate (toxic)
- aluminum phosphate–(a toxic substance commonly used in deodorants)
- lactalbumin hydrolysate
- phenol (carbolic acid)–(extremely toxic, not permitted in anti-toxins)
- acetone–(volatile, and can easily cross the placental barrier)
- glycerin–(tri-atomic alcohol derived from decomposed fats which can
damage kidney, liver, lungs, local tissue; cause dieresis and possible death.)132
Commenting on the inclusion of such substances in vaccine products, R.
Moskowitz indicates that "the fact is that we do not know and have never attempted to
discover what actually becomes of these foreign substances, once they are inside of the
body."133 Although there are
"rigid" precautions in licensing the use and quantity of these common
stabilizers and preservative, it certainly seems self-evident that there should be further
research to better determine what relationship–if any–exists between such poisons, and
various adverse reactions.
SOME
OBSERVED AND POTENTIAL ADVERSE EFFECTS OF SPACIFIC VACCINES AND TOXOIDS–DIAGNOSABLE
IN THE SHORT TERM
By principally focusing on stimulating the production of antibody–which increasing
evidence suggests is only one marginal indicative factor among many in immunity to
disease–while ignoring the basic multiple determinants of natural immunity (health),
viruses, foreign antigens and proteins are placed directly into the body tissues and are
in turn carried throughout the circulatory system (without censoring by the liver) giving
them direct accessibility to all of the body’s vital organs and systems. Furthermore, it
is an EPI strategy that this short-circuiting of the body’s natural defense system is
imposed at an extremely vulnerable time of life.134 The stage has thus been set for the advent of a wide range of adverse
complications and sequelae.
What follows is a simple listing of observed side effects of specific vaccines, or when
noted toxoids. Practically all of the conditions listed are commonly reported in the
medical literature as linked to the prior administration of the particular vaccine or
toxoid noted. A few conditions listed–such as the sudden infant death syndrome linked to
the pertussis vaccine–are not admitted by mainstream medicine as an adverse effect of
that particular vaccine, however the research as referenced is reputable and points
otherwise. (The vaccines covered in this section have been confined to those prescribed in
the Universal Childhood Immunization program.)
MEASLES
- atypical measles (a more serious form of measles)
- encephalopathy (irreversible brain damage)
- subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (progressive brain damage which can
lead to death) - ataxia (incoordination in voluntary muscular movements)
- mental retardation
- aseptic meningitis (inflammation of the membranes of spinal cord or
brain) - seizure disorders
- encephalitis (inflammation of the brain)
- hemiparesis (half-body paralysis)
- retinopathy and blindness
- secondary complications can include:
juvenile-onset diabetes
Reye’s syndrome
multiplesclerosis (degeneration of the central nervous system)135
PERTUSSIS (WHOOPING COUGH)
- hyperactivity
- anaphylaxis (hyper-reaction which can include convulsions,
unconsciousness and or death) - epileptic type convulsions
- learning disorders (including IQ reduction)
- encephalopathy
- febrile seizures
- invasive bacterial infections
- hay fever
- asthma
- encephalitis
- sudden infant death (SIDS)136
DIPHTHERIA
(The following has occurred with combined diphtheria-tetanus vaccination, and could be
associated with either.)
- altered electroencephalogram readings
- seizures137
TETANUS TOXOID
- brachial plexus neuropathy (disease affecting nerves which serve the arm,
forearm and hand) - anaphylaxis
- encephalitis
- recurrent abscesses (at injection site)
- abdominal pain
- debility 138
POLIO (OPV–ORAL LIVE-VIRUS)
- paralytic polio
- congenital brain tumors (transmitted by mothers who received vaccine
during pregnancy)139
GENERAL (I.E., IN COMBINATION)
- meningitis 140
EXTENT
AND NATURE OF OBSERVABLE VACCINE DAMAGE
There is a considerable range in estimates given as to the frequency of damage being
produced by particular vaccines. A case in point is the American manufactured DPT vaccine,
for which the claim is made that only 1 in 300,000 vaccinates exhibit permanent neurologic
damage,141 whereas other
researchers suggest that permanent damage levels can reach as high as 1 in 300.142 Coumoyer’s research findings fall between
these two extremes for permanent neurologic or brain damage. Her conclusions indicate that
the following varied rate reactions occur in vaccinates, per number of children
vaccinated:
- Persistent crying–1 in 20
- High fever–1 in 66
- High pitched screaming–1 in 180
- Convulsions–1 in 350
- Shock like condition or collapse–1 in 350
- Acute brain disorder–1 in 22,000
- Permanent brain damage–1 in 62,000
- Death–1 in 71,600.143
Again to illustrate the great variation in estimates, a relatively
recent study at UCLA (see Cody et al, ref 136) found that as many as one in every 13
children exhibited persistent high pitched crying after receiving the DPT vaccine. In
reference to this specific reaction, physician B. Young states that "This may be
indicative of brain damage in the recipient child."144
According to data researched by Coulter and Fisher, of the 3.3 million children vaccinated
yearly in the US: 16,038 have high pitched (encephalitic) screaming (which is considered
by many neurologists as indicative of central nervous system irritation); 8,484 have
convulsions; and 8,484 undergo collapse; "for an annual total of 33,006 cases of
acute neurological reactions within 48 hours of a DPT shot." The authors further
suggest that there is a strong basis for concern with respect to the long term reaction to
the DPT vaccine.
Severe neurologic sequelae may . . . occur after vaccination in the absence of an acute
reaction. When the baby reacts to a DPT shot with "a slight fever and fussiness for a
few days" this may be, and often is, a case of encephalitis which is quite capable of
causing even quite severe long-term neurologic consequences . . . . They further suggest
that any who would dismiss this possibility, must first establish a basis for
distinguishing between post-vaccinal encephalitis and encephalitis arising from other
causes.145
As a final observation on the issue of short term vaccine dangers, is the postulated
linkage of immunization with the "mysterious" problem of sudden infant death
(SIDS) in which infants can die "suddenly and quietly" in their cribs.
Australian microbiologist Glen Dettman explains that when large amounts of an antigen are
given the body responds by a massive release of adrenal products including: cortisol,
adrenalin, and an excessive level of endorphins, actually "as much as a thousand
times more than is normally released by the brain." He goes on to observe that:
The endorphins will suppress respiration and cardiac function. Thus
if a child with malnutrition, or an immune problem, is given a load of antigen larger than
it can handle–and this antigen may be an immunisation–endorphins may result in
respiratory or cardiac failure and death.146
Torch’s research indicates that two-thirds of 103 infants who were
victims of the sudden death syndrome had been immunized with DPT vaccine within the 3 week
period preceding death, with many dying within a day of receiving the vaccine.147 In a widely debated occurrence of SIDS in
Tennessee (USA), in which eleven infant deaths occurred within eight days of a DPT
vaccination, (nine from the same lot), and five within 24 hours of vaccination (four from
the same lot). Mortimer reported that the probability of this being mere chance or
coincidental to be between 2 and 5 in 1,000;148 whereas Shannon reported a much lower chance association of 4 and 5 in 10,000.149
LONG TERM
(DELAYED) POTENTIAL ADVERSE EFFECTS OF IMMUNIZATION
Leaving the continuing controversies that exist over the extent and nature of observable
adverse reactions to vaccines, we go on to the equally serious spectre of delayed
reactions and the larger unanswered questions which surround the long term consequences of
immunization. (The material in both this and the following section on "Immunization
and Immune Malfunction" is afforded not necessarily as definitive and factual
conclusions, but rather as preliminary research observations on vital–albeit
controversial–issues and questions which undoubtedly merit further examination, research
and analyses.) We began the exploration of this issue by reviewing some basic concepts and
concerns relative to the strongly suspected linkage between live viral vaccines and the
enormous escalation of varied auto-immune disorders.
Joshua Lederberg, a Stanford University School of Medicine geneticist and Nobel Prize
winner, was perhaps the first to raise the warning that the use of live virus vaccines in
mass immunization campaigns represents "biological engineering on a rather large
scale." He goes on to comment:
While these [vaccines] are thought to be of indubitable value for
preventing serious diseases, their global impact on the development of human beings of a
side range of genotypes is hard to assess at our present stage of wisdom. . . . Live
viruses are themselves genetic messages used for the purpose of programming human cells
for the synthesis of immunogenic virus antigens.150
Researchers such as Buttram postulate that the use of live viral
vaccines in mass immunization programs introduces foreign genetic material into the human
system, which has precipitated an unprecedented escalation of various auto-immune
disorders in recent decades. These are disorders wherein antibodies or immune cells
indiscriminately attack the tissues of one’s own body-mind complex.151
Harvard graduate and physician, R. Moskowitz, explains how the live viruses in vaccines
can, in the long term, lead to such auto-immune disease conditions. Vaccinal attenuated
viruses attach their own genetic "episome" to the genome (half set of
chromosomes and their genes) of the host cell, and are thus capable of surviving or
remaining latent within the host cells for years. The presence of this foreign antigenic
material within the host cell sets the stage for their unpredictable provocation of
various auto-immune phenomena such as herpes, shingles, warts, tumors–both benign and
malignant–and diseases of the central nervous system, such as varied forms of paralysis
and inflammation of the brain.152
Markowitz further poses the caution that vaccines do not act by merely producing pale or
mild copies of the original disease, but all of them commonly produce a variety of
symptoms of their very own. In some cases "these illnesses may be considerably more
serious than the original disease, involving deeper structures, more vital organs, and
less of a tendency to resolve spontaneously. Even more worrisome is the fact that they are
almost always more difficult to recognize."153
A British Medical Journal article by Miller et al, reports that "Various
German authors have described the apparent provocation of multiple sclerosis
by–vaccination against smallpox, typhoid, tetanus, polio, and tuberculosis."154 No less disconcerting is the warning raised
by Rutgers University Professor R. Simpson when he addressed science writers at a seminar
sponsored by the American Cancer Society:
Immunization Programs against flu, measles, mumps, polio and so forth
may actually be seeding humans with RNA to form latent proviruses in cells throughout the
body. These latent proviruses could be molecules in search of diseases, including
rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Parkinson’s
disease, and perhaps cancer.155
As if echoing Simpson, Dettman also raises the caution: that "some
of the attenuated strains of vaccines that we advocate may be implicated with . . . a
number of degenerative diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, leukaemia, diabetes and
multiple sclerosis."156
A study in Science reported a notable similarity between certain diffffent viruses
(including measles and influenza) and the protein structure of the brains protective
myelin sheaths. This being the case, antibodies induced by live viral vaccines could well
be cross reacting and attacking brain cells.157 Medical historian Harris Coulter has developed a systematic and comprehensive
thesis that childhood immunizations frequently result in a demyelinating encephalitis.(As
already noted, encephalitis [inflammation of the brain] has been associated with the
pertussis, tetanus, and measles vaccines.) This condition prevents the normal development
of the protective myelin sheaths of the brain and nerve cells during infancy and early
childhood. Such adverse pathologic changes may, on a visible level, lead to a range of
leaming disabilities and behaviourial problems, (As many as one in five elementary school
children are now considered to have some form of minimal brain damage."158 It is also estimated that in the US over one
million children are medicated with powerful amphetamine drugs.159) 158, 159 which are now
being encountered in the West with increasing frequency.160
Bruce Rabin, a professor of pathology and psychiatry at Western Psychiatric Institute,
Pittsburgh has found evidence that approximately one-third of all cases of schizophrenia
are auto-immune in nature, with immune bodies attacking the brain cells.161 When we consider the alarming increase in
the numbers of schizophrenic cases, and the now credible "viral hypothesis of mental
disorders,"162 childhood
vaccine programs can be considered as highly suspect in playing a causative role.
Medical Professor, R. Mendelsohn summarily comments that:
While the myriad short-term hazards of most immunizations are known
(but rarely explained), no one knows the long-term consequences of injecting foreign
proteins into the body . . . . Even more shocking is the fact that no one is making any
structured effort to find out.There is growing suspicion that immunization against . . . childhood diseases may be
responsible for the dramatic increase in auto-immune diseases since mass inoculations were
introduced. These are fearful diseases such as cancer, leukaemia, rheumatoid arthritis,
multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s disease, lupus erythematosus, and the Guillain-Barré
syndrome. . . . Have we traded mumps and measles for cancer and leukaemia? 163
Noted Russian specialist in neuro-pathology, A.D. Speransky, concurs
with the foregoing premonitory insights when he warns that post-vaccinal diseases might
occur long after the operation has been forgotten. He raises the disquieting observation
that ". . . it is conceivable that by these methods we may be crippling
humanity."164
Whether considering the short or longer term dangers of immunization programs, it is
further unsettling when we consider the evidence that the public cannot really place much
confidence in organized medicine to conduct itself in an honest and forthright fashion.
For example, in 1982 the Forum of the American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP) rejected a
proposed resolution which would have ensured that the:
AAP make available in clear, concise language information which a
reasonable parent would want to know about the benefits and risks of routine
immunizations, the risks of vaccine preventable diseases and the management of common
adverse reactions to immunizations.165
EVIDENCES FOR
IMMUNIZATION INDUCED IMMUNE MALFUNCTION
There is a growing body of evidence that vaccinations damage the immune system itself. For
example, during a placebo controlled trial of acellular pertussis vaccines, a cluster of
invasive bacterial infections with fatal outcome occurred among vaccinated children, as
compared with unvaccinated children of the same birth grouping. A review of the trial data
led to the conclusion that "The hypothesis of an immunosuppresive effect of the
vaccines, which would explain the deaths . . . could not be refuted by the data."166
It is the studied conclusion of H. Buttram and J. Hoffman (Harold Buffram M.D., a graduate
of Oklahoma Medical School, with a post internship in internal medicine, has over 30 years
of medical practice in the State of Pennsylvania. John Hoffman Ph.D., is a Cell Biologist
and when interviewed was serving as a biomedical researcher in the Department of Molecular
Biology at the University of Wyoming), that early childhood vaccination "cannot help
but have adverse effects on the immunologic system of the child, possibly leaving this
system crippled in its ability to protect the child throughout life . . . . opening the
way for other diseases as a result of immunologic dysfunction."167
In reviewing their hypothesis of vaccine induced immune malfunction the evidence they
present is substantive (citing numerous references, including four recognized textbooks on
paediatrics and immunology), and their line of reasoning convincing. The following
observations are made:
- "For many years immunologists have been aware of a state of anergy
(immunological unresponsiveness) following certain vaccinations" - A US Center for Disease Control examination of 700 Peace Corps volunteers
who had undergone a set of multiple vaccine injections in the US before departure,
exhibited an extremely weakened immune system response to the vaccine (HDCV) administered
after their arrival overseas - Vaccination against one disease seems to provoke another (on this point,
a physician’s report of 15 case histories, over a five year period, where
diphtheria-pertussis vaccination lead to paralytic polio is described, and Sir Graham
Wilson is quoted [this doc. ref 7], "when a vaccine is injected . . . a latent
infection that might have given rise to no illness is converted into a clinical
attack.") - Vaccines have been implicated by numerous investigators as playing a
"causative or contributory role" to various auto-immune and degenerative
diseases, and suggests that their role in the onset of allergies or their worsening, and
lowered resistance to infections needs to be further investigated - Given the one cell–one antibody rule, once an immune body (plasma cell
or lymphocyte) becomes committed to a given antigen, it becomes inert and incapable of
responding to other antigens or challenges to the immune system. It is estimated that up 7
percent of the body’s overall immune capacity is committed in the natural immunological
response to the usual childhood diseases, whereas a child who undergoes the course of
routine childhood vaccines could be realizing a committal level of up 70 percent - The consequences of this significantly higher committal could result in
increased susceptibility to other infections, allergies, and auto-immune diseases. (This
particular observation is based upon sophisticated research carried out by the Arthur
Research Corporation, based in Tucson, Arizona.) - Evidence indicates that maternal immunization "may remove (abrogate)
immune defense from the level of the mucosa, thus potentially weakening mucosal
resistance" (immunologists have long recognized that the mucosal surface serves as a
"first line of defense" against infection) - Abnormal drops in the ratio of helper-to-suppresser T–lymphocyte cell
subpopulations in healthy subjects (a condition now associated with AIDS, and possibly
linked to transient hypogammaglobulinemia), observed after tetanus booster immunization - Circumstantial evidence indicates that "cross-cultural" mass
immunization programs may be predisposing the onset of acquired immune deficiency syndrome
in "virgin soil" populations as found in the Developing World, "which have
not historically been subjected to the common diseases of Western civilization" - There remains a great need to conduct careful studies on the potential
"immunosuppressive effects of vaccines," particularly with respect to
"cross-cultural immunizations where exaggerated adverse responses would more likely
be detected" - Where there is already advanced impairment in a child’s general immune
system, the injection of multiple antigens (vaccination), can weaken it further to the
point of precipitating death in the vaccinate - Before public endorsement is accorded to the extensive usage of vaccines,
certain preconditions should be addressed which include: a comprehensive evaluation of the
multiple factors which constitute the etiologic basis of infectious disease; and the full
range of factors and influences which determine natural resistance to infection and
disease; with a full public disclosure of such research data.168
Despite the fact that immune malfunction is "often delayed,
indirect, and masked, (and) its true nature is seldom recognized," there is now
sufficient evidence to suggest that growing disclosure of both the short and longer term
dangers of current vaccination programs will serve to precipitate public demand for
research to examine danger-free alternative methods for the prevention of infectious
diseases.169
J.E. Craighead, in summarizing the results of a workshop on "Disease Accentuation
after Immunization with Inactivated Microbial Vaccines," sponsored by the US National
Institutes of Health, indicated that the process of:
. . . immuno-prophylaxis can be carried out safely only when the
natural history and pathogenesis of a disease is understood. In each of the conditions
considered at the workshop, this detailed knowledge was lacking when vaccine trials were
initiated in man. Had the vaccines induced lasting solid immunity, prolonged protection
might have resulted, although this conclusion is far from certain. Moreover, production of
circulating antibodies or induction of cellular immunity (or both) may be hazardous when
local immune mechanisms of the mucosa are not operative.
Accentuation of disease was an unexpected complication of immunization in each of the
conditions. Disease was accentuated when the subject (vaccinate) was exposed again,
experimentally or under natural circumstances, weeks or even years after completion of the
immunization regimen. Prolonged, intensive surveillance of immunization subjects
apparently is a requirement. . . . One can only wonder whether or not recipients of
currently licensed vaccines . . . that provide variable and transient immunity are being
followed adequately . . . . Accumulating evidence strongly suggests that susceptibility to
infection and disease is affected by still undefined constitutional influences. 170
It is evident that Craighead’s key question of what constitutes the
still undefined "influences" will be effectively resolved only when the focus of
selective medicine is able to make a radical shift towards displacing its present
adventitious arsenal of vaccines and toxic drugs, with the normal and natural requisites
of life and health. This is stated because the historical record, and common sense point
to the latter approach as constituting the only sound basis for ensuring–not
undermining–immune functionality, thus effectively resolving the actual underlying causes
of both infectious and degenerative disease in man.
THE ETHICS OF UNIVERSAL
CHILDHOOD IMMUNIZATION
There is indeed more than sufficient evidence to warrant far greater caution and
questioning, than is now evident in the public drumbeating, idealism, and unqualified
affirmations promoting the safety and effectiveness of Universal Childhood Immunization
Programs. In fairness, it can be noted that some cautions have been raised on this issue
from within medical circles. In summarizing an article on whether prevention of
post-immunization adverse effects is possible, the editor(s) of Postgraduate Medicine
recommend that:
Parents must be informed of the rare possibility of serious adverse
effects, including seizure and allergic reaction. Every physician who administers vaccine
therefore needs to become familiar with the reactions that may occur with each immunologic
agent used. The best safeguard against litigation, when and if a serious reaction follows
vaccination, is the indication that these considerations were discussed and that an
informed choice was made.171
Nonetheless, we find that UCI-EPI as it has been generally conceived and
executed represents two major departures from the time honoured ethics and traditions of
medicine. These are:
- that all forms of treatment should be individualized, particularly when
prescribing or injecting substances which carry the potential for disease, disablement,
and death; and - the objectively informed patient (or parent) should always have absolute
freedom to accept or reject any given measure or therapy, and have reasonable opportunity
to consider alternatives.172
Just as environmentalists rightly challenge the appropriateness and
right of big business interests to pollute our fragile natural environment with man-made
chemicals, there arises the more personal, urgent and serious matter of protecting the
precious body-mind complex from foreign and complex biological products that may well be
touted as safe today, but condemned as dangerous tomorrow. Indeed scientists and
physicians now openly admit that they have only a limited knowledge of the short term, and
even less understanding of the long term consequences of challenging the bio-immune
systems of children with a myriad of manufactured vaccines and related toxins.
This in turn poses the more basic question of whether medical and political authorities
have the actual right–by reason and moral justice–to compel and expose unnumbered
children the world over to undertake what are in fact unnecessary and potentially
dangerous risks to their life and long term health. It is reprehensible that such actions
continue to be enforced by authorities, while parents and local health workers are not
accorded any practical knowledge of the known dangers involved, and the extent to which
there prevails a general ignorance of the longer term consequences.173
It goes without saying that monopolization is just as dangerous in public health as is it
is in the field of general business. The human experience has demonstrated time and again
that monopoly and compulsion in any field inevitably brings stagnation, whereas freedom of
choice and the opportunity to explore alternatives brings genuine progress.174
BANE OR BOON? SELECTIVE
MEDICINE IN PRIMARY HEALTH CARE
Given the fact that UCI stands at the forefront as a centrepiece in the
"selective medicine primary health care model" (around which has grown a
powerful multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry), we must reconsider its overall
relevance to human health. In selective medicine the relationship becomes one where the
professional alone holds the authorized enlightenment and skills, while the community and
its people come to represent the baser qualities of ignorance and subservient faith. This
dynamic engenders in the community an unhealthful respect for officially authorized
solutions, even when their effectiveness is in fact illusory. The Aboriginal peoples of N.
America have now reached the unenviable distinction of being not only the most thoroughly
immunized and medically drugged, but also the sickest group on the continent (e.g., by the
late 1970s, the Canadian Aboriginal infant mortality rate was double that of the general
population, with life expectancy at 36 years compared with 62 years among Canadians
generally.)175
Furthermore, alarming evidence suggests that in many Aboriginal communities there is a
continuing escalation in degenerative diseases and social malaise. Both paleopathological
and historical data convincingly indicate that when living a way of life closely
predicated upon natural law, and free of adventitious medical interventions, North
American Aboriginals were distinguished as being one of the healthiest of world peoples.176
A more recent, albeit equally instructive picture can be fund among the Maori (Polynesian)
people, who likewise have been especially earmarked by their national government (New
Zealand) to receive the benefits of selective medical intervention. A study covering the
period of 1968 to 1971 found that when compared with their racial counterparts who live in
the remote island nations of the Pacific, the New Zealand Maoris appeared more inclined to
suffer from infectious disease, rheumatic fever, and tuberculosis. They also seemed
considerably more prone to develop degenerative conditions such as heart disease and
diabetes, afflictions which were then virtually foreign to the remote island peoples. (In
fact, among Maori women in the age grouping of 35 to 55, coronary heart disease was four
to five times as frequent as among women of the same age group living on the atolls of the
central Pacific.)177
In the final analysis, disquieting evidence–much of which is not cited in this
research–suggests the overall irrelevance of selective Western medicine to effecting
longevity and ensuring general freedom from a range of infectious and degenerative
diseases. Furthermore, as a system, it continues to significantly contribute to human
morbidity and mortality"178
(e.g., it has been shown in the USA, Holland, Israel and other developed nations that when
physicians engage in a complete strike, within a week to 10 days death rates actually
plummet, in some cases by as much as 60 percent).
It would be appropriate here to quote Illich’s unambiguous observation that "Society
can have no quantitative standards by which to add up the negative value of illusion,
social control, prolonged suffering, loneliness, genetic deterioration and frustration
produced by medical treatment."179 In reference to selective medicine’s central focus on absolving mankind from
giving due respect to the natural laws of cause and effect, Mahatma Gandhi shares the
following perspective.
I was at one time a great lover of the medical profession. . . . I no
longer hold that opinion. . . . Doctors have almost unhinged us. . . . I regard the
present system as black magic. . . . Hospitals are institutions for propagating sin. Men
take less care of their bodies and immorality increases. . . . ignoring the soul, the
profession puts men at its mercy and contributes to the diminution of human dignity and
self control. . . . I have endeavoured to show that there is no real service of humanity
in the profession, and that it is injurious to mankind. . . . I believe that a
multiplicity of hospitals is not test of civilization. It is rather a symptom of decay.180
Evidence suggests that Western medicine’s over specialization and
singular focus on pathology has literally obfuscated its perception and undermined its
faith in the preventive and restorative power of the normal requisites of health. To a
great extent it thus remains as an inexact and ever shifting system of trial and error,
apparently more interested in maintaining its monopolistic pecuniary interests and
professionalist pride, than in opening itself to new avenues of thinking and practice.
With all seriousness then we must raise the question as to whether we can realistically
expect the self-same medico-industrial system that has for so long offered humankind
little more than palliative and pathological inducing vaccines and drugs, to offer us
anything better. (To obtain additional background on the practical impacts which the
medico-industrial system of the West is having on the Developing World, please refer to
Annex I–Problems With Developing World Medicalization and the Traditional Medicine
Alternative.) It is here that we turn to consider the larger issue of what constitutes
safer, more effective and sustainable approaches to ensuring the development and
maintenance of human health.
SECTION II
TOWARDS MORE APPROPRIATE PRIORITIES IN DEVELOPING WORLD PRIMARY HEALTH CARE
We should ascertain whether natural resistance to infections could be
conferred on man by definite conditions of life. Injections of a specific vaccine or serum
for each disease, repeated medical examinations of the whole population, construction of
gigantic hospitals, are expensive and not very effective means of preventing diseases and
of developing a nation’s health.Alexis Carrel in Man the Unknown, p.207
THE REAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
IN a recent article in the WHO publication World Health, Khan et. al suggest
that normatively health services in the Developing World continue to be either
substandard, inaccessible, unaffordable and under-utilized, or to "suffer from a
combination of these factors." The authors go on to comment that while the
governments of many nations "have spent millions on building physical infrastructures
at district levels, the over-all health status, especially of the urban and rural poor
remains deplorable."181
This and a number of like articles on Primary Health Care and UCI, suggest that the prime
weaknesses now requiring rectification relate to inadequate local involvement in and the
non-sustainability of medical services. Without any intent to lessen the critical
importance of local participation and sustainability in development, I would put forward
the view that each of the specific problems and weaknesses as identified, including the
larger issue of overall ineffectiveness, stem from the very principles and nature of
conventional selective medicine itself Primarily the medicine (both vaccines and drugs
representing the arsenal of what is postulated as a "war on disease") and
secondarily the established system whereby it is "delivered," is what is
ineffective. In place of the popular drumbeating for local communities to further embrace
and sustain this system, there are far more urgent and fundamental health priorities that
must be addressed.
In a chapter on "Health and the Human Environment" found on the classic work Health,
Food and Nutrition in Third World Development, M. Sharpston provides critical insights
on how multiple social and environmental factors ultimately serve as the real determinants
of survival, or alternatively death. In his words ". . . there is a limit to what
conventional health services can achieve in an unchanged physical and social
environment." He then refers to the experience of a medical school affiliated
hospital in Cali, Columbia which had a special program for premature infants. During their
period of critical care, survival rates remained comparable to those found in North
American critical care settings, however within three months of being discharged, 70
percent of the infants had died. With reference to those regions within the Developing
World where notable health improvements have occurred he suggests that:
The most likely factors leading to health improvements . . . are
a rise in the levels of nutrition and the slow spread of modern ideas of personal hygiene.
Across the Developing World, per capita incomes are rising, and transport systems are
improving,, the result is more food, better quality food, fewer localized food shortages,
and a more varied diet. In other words, the principal factor behind the improvement in
health . . . in Developing countries is probably not any form of health measure,
but economic development itself. . . . Mere exposure to a disease agent need not produce
clinical disease and very frequently does not do so. Malnutrition is of such significance
essentially because it hampers the body’s resistance. Malnutrition acts
"synergistically" with disease agents to increase the incidence of clinical
disease and aggravate its severity."182
In a very recent article focusing on the major influences on health in
the Developing World, Thomas McKeown, past Chairman of the World Health Organization (WHO)
Advisory Group on Research Strategy also articulates a view that clearly takes the
issue of human health out delimiting bounds of selective medicine. His incisive conclusion
follows:
. . . evidence is now available from a number of Third World
countries that have advanced rapidly in health: China, Costa Rica, Cuba, India (Kerala
State), Jamaica, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and a few others.. . . The improvement in
health was almost entirely due to a reduction from infectious disease. To assess
priorities in health policies in the Third World the chief requirement is therefore to
come to a conclusion about the reasons for the decline of the infections.. . . All the countries that advanced rapidly achieved a substantial improvement in
nutrition, which led to increased resistance. Indeed in some countries this was the only
important direct influence. It is perhaps surprising that immunization appears to have
contributed relatively little to the advances . . . the reduction in mortality
occurred during a period when vaccine coverage was still low.To anyone who has traveled extensively in the rural areas of the Third World, the common
causes of ill health may seem self-evident. Many children are visibly malnourished,
sanitary conditions are primitive, drinking water is unclean, the food . . . is
contaminated, and the number of people competing for the means of life is clearly
excessive. Our conclusions concerning the determinants of health can be epitomized by the
simple statement that people must have enough to eat and must not be poisoned.183
In a World Health article highly germane to the
"determinants" as raised by McKeown, Finland’s H. Hellberg (a former Division
Director at the WHO) postulates that the success of any genuine effort to alleviate
disease in the Developing World must incorporate "intersectoral and multisectoral
action." In his words "involvement of specialists other than the traditional
healing professions; water, food, housing, sanitation and education are all important
prerequisites for health. If they are neglected curative repair . . . may even be
impossible."184
To conclude these critical observations on Developing World health development priorities,
it would prove instructive to consider the similar conclusions reached by K.L. Standard
(Professor and Head of the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of the
West Indies).
. . . . mere survival is not enough. With no improvement in their
standard of living and nutrition, they (children) frequently succumb to infection, with
repeated relapses . . . . It will be extremely difficult to make further reductions
in mortality rates in developing countries without significantly raising standards of
living, including nutrition. Among the general measures of primary prevention that may be
considered, an increase of food production is of paramount importance. Environmental
sanitation deserves high priority, and health education of the public is a key activity at
both national and community levels. . . . The final and permanent answer to the problem
will rest in. social and economic development . . . taking into account the need for
nutritional improvement of the present generation.For obvious reasons, the highest priority must be given to preventive measures. If good
nutritional status is maintained in the first years of life, successive attacks of most
infectious diseases of moderate virulence will probably produce no more than mild effects..
. . Optimal maternal diet during pregnancy, prolonged breastfeeding, progressive
weaning with appropriate foods, and education of mothers on infant-feeding practices are
the basis of good nutritional status in children.185
ECLIPSING THE SPIRIT OF
ALMA ATA
It would be instructive at this point to go back to relatively recent history to see how
this vitally sound and rational perspective was officially recognized at an international
level, but then practically scuttled in favour of the annamentarium of Universal Childhood
Immunization.
On the opening page of the recently completed Evaluation Assessment of the Canadian
International Development Agency’s (CIDA) Health Sector the observation is made that by
the mid-seventies, "after more than 30 years of international health assistance, it
had become apparent that curative strategies that directly addressed disease causing
agents had failed . . . recipient countries . . . [in meeting] their long term health
needs."186 It was a
recognition of this reality that presumably led Canada and other industrialized nations to
the signing of the historic Alma Ata Declaration in 1978. The basic principles of Primary
Health Care as embodied in this Declaration follow:
|
1 . Equitable Distribution– addressing the root causes of ill |
By 1980 CIDA published a public affairs statement on CIDA’s Involvement in Health
thereby reaffirming that in its support of Bilateral Primary Health Care initiatives in
the Developing World, the Agency would place central priority on: the training of health
auxiliaries; health and nutrition; essential education; adequate food production; potable
water supply; family planning; and provision of simple equipment and supplies.188
Despite the virtual eclipsing of these priorities by Canada’s massively increased support
for Universal Childhood Immunization in the late 80′s and into the 90′s, the Canadian
Govemment’s Official Development Assistance Policy as embodied in the 1987 policy document
Sharing Our Future, actually emphasizes that a fundamental priority of CIDA "must be
to supply all the basics of health" which is defined as "clean water,
sanitation, (and) adequate nutrition." Furthermore there was to be a mobilization of
the poor at the community level as "partners" in the design, implementation and
evaluation of health activities.189
Canada’s aforenoted actions have not been singular, as it must be noted that virtually all
of the industrialized nations had likewise overshadowed their earlier vision and
commitment to ensuring fundamental health improvement measures by instead allocating a
major portion of their "health" investments to mass artificial immunization and
selective curative programs. In response to this major reversal, in November of 1985
alarmed community health specialists and practitioners from several developed and
developing nations convened at Antwerp, and there articulated what is called The
Antwerp Manifesto For Primary Health Care. Some key excerpts from the Manifesto
follow:
. . . In spite of the lessons of history and of past experiences,
major and international donor agencies are diverting scarce resources into a short term
approach known as "selective primary health care. . . " This approach is in
total contradiction with the fundamental principles underlying Primary Health Care. These
principles are:
- The main roots of poor health lie in living conditions and the
environment in general, and more specifically in poverty, (and) inequity . . . of
resources in relation to needs- Since health is . . . of people, it is self defeating not to consider
them as partners who are able to play a great part in the protection and improvement of
their own health- Health services must provide . . . promotive and rehabilitative
measures. This has to be done in a coordinated and integrated way which responds to the
peoples needs.This manifesto is issued because the proliferation of selective
health intervention programmes undermines . . . Primary Health Care. It is issued also
because these interventions purport to offer "quick solutions" and "instant
success" for which they divert scarce resources from the solution of the real
underlying and continuing problems, thus helping to maintain ill health. In addition,
experience has taught us that selective interventions tend to become permanent even though
they are presented as "interim" responses only. . . . And above all, the
selective approach rules out the possibility of people’s participation in decision making
about their own health.190
EMERGING–A MORE
PRACTICABLE PRIMARY HEALTH CARE MODEL
Table E which follows on the next two pages, was developed with the appreciated
assistance of medical sociologist L. Chetelat. It provides a clear picture of the
paradigmatic contrasts existing between the selective war on disease model as exemplified
in Westem selective medicine, and the emerging causal based approach to health sustenance
and restoration.
The causal model is strongly predicated on the principle that man’s relationship to the
laws of nature (natural law) and life, must undergird any effective health maintenance and
or restoration strategy. Such an approach is recommended as inherently more sensible,
balanced, and cost effective for attaining and sustaining public health, whether among
Developed or Developing World populations. The causal based model strongly emphasizes the
importance of strengthening self-knowledge, self-responsibility, and self-care and thus
far more closely corresponds to the challenge and direction mandated in the historic Alma
Ata Declaration. It also affords genuine respect for the integral principles which
undergird the practice of participatory development. As a final point its characteristic
qualities of local accessibility, manageability, affordability, and effectiveness herald
its great promise for humankind.
| WAR ON DISEASE APPROACH | HEALTH CAUSAL APPROACH |
| 1. Orientation & Philosophy | 1. Orientation & Philosophy |
| Disease is understood as an entity separate from and attacking the patient. |
Recognition of acute disease as a systemic reparative process inseparable from the person. |
| The body and mind are separated, with distinct diseases and organs treated singly. |
Recognizes the body and mind as being inseparably one, to be treated as a unity. |
| The focus on labeling, isolating, and destroying "disease," i.e., its entities, and symptoms. |
The focus on strengthening the protective and regenerative health energies, and resources of the person. |
| 2. Causality | 2. Causality |
| The focus of causality is external to the patient–viruses, bacteria, poisons, and in more recent time stresses in the environment. |
The focus of causality is both internal to the person as it relates to primary lifestyle practices, deficiencies, negative emotions, etc.; and external as it relates to debilitative factors in the natural and social environments. |
| 3. Prevention & Cure | 3. Prevention & Cure |
| Artificially separates preventative and curative measures. | Recognizes that health sustenance and restoration depend on the selfsame measures. |
| The emphasis is on removing or palliating symptoms. It aims at achieving quick results. |
The emphasis is on removing causes through lifestyle, psycho-spiritual, and other sustainable changes to debilitative bio-nutritional, environmental, social, and political conditions. |
| Relies on highly sophisticated technological and costly measures that are not amenable to self and include: family based care, i.e., manufactured vaccines, organ transplants, drugs, etc. These measures are noted for bearing harmful side effects (latrogenesis). |
Relies on health building and restorative measures that are harmless, non-invasive, efficacious,and uncostly. These include adequate and quality nutrition, potable water, local (non-toxic) plant medicines, enhanced natural environment, and other apropos regenerative measures. |
| 4. Care Providers | 4. Care Providers |
| The emphasis is on exclusive management and control of health and disease by medical professionals who know all, while patients blindly follow the "doctor’s orders." |
Emphasis is placed on the informed and responsible involvement of people in understanding and managing their own health needs. |
| Relies solely on the expertise of highly trained medical professionals, holding occult knowledge, and unfathomable wisdom. |
Builds upon the distinctive knowledge and inherent capacities of individuals, families and communities. "Local healers" are prepared to provide basic care, coupled with training in wellness principles and family self care. |
| 5. Cost | 5. Cost |
| Cost is escalating to the point of being an unmanageable and unsustainable burden on society. |
Cost is de-escalating, to the point of being negligible. |
| 6. Research | 6. Research |
| Research focuses on tracking, isolating and destroying "disease" and its associated entities. |
Research focuses on better understanding and appropriating the fundamental requisites of life and health. |
| The absence of disease is considered the result of techno-medical interventions. |
The absence of disease is recognized as the consequences of compliance with the natural laws of creation. |
| 7. Health Care Outcomes | 7. Health Care Outcomes |
| Produces a system of disease care and disease scare. People learn to fear, distrust and disrespect the natural world, and their own bodies. |
Produces a system of health care based upon people developing a practical knowledge of, trust in and respect for the natural world, and for their own bodies. |
| People become unduly dependent on medical institutions and authorities. This in turn diminishes self-respect and moral responsibility, while coping strategies are diminished leading to resignation, helplessness and hopelessness. |
People develop and carry out coping strategies, which in turn will inevitably lead to better health, along with longer and fuller life. |
SECTION III
A CONSIDERATION OF ALTERNATIVES TO
ENSURING NATURAL IMMUNITY
THE
SOIL AS CHIEF DETERMINANT OF HEALTH AND THE FOUNDATION OF PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY
In recognition of the indubitable axiom that all forms of life derive their basic
sustenance from the earth itself, it remains equally evident that any policy to ensure
public health must first and foremost be predicated on ensuring the quality and integrity
of the soil. Prominent British horticulturist Sampson Morgan offers the following incisive
observation.
My long continued studies in the dust have convinced me that diseases
in soils, plants and men arise from conditions, brought about by the introduction of
poisons and by imperfect environment,- and experiments have satisfied me beyond doubt that
this is the natural and correct explanation.191
Indeed there is a substantial basis for suggesting that it is of the
highest importance that health and development ministries in both industrialized and
Developing World nations should henceforth predicate their strategic health policies upon
a practical recognition that the treatment and condition of the soil is by far the most
critical determinant of health (whether in plants, animals, or human beings). In his
seminal research on the underlying causes of the outstanding health and longevity among
the population of Hunza–a society that until very recently has remained essentially free
of medical intervention–G.T. Wrench aptly concluded:
The importance of the method of culture of food is primary, radical,
and fundamental in the matter of health. It exceeds all other aspects of nutrition. . .
Nature endows life with a powerful, eternal capacity to renew itself healthfully, given
the right conditions. The genes know nothing of diseases.192
Shelton seconds this conclusion in his observation that through the
relatively simple measure of building up our soils, crops can be freed of fungal
infections. In his view fungi, which live at the expense of living plants, "are
incapable of successfully attacking one that is completely healthy. . . . In plant, as in
animals, the nutritional status largely determine the . . . soundness . . . of tissue
developments.193
INSIGHTFUL EXPERIMENTS
The historically significant experiments of Sir Albert Howard, British Imperial Economic
Botanist, based in India in the first quarter of this century, confirm the correctness of
this view. Through natural soil feeding and regeneration methods, the plants and crops
under his management demonstrated continuous improvements to the point of being impervious
to all forms of disease as well as insect pests. Speaking of his organic gardens and
orchards at Indore, he stated that during seven years of observation "I cannot recall
a single case of insect or fungus attack." Indeed it was his studied opinion that:
. . . plant diseases . . . only attack unsuitable varieties or crops
improperly grown. Their true role in agriculture is that of censors for pointing out the
crops which are imperfectly nourished. Disease resistance seems to be the natural reward
of healthy and well-nourished protoplasm. The policy of protecting crops from pests by
means of sprays, powders and so forth is thoroughly unscientific and radically unsound;
even when successful, this procedure merely preserves material hardly worth saving. The
annihilation or avoidance of a pest . . . are mere evasions.
However, Sir Howard’s most vital findings pertained to the animals
feeding on his crops who in turn developed total freedom from disease and deformities.
For twenty-one years I was able to study the reaction of the well-fed
animals to epidemic diseases such as rinderpest, hoof-and-mouth disease, septicaemia, and
so forth, which frequently devastated the countryside. None of my animals were segregated,
none were inoculated; they frequently came in contact with diseased stock. No case of
infectious disease occurred.194
This calls to mind a personal interview I conducted with A. Kalokerinos, Chief Medical Officer at the
Aboriginal Health Clinic in Redfern (Sydney), Australia. He related an experience wherein
cattle feeding on grass grown on re-mineralized soil, were grazing literally nose to
nose–at the fence line–with another herd infected with hoof
and mouth disease. Without the benefit of any specific protective measures including
vaccines, the uninfected herd manifested total immunity.
In returning to the subject of insect pests, we find that there is clear evidence that
insects have an innate ability to detect mineral defeciencies and imbalances–even at a
subtle level–in plants, and selectively devour only those which are deficient or
imbalanced. According to horticulturist S. Mueller "Satellite photographs of Africa
have shown how gigantic flights of locusts will cover thousands of miles ignoring healthy
vegetation, then descending and destroying fields where the soil is wom out.195
This and the earlier observations made on the relationship of microbes to human disease,
parallels the view that pathogenic microorganisms act as nature’s censors, proliferating
only when the host’s psychophysiology has been imbalanced and weakened by factors such as
stress, malnutrition, endo and environmental toxins, etc. Sir Howard’s experiences with
the building of natural immunity in plants had been preceded by such great soil scientists
as Julius Hensel in Germany, and Sampson Morgan in England, whose findings were later
replicated by Dr. Charles Northern and Albert Savage in North America.
These scientists employed soil re-mineralization and regeneration techniques, employing
the use of ground stone dust or sea vegetation, and green (plant) compost, and the
periodic aeration of plant or tree roots through cultivation. The results were indeed
phenomenal. Marketed spinach grown on ordinary soil contained from 600 to 1,600 parts per
billion of iodine, whereas spinach grown on re-mineralized soil contained as high as
640,000 parts per billion. Testing revealed that various vegetables grown in Savage’s
"mineral garden" possessed as much as 400% more iron and other minerals than
crops grown by standard methods.196
SOIL
RE-MINERALIZATION–A RETURN TO PRIMEVAL CONDITIONS
The necessity of soil re-mineralization is based on the premise that over the millennia
the earth’s surface has undergone a progressive erosion of both its major and trace
minerals. As well, the widespread and serious de-mineralization problem has been vastly
exacerbated in this century by deforestation, massive mono-culture cropping, and heavy
agrochemical dependency. Today the only place where the full range of vital minerals can
be found is in the seabeds where streams and rivers have carried them, or in the earth’s
rocks. Thus the utilization of sea plants and rock dust became a central feature in
strategic efforts to achieve balanced soil re-mineralization.
The place of soil re-mineralization–as a fundamental health strategy–is corroborated not
only by experimenters in improving plant and animal wellness, but as well in prehistoric
fossil records. For instance, paleopathologist Roy L. Moodie has found that "the
early faunas were free of disease" and that "the most ancient bacteria were
harmless," i.e., non-pathogenic in nature. He maintains that "There are no known
cases or examples of infection, no tumors, few traumatic lesions or injuries of any kind
prior to Devonian" and that "the earliest animals were free from disease.197 It is also worth noting in this regard that
the earliest book of antiquity in the Judeo-Christian record, Genesis, gives no account of
any specific human diseases, and as well makes no reference to conditions such as
imbecility, blindness, deaffiess, or other deformities.
SOIL DIETETICS AND DISEASE
In reviewing a modern text-book of domesticated crop diseases, one is as appalled by their
number and variety as one is by the list of human illnesses in a text-book of medicine.
The correlation is remarkable. We find in both a number of deficiency diseases; excess
diseases; parasitic diseases; virus diseases; diseases due to insufficient or defective
water, oxygen and sunlight; those associated with excessive heat or cold; chemical induced
diseases (i.e., spraying/drugging); and last but not least multiple degenerative and
deformity diseases. How did the major share of these diseases come into being? By cause,
or mere chance? Wrench answers:
I take it that what has happened to man has happened no less to his
domesticated plants. Science has effected a marvelous progress in variety and
fragmentation, but at the same time it has torn plants from their traditional conditions
upon which their health depends. . . . here is, no doubt, I think, that modern man has
made plant life in his own image.198
Part of today’s larger shift toward environmental responsibility and
sustainability, are the commendable efforts to reduce excessive dependency on soil and
plant chemicals in agricultural methods. However, the growing impetus toward
"organic" approaches to agriculture relies heavily upon manure fertilizers. On
this point Shelton comments that ". . . it has long been known that heavy manuring of
the soil results in the plants grown thereon being subject to parasitic infestation
because of their lack of health.199
Morgan also contends that fertilizers derived from stable manure or of animal origin (as
well as chemicals), were significantly injurious to the health of soil and plants. In
fact, he maintains that their widespread use has served to create conditions of disease
and degeneration consecutively in soil, plant, animal and human life. In his words:
I have proved that susceptibility to disease is greatest with large
dressings of dung. It is the main cause of fungoid infections of plants . . . and bad
eyesight, bad teeth, and kindred troubles in human beings. . . . As to [chemical]
fertilizers, they often deplete the soil of its fertility and induce acidity. . . . 200
His experimental work in England in the early part of this century,
closely paralleled those of Sir Howard in India. The farms surrounding his own–all
employing conventional agribusiness methods–were struck again and again over the years by
multiple forms of disease and a variety of pests. Morgan’s vast fruit orchards, vegetable
gardens and grain fields thrived, totally immune’ to these perennial problems.201 (For more background discussion on the need
and potential for achieving an enhanced agricultural system that is more conducive to
ensuring natural immunity, in plants, animals, and man please refer to Annex
II–Agrochemical Agriculture–the Need for a Saner Alternative.)
Another notable and much more recent horticultural experimenter who bears mentioning is
Australian David Phillips. In his outstanding book From Soil to Psyche, he
maintains that when plants are deprived of vital organic and mineral nutrients and instead
are stimulated to undergo enforced growth–as in the case of chemical fertilization–such
plants "react by a wild development of cellular structure which is deficient in trace
elements and amino acids." He goes on to affirm that:
Such poorly constituted crops cannot avoid, and must inevitably
attract, any prevalent form of disease. At our own organic farms, not one papaya tree was
lost during the severe disease epidemic of 1973 which followed Eastern Australia’s 1972
partial drought. Every newspaper reported the severe plant losses of up to 90 percent of
plantations from "three strains of virus. . ."It was no strange or mystical phenomenon that our farm, with its organically mulched
plants, registered not even a decline in crop production while other farmers in the
district were bemoaning their huge losses.202
KEY
NUTRITIONAL MEASURES IN PREVENTING INFECTIOUS DISEASE
Until lately disease was regarded as a sin of commission by some
unseen and subtle agency. The vitamins are teaching us to regard it . . . as a sin of
omission on the part of civilized and hyper-civilized man. By our habit of riveting our
attention on microbes and their toxins we have sadly neglected the side of the question
which concerns itself with our own bodily defenses.Prominent British Physician–Leonard Williams
Given the necessity for limiting the scope of this document, and the
wide ranging dimensions which the issue of alternatives represent, it would be
impracticable to attempt to highlight all the promising directions for systematic applied
research on strengthening natural immunity that exist. However, given the singular
recognition that is being accorded to the role of nutrition as a lifestyle factor in both
the prevention and treatment of infectious and degenerative diseases, it clearly
represents a primal area for undertaking far more intensive applied research and
experimentation.(The scope of viral, toxin and bacterial associated conditions to be
considered in this section on nutrition and infection will not necessarily be delimited to
the UCI-EPI childhood diseases.)
It seems remarkable that some of the most significant experimental and clinical based
research literature that exists on the relationship between nutrition and infectious
disease were published in the first half of the twentieth century. Much of this early and
now largely forgotten applied research documented the considerable preventive and
therapeutic values of the newly discovered vitamins. Given that the relationship between
nutrition and health represents in itself a vast and complex subject, for brevity’s sake
this discussion on nutritional measures will necessarily be limited to an examination of
the two vitamins which both clinical research and practice have revealed as holding the
most significant role in the prevention and alleviation of various infectious diseases,
i.e., Vitamins A and C.
VITAMIN A
Vitamin A is recognized as an essential nutrient for maintaining normal physiologic
functions, including cellular differentiation, membrane integrity, vision, immunologic
responses and growth. Literature dating back as far as the 1920′s has noted an association
between Vitamin A deficiency and an increased incidence and severity of infection,203 which led to the labeling of Vitamin A as
the "anti-infective Vitamin" by Clausen. 204 In more recent time, Vitamin A deficiency has received considerable attention in
international health circles. This has been largely due to various field studies which
have linked Vitamin A deficiency with an increased risk of childhood morbidity and
mortality.205, 206, 207
Of these,206 it was observed by the
field researchers that preschool children with mild xerophthalmia (night blindness and
bitot’s spots, a condition clearly attributable to Vitamin A deficiency) were dying at a
rate ranging from 4 to 12 times greater than that of neighboring children with normal eyes
and vision. (This represented an 18 month longitudinal study of 4,600 Javanese
[Indonesian] preschool children from six separate communities.)
In fact such relationships persisted even after stratifying for the presence or absence of
respiratory disease, protein energy malnutrition, and diarrhoea. The researchers asked but
did not answer why mildly Vitamin A-deficient children died at such increased rates,
"especially those who were [apparently] well nourished and seemingly free of
diarrhoea and respiratory disease," which are considered the major causes of
childhood mortality in developing countries.
The first major controlled field study to be published in an established medical journal
detailing an observed relationship between Vitamin A deficiency and infectious disease, 207 reported on the results of a randomized,
community trial of Vitamin A supplementation in northern Sumatra (Indonesia). 450 villages
were randomly assigned to either participate in a Vitamin A supplementation scheme (229
villages), or serve for one year as a control (221 villages). The study observed that
among children aged 1 to 6 years at baseline, the death rate in the 221 control
villages–which did not receive the vitamin nor any placebo–was 49% greater than in those
villages where supplementation was given. (Although the study was actually designed to
examine nutritional blindness, these unanticipated results were found when comparing
mortality rates between the treatment and the control villages.)
Despite such promising findings, the posture of the medical community has generally been
one of either questioning the "validity" of the research methodology and
findings, or of putting the brakes on initiating any actual policy and or programming
changes. To quote a 1990 statement of Kjolhede and Gadomski of Johns Hopkins University in
response to the various Sommer et al studies:
Because scientific evidence relating to Vitamin A is being generated
by diverse sources, and because there is a paucity of data strictly relevant to childhood
survival in developing countries, the implications of these and other findings have been
dijficult to translate into specific policies and programmatic recommendations.208
According to secondary research carried out by Mamdani and Ross, and
reported in their exhaustive article "Vitamin A supplementation and child survival:
magic bullet or false hope?,"209 Vitamin A deficiency represents". . . a major nutritional problem among
preschool children in many countries of Africa, Asia, as well as some areas of Central and
and South America." In fact an estimated 250,000 young children will go blind each
year due to a lack of Vitamin A in their diets, while another 250,000 will experience
lesser degrees of permanent impairment of vision due to corneal damage; (According to West
and Sommer, an estimated 700,000 preschool children will develop active corneal lesions;
and 6,700,000 new children will manifest mild Vitamin A deficiency annually. As well–at
any one time–an estimated 20 to 40 million are suffering from mild levels of Vitamin A
deficiency.) 210 with up to 75
percent of the blinded children dying within a few months of the blinding episode. The
literature indicates that the association between "severe Vitamin A deficiency and
infant and child mortality has been established for some time." The authors go on to
conclude that:
An association between Vitamin A deficiency and infectious diseases,
in particular diarrhoea, respiratory infections and measles–which are among the most
important causes of death during childhood in the Developing World–has significant policy
implications. . . .Overall, the balance of evidence suggests that Vitamin A deficiency does lead to an
increased risk of infections such as measles, respiratory infections and diarrhoea, and
hence to an increased risk of death. Conversely, the evidence suggests–but as yet does
not prove conclusively–that Vitamin A supplementation, or other strategies’ 211 (Other strategies include the fortification
of selected commercial foods which are commonly consumed, and dietary modifications. The
latter measure includes a "long term solution," i.e., the increased production
of Vitamin A-rich foods through home, school, and community gardens, wherever climate and
soil conditions permit. An example where the increased production and distribution of
garden produce–coupled to basic nutrition education–worked well was the Applied
Nutrition Program in Tamil Nadu, India. Mothers diagnosed as anaemic and VitaminA
deficient were given access to this produce. Examination, after six months, revealed
"considerable" improvements to their general nutritional status, along with the
"disappearance of all the clinical signs of Vitamin A deficiency. 211) for improving Vitamin A status, would
lead to a decrease in the incidence and/or the severity of these infections and of the
substantial mortality associated with them. The magnitude of this potential effect remains
unclear, however, though the evidence from the Indonesian studies implies that it may be
substantial.212
It is encouraging that as of 1987 the following nations have already
adopted home gardening as a national priority: Barbados, Chile, Colombia, Dominica,
Honduras, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and SriLanka.213
VITAMIN C
In introducing the subject of Vitamin C, it would be fitting to share the following
observation made by the Australian microbiologist/physician team of Dettman and Kalokerinos, who over many years have conducted
wide ranging research–both secondary and original–on the prophylactic and therapeutic
potential of Vitamin C.
If you were offered a substance that could assist with the endogenous
production of interferon and PGE1, that activated enzyme systems, assisted with mineral
uptake and collagen production, aided healing, prevented capillary fragility and
stimulated renal function, was capable of curing both viral and bacterial infections, was
a universal detoxifier effective against drugs and venomous bites and was currently being
used more and more in the treatment of degenerative diseases, you would rightly scoff.
More particularly if you were told that this substance was Vitamin C, yet all these claims
and more have been documented and put to clinical trial.214
As we go on to examine what is indeed a vast body of experimental and
clinical data on Vitamin C, we find that there are indeed substantive evidences for its
efficacy as a low cost, perfectly safe, and wide spectrum anti-viral, anti-toxic and
anti-bacterial agent. Internationally noted biochemist Irwin Stone has alone described and
documented a wide range of applied biomedical research and clinical experience employing
122 literature citations–spanning a 40 year period showing its marked efficacy as a
prophylactic and therapeutic agent.215 In obtaining and reviewing a number of the original source documents cited by
Stone–relative to Vitamin C and the infectious diseases–it was both amazing and
perplexing that so little of this vital knowledge which was discovered earlier in this
century is being further researched and or utilized today.
I. Viral Infections
Within a relatively limited timeframe after the 1933 discovery of ascorbic acid (Vitamin
C) and its identification as an anti-scorbutic (scurvy) substance, a diverse range of
researchers found that ascorbic acid had significant potential as a wide-spectrum
antiviral agent. Throughout the 30′s in rapid succession Jungeblut showed that ascorbic
acid would inactivate the virus found in poliomyelitis; 216 Holden and Molley, inactivation of the herpes virus;
217Lagenbusch and Enderling, inactivation of the virus found
in hoof and mouth disease; 218 and
Amato, inactivation of the rabies virus.219 It should be noted that Jungeblut observed that the "antiviral" effect
of Vitamin C is not due to the acid reaction of the ascorbic acid, since it occurs also
when the latter has been adjusted to a pH at which the virus remain "unharmed."220
Jungeblut continued his experimental work at Columbia University with primates in which he
demonstrated that a scheduled administration of ascorbic acid both enhanced resistance to
poliomyelitis, and in cases of infection markedly reduced the severity of the disease. His
experiments also demonstrated a very marked superiority in the level of effectiveness of
natural source ascorbic acid, versus the laboratory synthesized product. For example in
one experimental series, "the percentage of non-paralytic survivors following
treatment with natural Vitamin C was about six times as large as that of the untreated
controls," whereas" in the animals treated with synthetic Vitamin C this
percentage was only twice that of the controls.221 (Despite such promising early findings, no serious or systematic efforts were
made by organized medicine during this historical time period to incorporate the vitamin
as a prophylactic or therapeutic agent.)
However, the later results achieved in the direct clinical practice of North Carolina
physician F. Klenner approached the extraordinary. He graphically describes–from his own
practice and other sources–the substantive efficacy of this vitamin in preventing and/or
reversing pathological and life threatening conditions which literally extend over
"the entire gamut of medical knowledge." The following list details the range of
conditions as described in this and other journal articles by Klenner. Although viral
related conditions are being discussed in this section, a few bacterial diseases have been
included in this list and are italicized for identification (the list also includes some
serious toxic and degenerative conditions).
| infectious hepatitis | virus pneumonia |
| influenza | diphtheria |
| virus encephalitispoliomyelitis | pertusis (whooping caugh) |
| measles | chicken pox |
| parotitis (mumps) | tetanus (lockjaw) |
| mononucleosis | rheumatic fever |
| scarlat fever | botulism |
| heavy metal intoxication | poisonous insect, spider and snake bites |
| trichinosis* | bacillary dysentary |
| malignancies | post-operative deaths |
| childbirth labor (easing and shortening) | postpartum hemmorages (prevents) |
| cardiovascular diseases | peptic and duodenal ulcers |
| pancreatitis | severe burns (mostly external treatment) |
| radiation sickness | carbon mooxide poisoning |
| barbiturate poisoning222 | |
| *In Klenner’s successful reversal of trichnosis, a combination of Vitamin C and para-aminobenzoic acid were used. |
He describes the role played by ascorbic acid in intercellular reactions and its
neutralization and perceived control of virus production. Its enzymic action contributes
to the breakdown of virus nucleic acid to adenosine deaminase which converts to inosine.
The end result are purines which are "extensively catabilized." As well, when
ascorbic acid joins the available virus protein, it results in a new macromolecule which
acts as the "repressor factor." In fact it has been "demonstrated that when
combined with the repressor, the operator gene, virus nuclcic acid, cannot react with any
other substance and cannot induce activity in the structural gene, therefore inhibiting
the multiplication of new virus bodies.223
Writing in an early article published in the Journal of Southern Medicine and Surgery,
he ascribes the relative limitations in success as attained in much of the earlier
experimental results with Vitamin C, to the very low dosage levels used. Conversely, the
key to his unprecedented clinical achievements lay in the much higher dosage he
administered. He comments:
The years of labor in animal experimentations; the cost in human
effort and "grants, and the volumes written, make it difficult to understand
how so many investigators could have failed in comprehending the one thing that
would have given positive results [i.e., to the degree Klenner attained] a decade
ago. This one thing was the size and frequency of its administration. 224
In the same article he goes on to describe:
- a measles epidemic in which "Vitamin C was used
prophylactically," in which without exception all who received 1 gram every six hours
either intravenously or intramuscularly "were protected from the virus." - In treating 60 acute cases of poliomyelitis, (in a number, the diagnosis
was confirmed by lumbar puncture, with cell counts ranging from 33 to 125) for the first
24 hours, 1 to 2 grams depending on age–of Vitamin C was administered every second to
fourth hour (intramuscularly in children up to four years). For the following 48 hour
period the 1 to 2 gram dosage was given only every sixth hour, with all 60 patients
diagnosed "clinically well" within 72 hours from the commencement of treatment. - Six cases of virus encephalitis were similarly treated with Vitamin C
injections, and all without exception made dramatic recoveries. - Diphtheria was successfully treated using the same intensive treatment
method "in half the time required to remove the membrane and get negative smears by
antitoxin.225
Summarily, Klenner could well affirm that "we have been able to
assemble sufficient clinical evidence to prove unequivocally that Vitamin C is the
antibiotic of choice in the handling of all types of virus diseases." As well he
demonstrated–through trial and experimentation–that where tissue levels of the vitamin
are maintained, an environment that is extremely unfavourable for virtually all forms of
viral infection is created in the human body.226
II. Bacterial Infections
Within five years of the discovery of Vitamin C, research studies were being published in
the medical literature on the clear association between scurvy and the prescorbutic state
(both evidencing Vitamin C deficiency) to a range of infections (both bacterial and viral)
in guinea pigs and humans.227
Beginning in this same time period other applied researchers discovered that ascorbic acid
has both bacteriostatic (inhibiting) and bactericidal (destroying) properties. For
example, researchers Gupta and Guha, demonstrated that 2 milligram percent (2 mg% is
equivalent to 2 parts of ascorbic acid to 100,000 parts of bacterial suspension) inhibited
staphylococcus aureus, and B. typhosus. The same inhibitive effect was produced at 5 mg%
for B. diphtheria, and streptococcus hemolyticus.228 Whereas Sirsi reported that 10 mg% was sufficient to destroy virulent strains of
M. tuberculosis.229 Other
researchers found that ascorbic acid was effective in completely neutralizing and
rendering harmless a wide variety of bacterial toxins. These included:
diphtheria–Jungeblut and Zwemer,230
tetanus Jungeblut; 231 staphylococcus–Kodama
and Kojima; 232 and
dysentery–Takahashi. 233
In a revealing nutritional status survey conducted close to mid-century on the aboriginal
population in Northern Manitoba (Canada), it was found that the most prevalent
micro-nutrient deficiency was Vitamin C, i.e., on average less than 1/71 the recommended
daily allowance. At the time, the death rate from tuberculosis among this group stood at
1,400 per 100,000 in comparison to 27 per 100,000 in the white population. The researchers
concluded ". . . it is probable that the Indian’s great susceptibility to many
diseases, paramount amongst which is tuberculosis, may be attributable . . . to their high
degree of malnutrition arising from lack of proper foods.234
Charpy reports on a clinical trial where 15 grams (15,000 milligrams) of ascorbic acid
were administered daily to a group of extremely advanced (terminal) Tuberculosis patients.
(Of the six to be tested one actually died before the trial could begin). The five
patients who were fortunate enough to receive this treatment, all underwent a spectacular
transformation in their general condition, and not only left their beds, but within a six
to eight month period had regained from 20 to 70 pounds in body weight. As an added point
of interest, each patient had cumulatively taken about 3 kilograms (3,000,000 milligrams)
of ascorbic acid during the test period with absolute safety and perfect tolerance.235
Hochwald employed injections of 1/2 gram of ascorbic acid every one-and-a-half hours (6
grams in a 12 hour period) in croupous pneumonia until the fever and local symptoms
subsided. The speed with which this treatment worked was so rapid that it was actually
possible within the first day to practically eliminate all local symptoms of infection
including the fever, and to attain a normalization of blood counts.236
Two articles in the Canadian Medical Association Journal reported on oral Vitamin C
therapy i.e., 1/2 gram the first day, followed by an average 1/5gram each day
thereafter–on 29 pertussis (whooping cough) patients. The researchers concluded that
"this treatment markedly decreases the intensity, number and duration of the
characteristic symptoms.237
In DeWit’s clinical experimentation in the Netherlands 1/2 gram of ascorbic acid was
administered daily in the treatment of children with pertussis for a period of one week,
after which it was gradually reduced stepwise. Of the 90 children treated (who were
divided into 3 comparable groups) the duration of the illness was 15 days for those
receiving the injections, 20 days for oral recipients, and 34 days for the control group
who did not receive the vitamin in any form, but had alternately received the newly
developed vaccine.238
Other clinical trials on the reversal of human bacterial infections by ascorbic acid exist
in the biomedical literature, e.g., in the treatment of leprosy, typhoid fever and
dysentery. In these various reports, without exception, the level of success as reported
correlates directly with the amount of dosage administered.239
III. Phagocytotic Activity
From an historical perspective, it is of interest that as early as 1943 Cotingham and
Mills demonstrated the necessity for the presence of ascorbic acid in maintaining
defensive phagocytotic activity.240
It appears that their important discovery remained largely unknown. However, three decades
later the rediscovery and public pronouncement of this same finding by DeChatelet et al,
did at least generate wide newspaper coverage, if not any real impact on medical practice.241
IV. Conclusion
Not unlike earlier clinicians who employed Vitamin C prophylactically and therapeutically,
R. Catheart’s extensive clinical experience led him to conclude that proportional to the
level of ascorbic acid depletion, there would follow human immune system failure,
consequently increasing the susceptibility and potential manifestation of a wide range of
disorders including various acute, secondary, and chronic infections (viral and
bacterial), allergic reactions, inflammatory and collagen diseases, as well as an impaired
ability to heal.242
It was the Noble Prize Laureate Linus Pauling who made the observation that:
I have been astonished . . . that in the last quarter of the
twentieth century a single substance would be recognized to be helpful no matter
what disease a person is suffering from. . . . Vitamin C is such a substance
. . . by its involvement in many biochemical reactions in the human body it
makes the body’s natural defenses more powerful, and it is these natural defenses
that provide most of our resistance to disease.243
In considering the practical implications and strategic importance of
the knowledge of Vitamin C relative to the issue of child survival in the Developing
World, it would be worthwhile to conclude this discussion of Vitamin C with the following
summarization of Canadian Physician W. McConnick.
From increasing evidence of the anti-toxic and anti-infectious action
of Vitamin C, and from personal clinical experience in the prophylactic and
therapeutic application of this vitamin, the author is firmly convinced that the
major factor in bringing about . . . [the major decline in] infectious
disease incidence has been the steady and phenomenal increase in the consumption of
Vitamin C-rich fruits . . . during the period in question.In many cases of deficiency, where the dietary intake indicates a subnormal intake of
Vitamin C over a lengthy period, the correlated clinical history shows repeated occurrence
of infectious processes. . . . The author has made intensive application of Vitamin
C therapy, orally and parenterally, in many . . . infectious diseases . . . with
results in every case even more rapid and favorable than could be expected from the
use of the modern antibiotics, and with the added advantage of complete exemption
from toxic or allergic reactions. 244
A New and Better Strategy
From the foregoing evidence it is clear that a markedly greater emphasis on the
development of home, school, and community horticultural and gardening crop production of
Vitamin A and C rich foods designed to increase local consumption–coupled to appropriate
cormnunity nutrition education campaigns, could in and of itself make significant inroads
in reversing the phenomena of infectious disease in today’s Developing World.
GENERAL CONCLUSION ON
APPROPRIATE ALTERNATIVES
To summarize and conclude the vital issue of what constitutes a more appropriate policy
alternative in the effective prevention of human disease–whether infectious or
degenerative–we must return to what are the original and thus fundamentally legitimate
sources of health immune system success. There is indeed an abundance of evidence
confirming the fact that multiple lifestyle factors are not only effective in preventing
and reversing degenerative diseases, but the full range of infectious diseases as well.
Having already reviewed two key nutrient factors in relation to the prevention and cure of
infections, what follows is a concise cross-sampling of research demonstrating the role of
other lifestyle and nutrition factors in strengthening natural immunity.
- Evidence suggests that physical exercise can enhance natural killer cell
ftinction; and elevate interferon, serum leukocyte, and interleukin-1 levels.
(Interleukin-1 enhances both B and T lymphocyte activity and is involved in the body’s
initial response to infection and inflammation; 245 while interferon is known to arrest the reproduction of viruses, and is vital in
reversing many forms of viral infection including hepatitis, chicken pox, herpes simplex
and zoster etc.246 - Recent studies have documented that even sub-clinical levels of
"malnutrition and deficiencies of vitamins, minerals and trace elements" have
been linked to the "impairment of immune responses.247 - A reduction in dietary fat in humans, correlates with a strengthening of
natural killer cell activity.248 It
has also been shown in vitro that polyunsaturated fats weaken lymphocyte ability to
respond to antigens.249 - Even brief periods of sleep deprivation (7 hours) have been linked to
dramatic decreases in basic host immune responses.250 - "Stressful conditions can profoundly suppress immune responses of
blood and splenic lymphocytes, including T-cell mitogenesis, natural killer cell activity,
production of interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon, and IL-2 receptor expression."251 - Bodily exposure to ultraviolet rays as found in natural sunlight,
significantly strengthens the immune system. For example:* It increases the number of lymphocytes, antibodies (mostly gamma globulins),
and lymphocyte produced interferon. As well, the effectiveness of neutrophils in engulfing
bacteria can be at least doubled; 252* A 12 year study of male college students revealed that only 10 minutes
of irradiation with ultra violet light, up to 3 times weekly during the winter months,
reduced colds by up to 40.3 percent; 253 under similar treatment during Winter, there was observed a greatly increased
resistance to a range of infectious diseases in Russian children.254* Truly dramatic results have been and can be achieved in treating a
broad range of both viral and bacterial associated diseases.255* The current medical concept pictures a sun that is destructive to
human health, i.e., responsible for accelerating the aging of the skin, and the prime
causative factor behind the now endemic onset of skin cancers. However, extensively
documented research on the health effects of both sunlight and nutrition by Kime clearly
point to the fact that "the highly refined western diet plays the leading role, both
in the aging process and in the development of skin cancer.256 - Alcohol is an "immunosuppressive drug with far reaching
consequences," e.g., it interferes significantly with antibacterial defense, and
adversely affects cell-mediated immunity, thereby increasing risks for viral infections,
tuberculosis, and neoplasia (tumor formation).257 Alcohol inhibits the normal function of B lymphocytes, with as little as 3
ounces (2 drinks) reducing antibody production to1/3 normal amounts.258 It has been documented that there is increased susceptibility to HIV (AIDS
associated virus), with the virus growing more rapidly when even moderate intake levels
(e.g., 4 beers) are taken, immune suppression lasting 3-7 hours with T-cells producing
less interleukin-2, and T-suppresser cells producing less of the soluble immune response
suppression factor.259 - Smoking of cigarettes weakens host defenses against bacteria and viruses,
including the impairment of macrophage function.260
Table G on the following page provides a fully rational explication of
the dynamic processes and factors determining health (natural immunity) and disease. In
reviewing this table, we may safely conclude that our individual and collective states of
"health" and "disease" depends essentially upon our understanding of
and respect for nature. Indeed we must come to the ultimate realization that it is in the
very best interest of humankind to seek and to obey the voice of nature, with the
assurance that the consequences of this commitment will be sound and lasting health of
both body and mind.
Table
G — Psycho-Physiological Integrity-The Health and Disease Continuum
Life healing–i.e., vital systemic cleansing, balancing, reparative and renewal
processes–with varied infectious disease symptoms being severe and acute manifestations
are continuously at work, at all stages from the highest level of functioning and on
downward to the point of death. The efficacy of these healing processes depend solely upon
the appropriate and moderate provision of the following primal and lawful requisites of
human life.
- Air (pure, with electrically balanced ion levels)
- Water (in potable form, employed for bodily–internal and
external–cleansing, and environmental sanitation) - Sunlight (early morning and late afternoon, including
regular exposure to living quarters) - Exercise (physical, mental, social and spiritual faculties)
- Rest (physiological and psycho-emotional)
- Sound Nutrition (i.e., a balanced variety of unrefined and
unadulterated plant foods derived from mineral rich-living soil) - Positive Thinking (including positive/constructive motives,
emotions and relationships)
Psycho-Bio-Physical lntegrity depends upon the foregoing
requisites, coupled with: sound heredity; non-abuse of the central nervous system; and
general freedom from adverse influences, e.g., chemicals, drugs, radiation, foreign
antigens, trauma and physical injuries. Whether through inheritance [i.e.,
pre-dispositional weaknesses] or in one’s own life, DENIAL OF THESE BASIC LIFE REQUISITES,
OR THE INTRUSION OF THESE ADVERSE INFLUENCES, CONSTITUTES THE PRIMARY AND SUSTAINING CAUSES
UNDERLING THE MULTIPLE SYMPTOMS OF PSYCHO-BIO-PHYSICAL DEGENERATION (PHYSICAL AND MENTAL
DISEASE). The distinction between "prevention" and
"cure" is an artificially contrived notion and does not exist in nature, viz.
the self-same primal, i.e., original causes by which systemic (psychophysiological) health
is maintained, also serve as the only sound measures by which lost health can be restored.
Compliance with primary psycho-physiological laws ensures an increase and
strengthening of inherent vital force and immunity leading to High Level Healtlh.
Death > Degeneration > Impairment > Low > Medium > High health
Non-Compliance with primary psycho-physiological laws ensures a weakening of
inherent vital force and immunity, leading to Degeneratlon and Death
Death < Degeneration < Impairment <
Low < Medium < High Health
CONCLUSION
Belief in artificially induced immunization is actually predicated on an assumed
technological ability to annul the natural bio-system laws of cause and effect. It is in
essence an imaginative belief that we can improve upon nature’s original design and
purpose through deceitfully manipulating her to our own heedless benefit. It would be
fitting at this point to quote from Kime:
We may believe that we are responsible to nothing but our own
pleasure, that we may freely violate and disregard natural law and then
artificially manipulate the deleterious consequences. We may believe that we can
eat poorly, sleep rarely, work constantly, exercise sparingly, and avoid any
physical consequences by some wonder drug. . . It requires no discipline and
no sacrifice. . . .[However] For all our advances in science, we still remain humbly, pitifully dependent
upon the forces of nature: air, water, food, and sunlight. It seems in fact, the more
advanced our technology becomes, the more capable we are of destroying ourselves .
. . by more insidious inroads into our health.261
Finally, it is indeed incontrovertible that the only sure answer to the
frightening dilemma that indiscriminately employed artificial universal childhood
immunization now poses, is a counter-public health policy which supports a studied and
respectful return to the original and immutable laws of life and health, thus encouraging
people of all nations to return to the grand design as embodied in the creation by an all
wise Creator.
***Note: Some may understandably raise the concern that a number of the references cited
are not directly related to Development and the Developing World, and secondly are not
uniformly recent. In response to this point, it remains obvious that the conventions of
Western Selective Medicine are inherently predicated on a Western perspective of health
and disease. Consequently it seems only consistent and apropos that Western based applied
research and experience can and should be brought to bear in any serious effort to
constructively examine these areas.
On the issue of the how recent the data is, it is one of the foibles of Westernized
thinking (particularly in the medical field) that unless an observation or a practice is
very recent, it should be held suspect as being obsolete and due for relegation to the
trash can. ‘Ibis view is correct only insofar as erroneous concepts undergird a system,
and faulty theories and ever changing practices have no better foundation than unanchored
and footloose empiricism. More precise sciences such as astronomy, and physics continue to
heavily utilize and build upon older research sources and practices, some even going back
over many centuries. The reason this is so, is because insofar as the principle —>
practice —-> observation continuum is correct and valid, the data remains unchanging
and unaffected by the vagaries of both time and circumstances.
1 World Health Organization, Publication No. 6, Rev. 1, Geneva,
Switzerland, June, 1983.
2 Etherington, A., & Associates, Assessment of the CIDA Health
Sector–Profile of Health Project Disbursements 1984-1988, prepared for CIDA Policy
Branch, Evaluation Division; and Health Section, Professional Services Branch, Hull,
Canada, February, 1989, Executive Summary, p. iv.
3 Hawes, F. et at, Canada’s International Immunization
Programme–Operational Review 1986-1991, Final Report, Intercultural International,
prepared for: ICDS; and CIDA, Ottawa, Canada, November, 1989, Summary P. 1, and Main
Report p. 37
4 Etherington, A., Assessment of the CIDA Health Sector
Integrated Paper, prepared for: CIDA Policy Branch, Evaluation Division; and Health
Sector, Professional Services Branch, Hull, Canada, February, 1989, p. 16.
5 Ibid, Executive Sunnnary, p. v.
6 Bloom, B.R., "Vaccines for the Third World," World
Health, World Health Organization, Geneva Switzerland, June-July-August, 1990, p. 14.
See also:
Nature, Vol. 342, November, 1989.
7 lbid, p. 13.
8 Grant, J., "Simple, Available and Effective
Interventions," A Shift in the Wind, Vol. 18, UNICEF, May, 1984,p. 7.
9 The LJN Department of Public Information and the United Nations
University, "The Immunization Success Story" in Development Forum, Vol.
XVI, No. 1, January-February, 1988, Cover Page Story.
10 Etherington, A., Assessment of the CIDA Health
Sector–Integrated Paper, p. 3.
11 Fulginiti, V.A., "Immunization: Current
Controversies," The Journal of Pediatrics, Vol. 101, No. 4, 1982, p.487.
12 UNICEF Thailand, "Progress Report on the Utilization of
the Contribution of $8,220,000 Cdn–Integrated Services Project for Children,"
Bangkok, Thailand, March 21, 1988.
13 Mathurosapas, R., Factors Associated with High and
Low EPI Coverage in Thailand, Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, Thailand,
1986.
14 World Health Organization, Expanded Programme of
Immunization Immunization Policy, WHO-EPI-General, Rev. 1, Geneva, Switzerland, July,
1986.
15 Dick, G., Practical Immunization, MTP Press Ltd., (a
member of the Kluwer Academic Publishers Group), Falcon House, Lancaster, England, 1986,
pp. 2-5.
16 lbid, pp. 29-77.
17 Chetelat, L.J., A Synthesis of Key Issues for Evaluation
in Primary Health Care, Food and Nutrition and Expanded Programs of Immunization,
prepared for Canadian International Development Agency, Policy Branch, Evaluation
Division, Hull, Canada, January, 1990, pp. 139 142.
18 Dick, G., Immununization, Update Books, London,
England, 1978
See also:
- Dick, G., Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, Vol. 167,
1974, pp. 371-374- Hill, L., "Primary Immunization Deficiency in Children," Thorax
25, 1970, p. 254- Bousfield, G. "Reactions to Immunization," British Medical
Journal, February 23, 1974, P. 327- Dettman, G., "Aboriginal Infant Health and Mortality Rates," The
Medical Journal of Australia, April 7, 1973, pp. 711 and 712- Kalokerinos, A., Every
Second Child, Thomas Nelson, Australia, 1981- Vessal, S., and Kravis, L., "Imunologic Mechanisms Responsible for
Adverse Reactions to Routine Immunizations in Children," Clinical Pediatrics, Vol.
15, No. 8, 1976, pp. 688-696
19 Kalokerinos, A., and
Dettman, G., "Viral Vaccines Vital or Vulnerable," The Australasian Nurses
Journal, August, 1980, p. 27
20 Guthrie, C., UNICEF Canada’s "Field Trip Monitoring
Report on The Integrated Services Project for Children," observations covering Nakhan
Phenom and Mudaban provinces, January 16, 1989, p. 44
21 Noble, G.R., et at, "Acellular and Wbole-Cell Pertussis
Vaccines in Japan: Report of a Visit by US Scientists." Journal of the American
Medical Association, Vol. 257, 1987, pp. 1351-1356
22 Chetelat, L.J., A Synthesis of Key Issues for Evaluation
in Primary Health Care, p. 159. Also, Personal Communications with the International
Development Research Centre’s Health Sciences Division, September-October, 1989
23 Williamson, J.W., Assessing and Improving Health
Outcomes: The Health Accountinig Approach to Quality Assurance, Ballinger Publishing
Co., Cambridge, 1978, p. 5
24 Dick, G., Practical Immunization, p. 1
25 Cheraskin, E., et at, Diet and Disease–Medical Proof of
Their Life and Death Relationship, Keats Publishing Inc., New Canaan, Connecticut,
Health Science Edition pub., 1977, p. 369
See also:
- Chandra, R., "Nutrition as a Critical Determinant in Susceptibility
to Infection," World Review–Nutr. Diet, Vol. 25, 1976- Hook, R., and Hutcheson, D., "Impairment of the Primary Inunune
Response in Early-Onset Protein-Calorie Malnutrition," Nutrition Reports
International, Vol. 13, 1976- Jose, D., et at, "Long Term Effects on Immune Function of Early
Nutritional Deprivation," Nature, Vol. 241, 1973- Moscatelli, P., et al, "Defective Immunocompetence in Fetal
Undemutrition," Helvetica Paediatrica Acta, Vol. 31, 1976- Newberne, P., and Gebhardt, B., "Pre- and Post-Natal Malnutrition
and Responses to Infection," Nutrition Reports International, Vol. 7, 1973- Puffer, R., and Serrano, C., "The Role of Nutritional Deficiency in
Mortality Findings of the Inter-American Investigation of Mortality in Childhood," Pan
American Health Orizanization, Vol. 7, 1973- McGrath, W.R., Bio-Nutronics, A Signet Book, New American Library,
Times Mirror, Bergenfield, New Jersey, 1972, P. 216- Hoffer, A., and Walker, M., Orthomolecular Nutrition, Keats
Publishing Inc., New Canaan, Conneticut, 1978, P. 209- McDougall, J.A., A Challenging Second Opinion, New Century Publishers
Inc., Piscataway, New Jersey, USA, 1985, p. 307, etc.
26-Edierington, A., Vol. I–Program
Evaluation of Canada’s International Immunization Program, Cowater International, for the
Canadian International Development Agency, Ottawa, March, 199 1, pp. 22 and 30
27 Banerji, D., "Hidden Menace in the Universal Child
Immunization Program," International Journal of Health Services, Vol. 18, No.
2, Haywood Pub. Co. Inc., 1988, p. 294
28 Chetelat., L.J., A Synthesis of Key Issues for Evaluation
In Primarv Health Care, (based on the author’s precis on Banedi’s "Hidden
Menace" article), P. 157
29 Banerji, D., "Hidden Menace in the Universal Child
Immunization Program," p. 296
30 Rifken, S.B., and Walt, G., "Why Health Improves:
Defining The Issues Concerning ‘Comprehensive Primary Health Care’ and ‘Selective Primary
Health Care,’" Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 23, pp. 562 and 563.
31 Chetelat, L.J., A Synthesis of Key Issues for Evaluation in
PHC, P. 156
32 Stewart, G., British Medical Journal, January 31,
1976, reprinted in The Australasian Nurses Journal by Dettman, G., and Kalokerinos, A., in the article "’Mumps’ the
word but you have yet another vaccine deficiency," June, 1981, p. 17
33 "Immunization Public Health Protector?,"
Issued under NIB National Office of Health Development, Ottawa, Canada, 1979, pp. 1 and 2
34 Bumet, M., Auto Immunity and Auto Immunune Disease, MTP,
London, England, 1973, Chapter 3
35 James, W., Immunization–The Reality Behind The
Myth, Bergin & Garvey Publishers Inc., S. Hadley, Massachussetts, 1988, p. 64,
refers to original source reference: Report No. 272, British Medical Council, London,
England, May, 1950
36 Allan, B., Australian Journal of Medical Technology,
Vol. 4, November, 1973, pp. 26 and 27]
see also:
- Dettman, G., and Kalokerinos,
A., "Second Thoughts About Disease–A Controversy and Bechamp Revisited," Journal
of the International Academy of Preventive Medicine, Vol. IV, No. 1, Houston, Texas,
July, 1977 and reprinted by Committee of the Biological Research Institute, Warburton,
Victoria, Australia, (p. 15 in this reprint edition)
37 Polk, B.F., et al, "An Outbreak of
Rubella (German Measles) among Hospital Personnel," The New England Journal of
Medicine, Vol. 303, No. 10, September 4, 1980, pp. 541-545
38 James, W., Immunization, p. 100
39 "Immunization Public Health Protector?,"
pp. 10 and 11
40 Shelton, H., "Basis of Resistance," the Hygienic
Review, Vol. 38, No. 9, May, 1977, P. 196
See also:
- "Immunization Public Health Protector?," p. 1 1
41 James, W., Immunization, p. 64
42 Novikoff, A., and Holtzman, E., Cells and Organelles,
Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc., 1970
See also:
- Bradbury, S., The Optical Microscope, Edward Arnold Pub. Ltd.,
1976- Lacey, A., Editor, Light Microscopes in Biology, A Practical Approach,
IRL Press, Oxford University Press, 1989
43 Bird, C., "The Rife Microscope," Technology
Tomorrow, February, 1980, pp. 5-14
44 Seidel, R.E., and Winter, E., "The New
Microscopes," Journal of the Franklin Institute, Vol. 237, No. 2, February,
1944, pp. 103-130
See also:
- Lee, R., "The Rife Microscope or ‘Facts and Their Fate,’" Lee
Foundation for Nutritional Research, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA (commentary on the
Seidel and Winter article, undated)- "Local Man Bares Wonders of Germ Life," San Diego Union,
November 3, 1929- "Science’s Latest Strides in War on Ills Disclosed, Development by
San Diegan Hailed as Boon to Medical Research," Los Angeles Times, November
22, 1931- "Here is Most Powerful Microscope," Los Angeles Times,
November 27, 1931- "What’s New in Science–The Wonderwork of 193 I," Los
Angeles Times Sunday -Magazine, December 27, 1931- Jones, Newell, "Rife Bares Startling New Conceptions of Disease
Germs," San Diego Tribune, May 11, 1938- "Giant Microscope May Yield Secrets of Bacteria World," Los
Angeles Times, June 26, 1940- Lynes, B., and Crane, J., The Rife Report, The Cancer Cure That
Worked–Fifiy Years of Supression, Marcus Books, Toronto, Canada, 1987
45 Carrel, A., Man the Unknown, Harper
Brothers, New York and London, 1935, p. 207
46 Dubos, R., "Second Thoughts on the Germ Theory,"
Scientific American, May, 1955, pp. 31-35
47 Dubos, R., Mirage of Health, Harper, New York, NY, 1959,
p. 73
48 Maxcy-Rosenaw Preventive Medicine and Public Health,
edited by Sartwell, P.E., 10th
Edition, Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, USA, 1973, p. 117
49 Buttram, H.E., and Hoffman, J.C., Vaccinations and
Immune Malfunction, The Humanitarian Publishing Co., Quakertown, Penn., USA, 1985, p.
22
50 Duesberg, P.H., "Human Immunodeficiency Virus and
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome: Correlation but Not Causation," Proceedings of
the National Academy of Science USA, Vol. 86, February, 1989, pp. 755-764; Interview
[with Duesberg], "AIDS", Spectrum, No. 38, September/October, 1994,
Belmont, New Hampshire, USA, pp. 26-34
See also:
- Adams, J., AIDS, The HIV Myth, St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY,
1989- Fumento, M., The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS: How a Tragedy has been
Distorted bv Media and Partisan Politics, Basic Books, New York, NY, 1990- Duesberg, P., "AIDS Acquired By Drug Consuption and Other
Non-Contagious Risk Factors," Pharmac. Ther. No. 55, United Kingdom, pp. 201-277,
1992 (This article contains 17 pages of reference citations.)- DeMeo, J., "HIV is Not the Cause of AIDS: A Summary of Current
Research Findings," Pulse of the Planet, No. 4, 1993, pp. 99-105
- Root-Bernstein, R., Rethinking AIDS: The Tragic Cost of Premature
Consensus, Free Press, New York, NY, 1993
51 Sonnabend, J.A., "Fact and Speculaton
About The Cause of AIDS," AIDS Forum, Vol. 2, No. 1, New York, May, 1989, pp.
3-12
52 James, W., Immnunization, pp. 55-87
53 Ibid, (modified and adapted from–Table 1, "Two Theories of
Disease," P. 65)
54 McCormick, W.J., "Vitamin C in the Prophylaxis and
Therapy of Infectious Diseases," Archives of Pediatrics, Vol. 68, No. 1,
January, 1951
See also:
- McCormick, "The Changing Incidence and Mortality of Infectious
Disease in Relation to Changed Trends in Nutrition," The Medical Record,
September, 1947, reprinted by the Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, USA
55 Table I–Data presented at the British
Association for the Advancement of Sciences (Presidential Address), in The Dangers of
Immunization, The Humanitarian Society, Quakertown Penn., USA, 1979; source cited:
Porter 1971
56 Table II–McKeown, T., The Role of Medicine–Dream,
Mirage, or Nemesis?, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, UK, 1979, p. 103
57 Table III–lbid p. 105 and data from Waltzkin, H.,
"…Analysis of the Health Care Systems of Advanced Capitalist Societies," in
The Relevance of Social Science for Medicine, edited by Eisenberg, L., and Kleinman, A.,
1980; source cited: Kass, 1971
58 Table IV–Based on McKeown, T., The Role of
Medicine–Dream, Mirage, or Nemesis?, Princeton University Press, 1979, p. 104
59 Table V–Based on Taylor, R., Medicine Out of Control,
Sun Books, Melbourne, 1979, Figure 1.1, p. 9 and text p. 8; source cited; Australian
Bureau of Census and Statistics, Demography Bulletins, Canberra, Australia
60 Table VI–The Dangers of Immunization; source cited:
Dingle, J., Scientific American, 1973
61 Table VII–Based on Taylor, R., Medicine Out of Control.
Figure 1.2, p. 11; source cited: Crofton, J. and Douglas, A., "Epidemiology and
Prevention of Pulmonary Tuberculosis," in Respiratory Diseases, Blackwell
Scientific Publications, Oxford, UK, 1969; and data from McKeown, T., The Role of
Medicine, (Basil Blackwell edition) p. 92
62 Table VIII–Based on Hoole, F.W., Evaluation Research
and Development Activities. Sage Publications, Newberry Park, California, Figure 2.3,
p. 58
63 Table IX–Ekanem, E.E., "A 10 Year Review of Morbidity
from Childhood Preventable Diseases in Nigeria: How Successful is the Expanded Programme
of Immunization (EPI)?" Department of Community Health, College of Medicine,
University of Lagos, Nigeria, published in Journal of Tropical Pediatrics, Vol. 34,
Oxford University Press, England, 1988, Figure 1, p. 324
64 Table X–Ibid
65 Table XI–Based on Taylor, R., Medicine Out of Control,
Figure 1.3, p. 12; sources cited: Glover, J., "Incidence of Rheumatic Diseases,"
Lancet, 1:499, 1930; and WHO, Geneva, "Annual Epidemiological and Vital
Statistics 1950-196 I," World Health Annual Statistical Reports (causes of
death) 1962-1975
66 Table XII–Based on Waltzkin, H., ". . . Analysis of
the Health Care Systems."
67 Table XIII–Epidemiology data for years 1978-1987 taken
from UNICEF Evaluation Publication No. 6, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, May
27, 1988; and data for years 1988 and 1989, obtained in personal communication from the
Pan American Health Organization, EPI Unit, August 21, 1990
68 Table XIV–Ibid
69 Table XV–Ibid
70 Table XVI–Ibid
71 Table XVII–Ibid
72 Table XVIII–Ibid
74 Mendelsohn, R., "The Truth About
Immunizations," The People’s Doctor–A Medical Newsletter for Consumers, Vol.
2, No. 4, Evanston, Illinois, p. 6
75 Morton, A.R., "The Diptheria Epidemic in Halifax," Canadian Medical
Association Journal, Vol. 45, 1941, p. 171
76 McCormick, W.J., "The Changing Incidence and Mortality of Infectious Disease in
Relation to Changed Trends in Nutrition," The Medical Record, Toronto, Canada,
September, 1947, Reprint No. 5a, Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, USA, p. 4
77 Eller, C.H., and Frobisher, M. Jr., "An Outbreak of Diptheria in Baltimore in
1944," American Journal of Hygiene, Vol. 42, 1945, P. 179
78 Dettman, G., and Kalokerinos, A.,
"Second Thoughts About Disease," p. 16
79 Cournoyer, C., What About Immunization? A Parent’s Guide to Informed Decision
Making, Private Research Publication, Canby, Oregon, USA, 4th Edition, 1987, p. 5
80 Clymer, E.M., et al, The Dangers of Immunization, The Humanitarian Society,
Quakertown, Penn., USA, 1983 Edition, p 47
See also:
- Neustaedter, R., The Immunization Decision–A Guide for Parents,
The Family Health Series, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California, 1990, pp. 50 and 51
81 James, W., Immunization, p. 31
82 Cournoyer, C., What About Immunizations?, p. 5
83 Ekanem, E.E., "A 10 Year Review of Morbidity from Childhood Preventable Diseases
in Nigeria," Journal of Tropical Pediatrics, Vol. 34, December, 1988, p. 325
84 Dayton, L., "Measles Vaccination May Not Protect for Life," New Scientist,
Vol. 4, Vancouver, Canada, November, 1989, p. 6
85 Shasby, D.M., et al, "Epidemic Measles in a Highly Vaccinated Population," New
England Journal of Medicine, 296: 1987, pp. 585-589
See also:
- Gustafson, T.L., et at, "Measles Outbreak in a Fully Immunized
Secondary School Population," New England Journal of Medicine, 316: 1987, pp.
771-774- Weiner, L.B., et al, "A Measles Outbreak Among Adolescents," Journal
of Tropical Pediatrics, Vol. 90, 1987, pp. 17-20- Hull, H.F., et al, "Risk Factors for Measles Vaccine Failure Among
Immunized Students," Pediatrics, Vol. 76, 1985, pp. 518-523
86 Mendelsohn, R., "The
Medical Time Bomb of Immunization Against Disease," p. 43
87 Markowitz, L.E., "Patterns of Transmission in Measles Outbreaks in the United
States," New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 320, 1989, pp. 75-81
88 "Measles–Quebec" MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report), Vol.
38 (a), 1989, pp. 329 and 330
89 Kalokerinos, A., and Dettman, G., Viral
Vaccines, Vital or Vulnerable, published by: The Conunittee of the Biological Research
Institute, Warburton, Victoria, Australia, p. 27. (Note article of same title–but
different content–is also referenced in the August, 1980 issue of the Australasian
Nurses Journal)
90 Kenya, P.R., "Measles and Mathematics: Control or Eradication," (Kenya
Medical Research Institute, Nairobi) East African Medical Journal, Vol. 67, No. 12,
December, 1990
91 Wixen, J.S., "Twentieth-Century Miraclemaker," Modem Maturity,
December, 1984-January, 1985, p. 92
92 Hearings Before the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Connnerce, House of
Representatives," Eighty-Seventh Congress, Second Session on HR 10541, May,
1962, pp. 94-112
See also:
- The American Journal of Public Health, Vol.45, Sup.1-63,1955
93 Section Panel on "Preventive Medicine and Preventive
Health" at the 120" Annual Meeting of the Illinois State Medical Society, May
26, 1960–reported in the Illinois Medical Journal, August and September issues,
1960
94 James, W., Inununization, p. 28
95 Ibid
96 Neustaedter, R., et al, Immunizations, Are They Necessary?, Hering Family Health
Clinic, Berkeley, California, 1981, p. 19
See also:
- Delarue, F., L’intoxication vaccinate, Editions de Seuil, Paris France,
1977, p. 57
97 US House of Representatives, Hearings on HR 10541, p. 113.
(Reported in the Toorak Times, Melbourne Australia, October 5, 1986)
98 Mendelsohn, R., "The Medical Time Bomb of
Immunization Against Disease," p. 52
99 Sutter, R., et al, "Outbreak of Paralytic Poliomyelites in Oman. Evidence for
Widespread Transmission Among Fully Vaccinated Children," Lancet, Vol. 338,
September, 1991, pp. 715-720
See also:
- Patriarca, et al, "Randomised Trial of Alternative Formulations of
Oral Poliovaccine in Brazil," Lancet, February, 1988, pp. 429-432- Kim-Farley, R., et al, "Outbreak of Paralytic Poliomyelitis in
Taiwan," Lancet No. 11, 1984, pp. 1322-1324- Deniing, M., et al, "Epidemic Poliomyelitis in the Gambia Following
Control of Poliomyelitis as an Endemic Disease: Part 11. The Clinical Efficacy of
Trivalent Oral Polio Vaccine," American Journal of Epidemiology, (in press)
100 Fulginiti, V., "Controversies in Current Immunization
Practices: One Physician’s Viewpoint," 1976, in Morris, J.A., Statement Submitted
to US Senate Committee on Labor and Human Relations. Subcomniittee on Investigations and
General Oversight, June 30, 1982. (Dr. Morris served as Director of the Slow, Latent,
and Temperant Virus Section of the US Bureau of Biologics, Food and Drug Administration)
101 Stewart, G.T., British Medical Journal, January 31, 1976
See also:
- Stewart, G.T., "Vaccination Against Whooping Cough: Efficiency vs.
Risks," Lancet, 1977, p. 234
102 Medical Tribune, January 10, 1979, p. 1
103 Ekanem E.E., "A 10 Year Review of Morbidity from Childhood Preventable Diseases
in Nigeria," Journal of Tropical Pediatrics, Vol. 34, p. 325, December, 1988
104 Neustaedter, R.,The Immunization Decision, p. 32
105 Cournoyer, C., What About Immunizations? p. 12
106 lbid
107 Johnson, DM., "Fatal Tetanus After Prophylaxis with Human Tetanus, Imnune
Globulin," Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 207, 1969, p.
1519
108 Cournoyer, C., What About Immunizations? p. 12
109 Epidemiology data for years 1978-1987 taken from UNICEF Evaluation Publication
No. 6, May 27, 1988; and data for years 1988 and 1989, obtained from the Pan American
Health Organization, EPI Unit, August 21, 1990
110 Buttram, H.E., and Hofftnan, J.C., "Bringing Vaccines Into Perspective,"
(reference to "vaccines, a therapy in question," Theropocia, June, 1981, p. 23) Mothering,
Vol. 34, Winter Edition, 1985, p. 43
111 Creighton, C., "Vaccination," Ninth Edition of the Encyclopedia
Brittanica, pp. 29 and 30
112 Dettman, G., and Kalokerinos, A.,
"Viral Vaccines Vital or Vulnerable," Australasian Nurses Journal,
August, 1980, p. 30
113 Ibid, p. 29
114 "Natural History of Smallpox," in the New Scientist, November, 1978,
p. 30
115 Dettman, G., and Kalokerinos, A.,
"Viral Vaccines," p. 29
116 Hoole, F.W., Evaluation Research and Development Activities, Sage Publications,
Newberry Park, California, Figure 2.3, p. 58
117 James, W., Immunization, p. 18
118 Dettman, G., and Kalokerinos, A.,
"Viral Vaccines," ANJ article, p. 30
119 Belshe, R.B., Editor, Textbook of Human Virology, PSG Publishing Co. Inc.,
Littleton, Massachusetts, USA
See also:
- Andrews, Sir Christopher, et at, Viruses of Vertebrates, Bailliere
Tindall, London, UK, Fourth Edition, (Figure 33.5 Sharing Distribution of Human Monkeypox
Cases, courtesy of I. Arita, Smallpox Eradication Unit), p. 944
120 Hawes, F., Canada’s International Inununization Programme:
1986-1991, full document
121 Chetelat, L.J., A Synthesis of Key Issues for Evaluation in Primary Care, p. 142
122 Karzon, D.S., "Immunization on Public Trial," The New England Journal of
Medicine, Vol. 297, No. 5, August 4, 1977, pp. 275 and 276
123 UNICEF Canada, Annual Report on the Northeast Thailand Integrated Services Project for
Children, Toronto, March 31, 1990, P. 5
124 Reported in the Toronto Star, December 10, 1989, P. B5
125 Wilson, G.S., The Hazards of Immunization, The University of London, Athlone
Press, London, UK, 1967, pp. 4-6 and 282-289 (Still in print)
126 Mendelsohn, R., "The Truth About
Immunization," p. 7
127 "Immununization Public Health Protector?," p. 4
128 Neustaedter, R.,The Inununization Decision, pp. 72 and 73
129 "Links Between Contaminated Vaccines, Cancer and AIDS," Townsend Letter for
Doctors, May, 1989, p. 254, (review of Snead, E. documentary video, "Is it AIDS? Or
Leukemia or Immunization Related Syndrome")
130 Bloom B.R., "Vaccines for the Third World," p. 15
131 Mendelsohn, R., "Immunization Controversies
Continue," The Peoples Doctor–A Medical Newsletter for Consumers, Vol. 2, No.
10, Evanston Illinois, USA
132 James, W., Immunization, pp. 10 and 72
See also:
- Cournoyer, C., What About Inmiunizations?, P. 3
133 Moskowitz, R., "Immunizations: The Other Side," Mothering,
Vol. 31, Spring Edition, 1984
134 James, W., Immunization, pp. 14 and 15
135 Fenical, G.M., "Neurological Complications of Immunization," Annals of
Neurology, No. 12, 1982, pp. 119- 128
See also:
- White, F., "Measles Vaccine Associated Encephalitis in Canada,"
Lancet, No. 2, 1983, pp. 683 and 684- Zilber, N., et al, "Measles Vaccination and Risk of Subacute
Sclerosing Panencephalitis (SSP)," Neurology, Vol. 33, 1983- St. Geme, J.W., et al, Exaggerated Natural Measles Following Attenuated
Virus Immunization, Pediatrics, Vol. 57, 1976, pp. 148-150- Neustaedter, R., The Immunization Decision, pp. 55-58
- Mendelsohn, R., "The Medical
Time Bomb of Immunization Against Disease," p. 49
136 Cody, C.L., et al, "Nature and Rates of Adverse Reactions
Associated with DPT and DT Inununizations in Infants and Children," Pediatrics,
Vol. 68, pp. 650-660
See also:
- Baraff, L.J., et al, "Possible Temporal Association Between
Diptheria-Tetanus-Toxoid-Pertussis Vaccination and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome," Pediatric
Infectious Disease Journal, No. 2, 1983, pp. 7-11- Jacobson, V., et at, "Relationship of Pertussis Immunization to the
Onset of Epilepsy, Febrile Convulsions and Central Nervous System Infections: A
Retrospective Epidemiologic Study,"Tokai Journal of Experimental Clinical
Medicine, Vol. 13, Supplement, pp. 137 ,142, 1988. ("Records of 2,199 children
with febrile seizures were reviewed and a significant association between the first
febrile seizures and the scheduled age of pertussis immunization was noted," such
association was not significant with epilepsy and CNS infections.)- Hutcheson, R., "Follow-up on DPT Vaccination and Sudden Infant
Deaths–Tennessee," MMWR, March 30, 1979- Kalokerinos, K., and Dettman,
G., "A Supportive Submission," The Dangers of Immunization, Biological
Research Institute, Warburton, Victoria, Australia, 1979, p. 74- Coulter, H.L., and Fisher, B.L., DPT: A Shot in the Dark,
Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich Publishers, San Diego, USA, 1985- Thompson, L., "DPT Vaccine Roulette," 60 minute documentary
produced for WRC-TV, Washington, DC, April, 1982- Hyman, J., "Children at Risk: The DPT Dilemma," The Democrat
& Chronicle, Rochester, N-Y, 1987
137 –Mendelsohn, R.,
"Immunization Update," The People’s Doctor–A medical Newsletter for
Consumers, Vol 10, No. 5, Evanston, Illinois, USA
138 Church, J.A., and Richards, W., "Recurrent Abscess Formation Following DPT
Inununizations: Association with Hypersensitivity to Tetanus Toxoid," Pediatrics,
Vol. 75, 1985, pp. 899 and 900
See also:
- Mendelsohn, R., "More
Anti-Vaccine Arguments," The Peoples Doctor–Medical Newsletter for Consumers,
Vol. 8, No. 12, Evanston, Illinois, USA- Neustaedter, R., The Immunization Decision, p. 33
139—Mendelsohn, R., "The
Medical Time Bomb of Immununization Against Disease," p. 52
See also:
- Neustaedter, R., The Immunization Decision, pp. 40 and 41
140 Sabath, L., et at, "Antigen Induced Transient
Hypersusceptibility: A Cause of Sporadic and Fulminant Infection in Normals," Clinical
Research, Vol. 35, No. 617A, 1987. (This case controlled study found that childhood
purulent meningitis victims had a higher record of recent inununization, than children of
comparable age who were free from meningitis.)
141 Alderslade, R., et al, "The National Childhood Encephalopathy Study," in Whooping
Cough, Reports from the Committee on Safety of Medicines and the Joint Committee on
Vaccination and Immunization, Department of Health and Social Security, Her Majesty’s
Stationery Office, London, 1981, pp. 79-154
142 James, W., Immunization, p. 14
143 Cournoyer, C., What About Immunizations?, pp. 8 and 9
144 James. W., Immununization, p. 13
145 Coulter, H., and Fisher, B., DPT: A Shot in the Dark, Avery Publishing Group,
Garden City Park, New York, 1991
See also:
- Coulter, H.L., Vaccination, Social Violence, and Criminality–The
Medical Assault on the American Brain, Center for Empirical Medicine, Washington, DC,
USA, 1990
146 Dettrnan, G., "SIDS–Sudden Infant Death Syndrome,"
Blackmores Communicator–The Professional Services Newsbrief of Blackmore Laboratories,
Vol. 6, Sydney Australia and Auckland New Zealand, May, 1983
147 Torch, W., "Diptheria-Pertussis-Tetanus (DPT) Immunization: A Potential Cause of
the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)," Neurology, No. 32, 1982, p. A169
148 Mortimer, E., Jr., "Pertussis Immunization: Problems, Perspectives,
Prospects," Hospital Practice, October, 1980, pp. 103-118
149 Shannon, D., and Kelly, D., "SIDS and Near-SIDS," New England Journal of
Medicine, 306: (17), 1982, pp. 959-1028
150 Lederberg, J., Science, October 20, 1967, p. 313
151 Buttram, H., "Live Virus Vaccines and Genetic Mutation," Health
Consciousness, April, 1990, pp. 44 and 45
152 James, W., Immunization, p. 15
153 Markowitz, R., "The Case Against Immunizations," Journal of the American
Institute of Homeopathy, Washington, DC, 1983, Institute reprint
154 Miller, et al, "Multiple Sclerosis and Vaccinations," British Medical
Journal, April 22, 1967, pp. 210-213
155 James, W., Immunization, p. 15
156 Dettman, G., "Immunization, Ascorbate and Death," Australian Nurses
Journal, December, 1977
157 Jahnke, U., et al, "Sequence Homology Between Certain Viral Proteins and Proteins
Related to Encephalomyelitis and Neuritis," Science, Vol. 29, July 19, 1985,
pp. 282-284
158 Shaywitz, S., and Bennet, A., "Diagnosis and Management of Attention Deficit
Disorder: A Pediatric Perspective," Pediatric Clinics of North America, Vol. 31, No.
2, April, 1984, pp. 428-457
See also:
- Shaywitz, S., and Bennet, A., American Psychiatric Association
(Journal), 1987, pp. 44-47- Cowart, V., "Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Physicians
Helping Parents Pay More Heed," Journal of the American Medical Association,
Vol. 259, May 13, 1988, pp. 2647-2652
159 Buttram, H., "Live Virus Vaccines and Genetic Mutation,"
p. 44
160 Coulter, H., Vaccination, Social Violence and Criminality, Washington, DC,
1990, (entire work)
161 McGuire, R., "Brain Auto-Antibodies in 33% of Schizophrenics," Medical
Tribune, July 14, 1988, p. 6
162 Morozov, P., editor, "Research on the Viral Hypothesis of Mental Disorders,"
in Advances in Biological Psychiatry, Vol. 12, published by Karger, S., New York,
1983, pp. 52-75
See also:
- Crow, T., "Is Schizophrenia an Infectious Disease?," Lancet,
1:8317, 1972, pp. 173-175- Halonen, P., et al, "Antibody Levels to HSV-1, Measles, and Rubella
Virus in Psychiatric Patients," British Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 125, 1974,
pp. 461-465
163 Mendelsohn, R., "The
Medical Time Bomb of Immunization Against Disease," pp. 47 and 48
164 "Immunization Public Health Protector?," p. 8
165 Mendelsohn, R., "The Medical Time Bomb of
Immunization Against Disease," p. 48
166 Storsaeter, J., et al, "Mortality and Morbidity from Invasive Bacterial
Infections During a Clinical Trial of Acellular Pertussis Vaccines in Sweden," Pediatrics
Infectious Disease Journal, Vol. 78, 1988, pp. 637-645
167 Buttram, H.E., and Hoffman, J.C., "Bringing Vaccines Into Perspective," Mothering,
Vol. 34, Winter Edition,1985, p. 42
168 Buttram, H.E., and Hoffman, J.C., Vaccinations and Immune Malfunction, pp. 5-18,
article in ref 167
See also:
- "Vaccinations and lmmune Malfunction," Mothering,
Vol.28, Summer Edition, 1983, pp.31 and32
169- lbid (article ref.), p. 32
170 Craighead, J.E., "Report of a Workshop: Disease Accentuation After Immununization
with Inactivated Microbial Vaccines," at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda
Maryland, in Journal of Infectious Diseases, (University of Chicago), Vol. 131, No.
6, June, 1975, pp. 749-754
See also:
- Nader, P., et al, "Severe Illness (Atypical Exanthem) Following
Exposure to Natural Measles: 11 Cases in Children Previously Inoculated with Killed
Vaccine." American Pediatrics Society Abstracts, 1967, p. 13- Kim, H., et at, "Respiratory Syncytial Virus Disease in Infants
Despite Prior Administration of Antigenic Inactivated Vaccine," Progress in
Medical Virology, Vol. 13, 1971, pp. 239-270
171 Zimmerman, B., and Stone, A., "Allergic Reactions Associated
with Viral Vaccines," Progress in Medical Virology, Vol. 82, No. 5, October,
1987, pp. 225-232
172 Buttram, H.E., and Hofftnan, J.C., Vaccinations and Immune Malfunction, p. 46
173 Coulter, H.L., and Fisher, B.L., DPT, p. 407
174 Buttram, H.E., and Hoffman, J.C., Vaccinations and Immune Malfunction, p. 47
175 Epidemiological Data Presented in Canadian Parliamentary Debates, Ottawa, Canada, June
14, 1978
176 Obomsawin, R., "Traditional Lifestyles and Freedom from the Dark Seas of
Disease," Community Development Journal–An International Forum, Oxford
University Press, Vol. 18, No. 2, Oxford, England, April, 1983
177 Prior, I., "The Price of Civilization," Nutrition Today, Vol. 6, No.
4, July-August, 197 1, pp. 3 and 11
178 Illich, I., Limits to Medicine–Medical Nemesis? The Expropriation of Health,
Penguin Books, Middlesex, England, 1977
See also:
- Taylor, R., Medicine Out of Control, (see ref 59 for complete
information)- Mendelsohn, R.S., Confessions of a
Medical Heretic, Warner Books–Warner Communications Company, New York, NY, USA, 1979- Corea, G., The Hidden Malpractice–How American Medicine Mistreats
Women, Jove Publications, New York, NY, USA, 1978 Edition- Tushnet, L., The Medicine Men–The Myth of Ouality Medical Care In
America Today, Warner Books Inc., New York, NY, USA, 1969 Edition- Inglis, B., The Case for Unorthodox Medicine, G.P. Putnam’s Sons
and Berkley Publishing Corp., New York, NY, USA, 1969 Edition
179 Illich, I., Tools for Conviviality, Fitzhenry and Whiteside
Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1963, p. 7
180 Gandhi, Mahatma, The Health Guide, published by Shri Anand T. Hingorani,
Navajivan Trust, Ahmedabad, India, 1965, pp. 5- 1 0
181 Kahn, K.S., et al, "A Health Care Paradox," World Health, Published
by the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, May, 1989
182 Sharpston, M.J., "Health and the Human Environment," in Health, Food and
Nutrition in Third World Development, Ghosh, PK. editor, prepared under the auspices
of the Center for International Development, University of Maryland, and the World Academy
of Development and Cooperation, Washington, DC, International Development Resource Book
No. 6, Greenword Press, a division of Congressional Information Service Inc.,
Westport, Conn. USA, 1984, pp. 85 and 80
183 McKeown, T., "The Road to Health," World Health Forum, Published by
the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, Vol. 10, 1989, pp. 410 and 411
184 Helberg, H., "An Evolving Process," World Health Forum, published by
the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, January-February, 1988
185 Standard, K.L., "Infections and Malnutrition–Child Mortality," in Epdemiology
and Community Health in Warm Climate Countries, Cruickshank, R., et al, editors,
Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, UK, 1976, pp. 45-48
186 Etherington, A., Assessment of the CIDA Health Sector Integrated Paper, p. 1
187 Chetelat, L.J., A Synthesis of Key Issues for Evaluation in Primary Health Care,
p. 2
189 Ibid, p. 3
189 Sharing Our Future–Canadian International Development Assistance, Canadian
International Development Agency, Hull, Canada, 1987, P. 37
190 "Proceedings of the Meeting on Selective Primary Health Care," November
29-30, 1985. Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium, 1985
191 Morgan, S., Clean Culture–The New Soil Science, Health Research, Mokelunme
Hill, California, USA reprint of 1918 Edition, p. 6
192 Wrench, G.T., The Wheel of Health–The Sources of Long Life and Health Among
the Hunza, Shocken Books, New York, 1972 reprint of 1938 Edition, pp. 91 and 107
193 Shelton, H.M., "Basis of Resistance," Hygienic Review, Vol. 37, No.
9, San Antonio, Texas, USA, May, 1977, p. 194
194 Howard, Sir A., "The Role of Insects and Fungi in Agriculture," The
Empire Cotton Growing Review, Vol. XIII
195 Mueller, S., "A Horticulturist Speaks Out on Health," Health Science,
April-May Issue, 1980, p. 28
196 Bernard, R.W., Super Foods From Super Soil, Health Research, Mokelunme Hill,
California, 1956, p. 13
197 Moodie, R.L., "Paleopathology: An Introduction to the Study of Ancient Evidences
of Disease," and Moodie, "The Antiquity of Disease," quoted by Hubbard,
R.A., in Historical Perspectives of Health, undated private publication,
Professional Health Media Services, Loma Linda, California
198 Wrench, G.T., The Wheel of Health, pp. 117-118
199 Shelton, H.M., "Basis of Resistance," p. 194
200 Morgan, Clean Culture, p. 21
201 lbid (whole text.)
202 Phillips, David A., From Soil to Psyche, Woodbridge Press Publishing Company,
Santa Barbara, California, USA, 1977, pp. 193 and 194
203 Kjolhede, C., and Gadomski, A., "Ten Best Readings in . . . Vitamin A," Health
Policy and Planning: 5 (1):, Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, 1990, p. 88
204 Clausen, S., "The Pharmacology and Therapeutics of Vitamin A," Journal of
the American Medical Association, Vol. 111, 1938, pp. 144-154
205 Sommer, A., et al, "Increased Mortality in Children with Mild Vitamin A
Deficiency," Lancet, No. 2, 1983, pp. 585-588
206 Sonuner, A., et at, "Increased Risk of Respiratory Disease and Diarrhoea in
Children with Pre-Existing Mild Vitamin A Deficiency," American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 40, 1984, pp. 1090-1095
207 Sommer, A., et al, "Impact of Vitamin A Supplementation on Childhood Mortality: A
Randomized Controlled Community Trial," Lancet, Vol. I, 1986, pp. 1169-1173
208 Kjolhede, C., and Gadomski, A., "Ten Best Readings in … Vitamin A," p. 88
209 Mamdani, M., and Ross, D., "Vitamin A Supplementation and Child Survival: Magic
Bullet or False Hope?," Health Policy and Planning: 4 (4), Oxford University
Press, Oxford, England, 1989, pp. 273 and 274
210 West, K., and Sommer, A., "Delivery of Oral Doses of Vitamin A to prevent Vitamin
A Deficiency and Nutritional Blindness: A State-of-the-Art Review," UN Administrative
Committee on Coordination–Sub-Committee on Nutrition State-of-the-Art series, Nutrition
Policy Discussion Paper #2, Food Policy and Nutrition Division, Food and Agriculture
Organization, Rome, Italy, 1987
211 Eastman, S., "Vitamin A Deficiency and Xerophthalmia: Recent Findings and
Programming Implications," Assignment Children, UNICEF, NY, 1987
212 Mamdani, M., and Ross, D., "Vitamin A Supplementation and Child Survival: Magic
Bullet or False Hope?," p. 287
213 lbid, pp. 274, 289 and 290
214 Dettman, G., and Kalokerinos, K., "The
Spark of Life," Health and Healing: Journal of Alternative Medicine, Vol. 1,
No. 1, 1981 (This article was originally accepted by the Royal Australian College of
Practicioners, but not published because–according to a letter prepared by the Chairman
of its Editorial Advisory Panel–"an article giving a contrary opinion . . . was not
obtainable.")
215 Stone, I., The Healing Factor–Vitamin C Against Disease, Grosser and Dunlop
Publishers, (produced in cooperation with Whitehall, Hadlyme and Smith, Inc.), New York,
NY, USA, 1974 Edition, pp. 70-89 and 202-212
216 Jungeblut, C., "Inactivation of Poliomyelitis Virus In Vitro by Crystalline
Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)," (Department of Bacteriology, College of Physicians and
Surgeons, Columbia University), Journal of Experimental Medicine, Vol. 62, 1935,
pp. 517-521
217 Holden, M., and Molley, E., "Further Experiments on Inactivation of Herpes Virus
by Vitamin C (1 -ascorbic acid)," Journal of Immunology, Vol. 33, 1937, pp.
251-257
218 Langenbusch, W., and Enderling, A., "Einfluss der Vitaniine auf das Virus der
Maulund Klavenseuch," Zentralblatt fur Bakteriologie, Vol. 140, 1937, pp. 1
12-115
219 Amato, G., "Azione dell’acido ascorbico sul virus fisso della rabia e sulta
tossina tetanica," Giomale di Bafteriologia, Virologia et Immunologia, Vol.
19, 1937, pp. 843-849
220 Jungeblut, C., "Inactivation of Poliomyelitis Virus in Vitro by Ascorbic
Acid," Experimental Medicine, Vol. 62, p. 203
221 Jungeblut, C., "Further Observations on Vitamin C Therapy in Experimental
Poliomyelitis," (Department of Bacteriology, College of Physicians and Surgeons,
Columbia University), Journal of Experimental Medicine, Vol. 65, 1937, pp. 127-146
See also:
- Ibid, Vol. 66, 1937, pp. 459-477
- Ibid, Vol. 70, 1939, pp. 315-332
222 Klenner, F., "Observations On the Dose and Administration of
Ascorbic Acid When Employed Beyond the Range of A Vitamin In Human Pathology," The
Journal of Applied Nutrition, (official publication of the International College of
the International College of Applied Nutrition), La Habra, California, USA, Vol. 223, No.
3 and 4, Winter, 1971, pp. 60-89
See also:
- References 221–223
223 lbid, pp. 64 and 65
224 Klenner, F., "The Treatment of Poliomyelitis and Other Virus Diseases with
Vitamin C," Southern Medicine and Surgery, Vol. 111, 1949, pp. 209-214
225 lbid
226 Klenner, F., "The Use of Vitamin C as an Antibiotic," Journal of Applied
Nutrition, Los Angeles, California, USA, Vol. 6, 1953, pp. 274-278
See also:
- Klenner, F., "Massive Doses of Vitamin C and the Virus
Diseases," Southern Medicine and Surgery, Vol. 113, 1951, pp. 101–107
227 Faulkner, J., and Taylor, F., Vitamin C and Infection, Annals of
Internal Medicine, Vol. 10, 1937, pp. 1867-1873
See also:
- Perla, D., and Marmorsten, "Role of Vitamin C in Resistance," Archives
of Pathology, Vol. 23, pp. 543-575, and pp. 683-712
228 Gupta, G., and Guha, B., "The Effect of Vitamin C and Certain
Other Substances on the Growth of Microorganisms, Annals of Biochemistry and
Experimental Medicine, Vol. 1, 1941, pp. 14-26
229 Sirsi, M., "Antimicrobial Action of Vitamin C on M. Tuberculosis and Some Other
Pathogenic Organisms," Indian Journal of Medical Sciences, Vol. 6, Bombay,
India, pp. 661 and 662
230 Jungeblut, C., and Zwemer, R., "Inactivation of Diphtheria Toxin in Vivo and in
Vitro by Crystalline Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid), Proceedings of the Society of
Experimental Biology and Medicine, Vol. 32, 1935, pp. 1229-1234
231 Jungeblut, C., "Inactivation of Tetanus Toxin by Crystalline Vitamin C
(1-ascorbic acid)," (Department of Bacteriology, College of Physicians and Surgeons,
Columbia University), Journal of Immunology, Vol. 33, No. 3, 1937, pp. 203-214
232 Kodama, T., and Kojima, T., "Studies of the Staphylococcal Toxin, Toxoid and
Antitoxin, Effect of Ascorbic Acid on Staphylococal Lysins and Organisms," Kitasato
Archives of Experimental Medicine, Vol. 16, 1939, pp. 36-55
233 Takahashi, Z., Nagoya, Journal of Medical Science, Vol. 12, 1938, p. 50
234 Moore, P., et at, in Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol. 54, 1946, p 233
235 Charpy, J., "Ascorbic Acid in Very Large Doses Alone or With Vitamin D2 in
Tuberculosis," Bulletin de I’Academie Nationale de Medecine, Vol. 132, Paris,
1948, pp. 421-423
236 Hochwald, A., "Observations on the Effect of Ascorbic Acid on Croupous Pneumonia,
Wien Archiv fur Innere Medizin, Vol. 29,1936, pp. 353-374
237 Onnerod, M., and Unkauf, B., "Ascorbic Acid Treatment of Whooping Cough," Canadian
Medical Association Journal, No. 37, 1937, p. 134
See also:
- Onnerod, M., et al, "A Further Report on the Ascorbic Acid Treatment
of Whooping Cough," Canadian Medical Association Journal, No. 37, 1937, p. 268
238 DeWit, J., "Treatment of Whooping Cough with Vitamin C," Kindergeneeskunde,
Vol. 17, 1949, pp. 367-374
239 LEPROSY:
Gatti and Goana, "Ascorbic Acid in the Treatment of Leprosy," Archiv
Schiffe-und Tropenhygiene, Vol. 43,1939, pp.32
Ferreira, D., "Vitamin C in Leprosy," Publicacoes Medicas, Vol. 20, 1950,
pp. 25-28
TYPHOID FEVER:
Szirmai, F., "Value of Vitamin C in Treatment of Acute Infectious Diseases," Deutshes
Archive fur KlinischeMedizin, Vol. 85,1940, pp. 434-443
Drummond, J., "Recent Advances in the Treatment of Enteric Fever," Clinical
Proceedings, Vol. 2, South Aftica, 1943, pp. 65-93
DYSENTARY:
Veselovskaia, T., Effective of Vitamin C on the Clinical Course of Dysentery, Voenno-Meditsinskii
Zhumal, Vol. 3, Moscow, 1957, pp. 32-37
Sokolova, V., "Application of Vitamin C in Treatment of Dysentery," Terapevticheskii
Arkhiv, Vol. 30, Moscow, 1958, pp. 59-64
Other readings on Vitamin C and bacterial infections:
Kuribayashi, K., et al, "Effect of Vitamin C on Bacterial Toxins," Japanese
Journal of Bacteriology, Vol. 18,1963, pp. 136-142
Sweany, H., et al, "The Body Economy of Vitamin C in Health and Disease," Journal
of the American Medical Association, Vol. 116, 1941, pp. 469-474
Dujardin, J., "Use of High Doses of Vitamin C in Infections," Presse Medical,
Vol. 55, 1947, p. 72
240 Cottingham, E., and Mills, C., "Influence of Temperature and Vitamin Deficiency
Upon Phagocyfic Functions," Journal of Immunology, Vol. 47, 1943, pp. 493-502
241 DeChatelet, L., et al, "Ascorbic Acid: Possible Role in Phagocytosis," paper
presented at the 62nd Meeting of
the American Society of Biological Chemists, San Francisco, USA, June 18, 1971
242 Cathcart, R., "Clinical Trial of Vitamin C," Medical Tribune, June
25, 1975
See also:
- Cathcart, R., "Vitamin C, Titrating to Bowel Tolerance,
Anascorbemia, and Acute Induced Scurvy," Medical Hypothesis, Vol. 7, 1981, pp.
1359-1376
243 Pauling, L., How to Live Longer and Feel Better, Avon Books of the Hearst
Corporation, New York, 1986, pp. 177 and 178
244 McCormick, W., "Vitamin C in the Prophylaxis and Therapy of Infectious
Diseases," Archives of Pediatrics, Vol. 68, No. 1, January, 1951, pp. 3 and 7
245 Simon, H., "Exercise and Infection," The Physician and Sports Medicine,
Vol. 15, 1987, pp. 135-141
246 White, K., "Interferon: The Promise . . . and Reality," Medical Tribune,
Vol. 19, October 16, 1978, p. 31
247 Sauberlich, H., "Implications of Nutritional Status in Human Biochemistry,
Physiology and Health," Clinical Biochemistry, Vol. 17, April, 1984
See also:
- Chandra, R., "Nutritional Regulation of Immunity and
Infection," Journal of Ped., Gastroentorology. and Nutrition, Vol. 5, pp.
844-852
248 Barons, et al, "Dietary Fat and Natural Killer-Cell
Activity," American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 50, 1989, pp. 861-867
249 Coffnan, L., "Effects of Specific Nutrients on the Immune Response," Medicine
and Clinicians–North American, Vol. 69, July, 1985, p. 5
250 Brown, R., et al, in Brain Behaviour and Immunity, Vol. 3,1989, pp. 320-330
251 Wiess, J., et al, "Behavioural and Neural Influences on Cellular Immune
Responses: Effects of Stress and Interleukin-1," Journal of Clinical Psychiatry,
Vol. 50, Supplement 5, 1989, pp. 43-53
See also:
- Girard, D., et al, "Psychosocial Events and Subsequent Illness–A
Review," Western Journal of Medicine, Vol. 142, March, 1985, pp. 358-363
252 Belyayev, I., et al, "Combined use of Ultraviolet Radiation to
Control Acute Respiratory Disease," Vestn Akad Med Nauk SSSR, Vol. 3, 1975, p.
37
See also:
- Zabaluyeva, A., et at, "The Mechanism of Adaptogenic Effect of
Ultraviolet," Vestn Akad Med Nauk SSSR, Vol. 3, 1975, p. 23- Frick, G., "Effect of UV on Blood Picture," Folia Haemat,
Vol. 101, 1974, p. 871- Rylova, S., "Effect of Short Wave Ultraviolet Rays on the Phagocytic
Activity of Leucocytes in Patients Suffering from Rheumatoid Polyarthritis," Vop
Kurort Fizioter, Vol. 32, 1967, p. 344- Murphy, J., and Sturm, E., "The Lymphocytes in Natural and Induced
Resistance to Transplanted Cancer," Journal of Experimental Medicine, Vol. 29,
1919, pp. 25-35
253 Maughan, G., and Smiley, D., "The Effect of General Irradiation
with Ultraviolet Upon the Frequency of Colds," Journal of Preventive Medicine,
Vol. 2, 1928, p. 69
254 Zabaluyeva, A., "General Inununological Reactivity of the Organism in
Prophylactic Ultraviolet Irradiation of Children in Northern Regions," Vestn Akad
Med Nauk SSSR, Vol. 3, 1975, p. 23
255 Miley, G., "The Knott Technic of Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation in Acute Pyogenic
Infections," New York Journal of Medicine, Vol. 42, 1942, p. 38
See also:
Hollaender, A., and Oliphant, J., "The Inactivating Effect of Monochromatic
Ultraviolet Radiation on Influenza Virus," Journal of Bacteriology, Vol. 48,
1944, p. 447
Downes, A., and Blunt, T., "Researches on the Effect of Light Upon Bacteria and Other
Organisms," Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, Vol. 26, 1877, p.
488
256 Kime, Z., Sunlight Could Save Your Life, World Health Publications, Penryn,
California, USA, 1980, p. 315
257 MacGregor, R., "Alcohol and Immune Defense," Journal of the American
Medical Association, Vol. 256, No. 11, September 19, 1986
258 Aldo-Benson, M., et al, Abstract No. 7966, Federation of American Sciences for
Experimental Biology, May, 1988
259 Bagasra, O., Abstract No. 3111, Federation of American Sciences for Experimental
Biology, Reproduced from a May, 1988, presentation
260 Journal of Infectious Diseases, Vol. 154, 1986
261 Kime, Z., Sunlight Could Save Your Life, Author’s Preface
ANNEX l
PROBLEMS WITH DEVELOPING WORLD MEDICALIZATION
AND THE TRADITIONAL MEDICINE ALTERNATIVE
By: Raymond ObomsawinThe medicalization of large parts of the Third World . . . has
occurred in the context of the destruction of whole systems of traditional philosophies in
the name of science and health. Present patterns of dependence are a product of this . . .
evolution. The addictive nature of the new pill culture may as one of its unwanted
consequences have played a role in creating and sustaining poverty in the Third World. The
price of foreign products is often out of proportion to the purchasing power of the poor,
who thus may squander a large part of their income in the pursuit of what may be illusory
hopes of benefit.. . . Pharmaceuticals are an inappropriate solution to many major health
problems and . . . their consumption often does not meet the health needs of people.Goran Sterky, Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, Uppsala,
Sweden.
THE DISTURBING DILEMMA
OF DEVELOPING WORLD MEDICALIZATION
Some leading international health officials, such as Robert Bannerman of the World Health
Organization, have legitimately raised the concern that "orthodox" and
"conventional" health care services–as devised for and administered to
Developing World populations–remain culturally alienating and "economically
unobtainable." He also maintains that, whether in the Developed or Developing Worlds,
the disparity between the actual benefits and the high costs of Western medicine continues
to be an issue of major socioeconomic and political concern. As part of this picture, it
is noted that in the Developing World, roughly one third of all health care costs are
devoted to "the drug bill alone," with relatively poor countries importing such
drugs against payments in scarce hard currency.1
Charles Medawar, Director of a London-based research unit, Social Audit Ltd., has
conducted extensive international research on the issue of medicalization practices in the
Developing World. He has documented the following disturbing conclusions in an article on
the need for the strengthening of international regulation in pharmaceutical practice:2
- The major proportion of pharmaceuticals on the world market are
"unessential and/or undesirable products" - there are well documented cases of the ongoing marketing of
pharmaceuticals to the Developing World that are known to be inherently unsafe and
dangerous - excessive prescribing constitutes a major cause of "adverse
reactions," with "chronic and serious under-reporting" of adverse reactions
being the norm (Estimates of the extent of under-reporting of adverse reactions in the
United Kingdom, "which has one of the most sophisticated post-marketing surveillance
systems in the world’ through the mechanism of the UK Committee on Safety of Medicines,
range from 90 to 99 percent.) - information from tests and trials on drugs typically ranges from
inadequate to appalling (in most clinical trials, the sample sizes are too small and the
length of treatment too short to substantiate the claims made on the strength of them) - most prescribing information is partial, unreliable and incomplete, with
the benefits routinely "emphasized and over-emphasized," while the disadvantages
and potential dangers are routinely played down or ignored - in most countries (especially in the Developing World), the right to
redress of damaged patients or clients is extremely limited, or does not exist at all - as a rule, decisions about medicines are almost totally dominated by
professional and commercial interests, and are usually carried out in secret, with public
accountability for the medical system and its practitioners severely restricted - Internationally, the pharmaceutical industry devotes about 1 percent of
its research and development expenditures on "poor world" diseases, despite the
fact that no "good drug treatments" exist for over half of the diseases specific
to the poor countries.
Medawar also provides evidence which suggests that the World Health
Organization’s (WH0) intimate cooperation and "contractual relations with many
pharmaceutical companies," inter alia, cripples its capacity to effectively represent
and support the most fundamental health needs of the Developing World through developing a
system of care in which the most prevalent and serious health needs are met. Multisectoral
measures which are safe, effective, simple, and uncostly hold the answer to attaining
sustainable and long term health improvement. Indeed, without due leadership in this
direction he contends that "Health for All by the year 2000 must appear a sham."
Even where the WHO has been able to advocate a more rational public sector approach to
medical practice in the Developing World, as in its 1981 Action Program on Essential Drugs
and Vaccines, the fact remains that in most Developing World countries there is readily
available in the private sector from 10 to 20 times as many pharmaceutical products as the
250 which are recommended in the Organization’s Action Program.
According to Sterky ". . . in some Third World countries, up to 75 percent of the
drugs moving in the market may be outside the control of health ministries." This
active trade in up to 4,000 drug products is largely monopolized by powerful transnational
corporations. In fact, it is estimated that 90 percent of the world’s production of
commercially marketed pharmaceuticals originates in the industrialized countries, with
this percentage growing.3
INDIA–AN ALARMING CASE IN POINT
Trisha Greenhalgh’s seminal survey of 2,400 individual patients under treatment in the
public and private medical sectors of India is illustrative of conditions which are
becoming increasingly prevalent throughout much of the Developing World.4 It will thus be reported on in some detail.
Her research confirmed that drugs which have a high incidence of side effects or a
"significant risk of fatal idiosyncrasy" are being sold over the counter and
prescribed by doctors for trivial complaints. Chloramphenicol, barbiturates, anabolic
steroids and high dosage oestrogen preparations "are used freely, often from bizarre
indications and in unsuitable dose regimens."
She refers to one national study which estimates that India is experiencing between five
to ten thousand deaths annually, from chloramphenicol-induced aplastic anaemia alone. High
dose estrogen-progesterone (EP) although containing warnings of teratogenicity (potential
to cause birth defects) remain the cheapest and most widely employed pregnancy test in the
country.
Furthermore, medical drugs which have been banned in Western countries due to their
dangers are actively prescribed, dispensed and marketed. A few cases include:
phenylbutazone, which has been associated with more deaths in Britain than any other drug;
and clioquinol which is officially accepted as a "safe drug," in apparent
ignorance of the major scandal in which literally tens of thousands of people were left
crippled from the drug, with its manufacturer, Ciba Geigy conceding full blame.
Greenhalgh further reports that the pharmaceutical industry argues that "these drugs
have not been shown to be hazardous to the Asian population," and that it awaits the
results of post-marketing surveillance before withdrawing them. In her words "this is
less a cry for objectivity, than a justification for exploiting the sorry state of medical
audit." Indeed, case records are rarely kept by doctors engaged in private practice,
and polypharmacy remains rife, so most adverse drug reactions remain inevitably
undetected. Even if they were detected, there exists no system for the reporting of
suspected reactions, and there is no official procedure or mechanism for alerting doctors
of suspected adverse reactions in new drugs.
This situation is further compounded by the fact that to all appearances with the
exception of teaching hospitals, postgraduate education in clinical pharmacology remains
the "unchallenged province of representatives from the pharmaceutical industry."
Simple solutions appear to be ignored. For example, 30 percent of all child deaths in the
nation are due to diarrhoea, yet in over 90 percent of such cases oral rehydration is
ignored by practicing medical doctors. In the population, millions are known to have a
Vitamin A deficiency, with as many as 30 thousand children being blinded each year. This
occurs despite the fact that "a fresh mango provides many weeks supply of Vitamin A
for a child and costs much less than a bottle of vitamin syrup."
To conclude this summary of Greenhalgh’s findings, I would share her following
observation.
. . . one cannot ignore the long term effects [and the ethical
implications] of encouraging a poorly educated population to develop blind faith in the
infallibility of modern medicine, and the magical properties ofprescribed pills . . . .
people who are too poor to buy rice are being led to believe that they need a cough
mixture for every cough, an antibiotic for every sore throat, and a tranquiliser to solve
the problems of everyday life.
A COMPELLING VOICE OF PROTEST
Mira Shiva, Coordinator of the Voluntary Health Association of India, drawing upon her
practical experience as a medical doctor in her home country, protests that low cost, self
reliant, and indigenous "health care alternatives" have been unduly marginalized
with the rapid growth of the medical-industrial complex. Indeed, while clinics and drug
dispensing units,, nursing homes, drug marketing outlets, and diagnostic labs have
literally mushroomed throughout the nation, at rapidly escalating costs, there has been
"no significant and substantial change in the health status of the people."
She further contends that:
Simple health care solutions, for example changes in diet, simple
massages, home remedies and herbal medicines, which are as relevant today as in the past .
. . have been gradually excluded from the health care scene, because of an assumed
superiority of modern drugs for all kinds of health problems. This assumed
"scientificity" has not been demonstrated by comparing the existing and new
pharmaceuticals with alternative therapies in terms of efficacy, side effects, drug
interaction, costs, acceptability, and availability.
Shiva also puts forward the view that the worldwide indigenous
traditions encompassed a superior holistic concept of health and disease, in which the use
of medicines served to complement and not displace more fundamental and broadly based
nutritional and environmental provisions. She concludes by stating that:
. . . the concept of the universalization of the pharmaceutical
medical solution . . . irrespective of the nutritional and health status of patients [and
or recipients] in deprived areas, is irrational. . . . It also indicates an unhealthy
First World bias on the part of drug exporters, transferors of technology and propounders
of myths.5
THE TRADITIONAL
MEDICINE ALTERNATIVE
The human experimentation with and exploration of plant medicines has evolved over the
millennia to what is a current usage of some 20,000 plant species, which
remarkably–according to scientists Phillipson and Anderson, of the School of Pharmacy on
London–"form the major sources of medicine for the population of the majority of the
World.6
Nonetheless–as the preceding sections portray–initially in the First World and now
universally, there has been an aggressively pursued and increasingly actualized goal to
displace this traditional knowledge and practice system, with commercially marketed
Western pharmaceuticals. Commercially subsidized and influenced university-based medical
curricula have fimctioned to shift the focus and faith of medical practitioners–and in
turn those they practice upon–from plant medicines, towards what is considered a
modernized pharmacopoeia. This public faith receives continual reinforcement through the
medium of public media advertising. (It should be noted that approximately 75% of modem
commercial pharmaceuticals are strictly synthetic chemical substances,7 that without exception, bear toxic and thus
harmful side effects.)
It is widely acknowledged that synthetic agents can be far more easily patented and thus
profited from. This, inter alia, has led Pharmacological researchers such as de Smet
(Royal Dutch Association for the Advancement of Pharmacy, the Hague, Netherlands) and
Rivier, (Institute of Legal Medicine–The University of Lausanne, Switzerland) to suggest
that the predominant view that traditional plant medicines are of marginal value
"could well be an economic verdict, rather than a well balanced scientific
judgment." They go on to "deplore the commonly held belief that the study of
traditional agents is nothing but an evaluation of outdated exotic, which cannot be
relevant for Western Medicine.8 Their
view is backed by Labadie, who has conducted extensive research on traditional plant
medicine at the State University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. He confirms that although
it "in general represents a still poorly explored field of research," there is
nonetheless a compelling basis for recognizing "the international relevancy of
research and development in the field of traditional drugs. . . .9
This relevancy that Labadie speaks of, has in part arisen from the growing recognition of
the practical limitations, high costs, and iatrogenic features incidental to allopathic
(conventional) medicine, with such awareness being the most prevalent in the First World,
where it has been the most widely practiced. Consequently, there has arisen in very recent
decades–from the lay to professional levels–a significant counter-movement towards
according "natural," (variously termed e.g., nature based, lifestyle, and
holistic) approaches to health care more prominent recognition and employment.
An important part of this increasingly worldwide trend has been the prominent re-emergence
of an integrated science termed ethno-pharrnacology. Although it central focus is on
traditional pharmacognosy (medicines derived from natural sources), it is necessarily
interdisciplinary in scope encompassing the functional co-relationship and integration of
scientific data in the areas of cultural anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, history,
botany, toxicology, botany, chemical physics, and biochemistry. Furthermore, it entails
both the preventive and therapeutic dimensions of medicine.10
University of Messina pharmaco-biologist Anna de Pasquale in conducting a detailed
historical review of plant derived medicine, which she has coined "The Oldest Modern
Science," came to the conclusion that
The re-examination of nature in the search for new therapeutic means
has obtained remarkable results. The study of ancient official drugs, which had fallen
into disuse . . . has brought about a re-discovery of therapeutic means used for millennia
. . . . [ethnopharmacology], this millenarian precursor of medical sciences, is still
alive and vital and it has its own place in the future of man. It possesses all the
premises to enable it to give a substantial contribution to a more efficacious and
rational research of medicaments. . . .11
(Eugene Linden’s September 23, 1991 article in Time
"Lost Tribes Lost Knowledge," cites M. Balick’s (Director of the New York
Institute of Economic Botany) observation that only 1,100 of the earth’s 265,000 species
of plants have been thoroughly studied by Western scientists, but as many as 40,000 may
have medicinal or undiscovered nutritional value for humans. He concludes with the
recommendation that traditional "healers . . . can help scientists greatly focus
their search for plants with useful properties.")
Anne Mcllory’s article "Medical secrets of the forest" in the
February 18, 1991 issue of The Toronto Star speaks of the renewed interest of a
limited number of Western scientists in the "enormous" potential of traditional
plant medicines. Such interest has of course taken on much greater urgency as the forests,
and the elders who’ve retained this knowledge appear to face impending extinction. One
noteworthy example where this renewed interest has richly paid off is found in the rosy
periwinkle, which now ftimishes an extract providing Western medicine with an 80 percent
recovery level for the once fatal condition of childhood leukaemia.
In going back to the 1978 Alma Ata Conference on Primary Health Care, we find pragmatic
approval given–at a political level–to the recommendation that essential drugs and
biologicals be locally produced and distributed "at the lowest feasible cost."
In concert with this recommendation, the Conference recognized the need to curb the
growing over-dependency on medical drugs. It was further affirmed that "proved
traditional remedies be incorporated in primary health care, including the establishment
of effective "supply systems."12 In the Words of Medawar," The importance of local medical need is
recognized in the AlmaAta recommendation on drugs, partly in the provisions on local
manufacture and use of indigenous remedies."13
From within the WHO, Bannerman has since gone on to play a vital role in encouraging a
renewed reliance upon "well known and tested herbal medicines in primary health
care." He refers to a growing interest on the part of Developing World governmental
and research institutions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America with respect to the
possibilities of further developing and re-utilizing their own medicinal plant resources.
He forcibly argues that:
. . . medicinal plants are generally locally available and relatively
cheap, and there is every virtue in exploiting such local and traditional remedies when
they have been tested and proven to be non-toxic, safe, inexpensive and culturally
acceptable to the community. . . . There are many records of traditional therapies
employing herbal medicines that are said to be effective against common ailments and
usually without any side-effects. . . The cultivation of medicinal plants and herbs can
also be linked with the production of vegetables and fruit with high nutritive value that
should be of particular benefit to mothers and children.
(While conducting an evaluation mission in Northeast Thailand, the
writer, in the company of UNICEF Officer Dr. Supote Prasertsri, visited the Reanunakorn
District Health Centre to examine its experimental traditional plant medicine program.
Program Director Pradit Tongyus–who also directs the Centre’s health, mental health,
nutrition and sanitation services–explained why he was inspired to establish the program.
His own son developed a serious urinary infection which failed to respond to regular
antibiotic treatments throughout 10 days of hospitalization. Upon turning to a known local
plant medicine, virtually all symptoms of infection subsided within a 10 hour period. He
went on to describe various local plant medicines which had proven to be non-toxic and
highly efficacious in the remediation of a wide range of conditions such as: burns; herpes
simplex; snake and scorpion bites, kidney stones, ulcers, and high blood pressure. Indeed,
such reputable attestations exist worldwide, and only await honest inquiry and further
clinical testing.)
As well, Bannerman recommends that community health workers be afforded with a working
knowledge of the therapeutic value of local medicinal plants, including their
identification, cultivation, collection, preparation, and therapeutic application. He
maintains that provisions for such training and practice represent a fundamental strategy
to the strengthening local and community self-reliance in health care.14
One of the key arguments of those who would oppose this is view, is that before such
medicines can be employed there must be extensive and detailed testing of each specific
plant medicine, extraction and refinement of the active ingredients, followed by official
recognition and approval. However, there are some basic reasons why this conventional drug
development methodology is not only impracticable, but as well unnecessary.
A significant number of plant medicines have been used successfully for centuries, and in
some cases millennia. Where there has been a long and established history of efficacy, no
apparent adverse side effects, and social acceptance, the only common sense response is to
fully permit and encourage continued usage. Researchers such as de Smet and Rivier
forcefully maintain that the endorsement of and reliance upon traditional plant medicines
in the Developing World, cannot and should not be made conditional upon the full
assemblage and weighing of "chemical, pharmacological, clinical and toxicological
evidence," as such requirements "would be untenable in the developing countries
. . . where Western alternatives for traditional therapies may be unavailable, unpayable
or socially unacceptable."
Consequently, the most practical course recommended–as a means of attaining more
"immediate health care improvement"–is to conduct simple assays on a series of
traditional plant medicines, rather than undertake costly and detailed chemical, clinical
and toxicological studies of each and every particular medicine.15
As an added and important point, internationally such
"simple assays"–as well as some very sophisticated pharmacological and clinical
studies–already exist on a number of traditional plant medicines, with the former
primarily found in the bio-etbnographic, and the latter in the bio-science literature.
CRITICAL CONCLUSIONS AND DIRECTIONS
As a fitting synthesis of the issues and concerns as raised in this paper, we can turn to
the outstanding work of the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation in Uppsala, Sweden. The Foundation
convened a landmark international seminar in 1985 on the issue of attaining Another
Development in Pharmaceuticals. The following salient observations are derived from
the "Summary Conclusions" of the Foundation’s report on the seminar, which had
both public and private sector representation from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.
- The pharmaceutical industry has evolved and been sustained, in part, by
encouraging the vision of human health problems as being solvable only by technological
means. A contrived international "pill-popping culture" may be in the short-term
economic interests of the industry, however it effectually undermines the vital long term
interest of attaining "indigenous," and "self-reliant" health
development. - There has been too great a tendency to dismiss traditional medicine as
unscientific and superstitious, while accepting unquestioningly all that is new. This is
true despite the fact that traditional forms of medicine at times "yield better
results" than those which can be obtained by the use of "modem
pharmaceuticals." - Perhaps more important than the actual nature of traditional remedies,
was the holistic perception of the nature of illness and the healing process. This view
often led to the use of therapies which enhanced the healing process through treating the
whole being, rather than the specialized "targeting" of specific symptoms. - Medical policies and practices must be "ecologically sound,"
viz. avoiding the "unnecessary pollution of patients bodies with toxic
chemicals." The pharmaceuticals market should be replaced by programs and therapies
for better health. The crisis will be solved only by a fundamental change both in the
training of health workers, and in the thinking of a community which has "been
seduced into believing that every ill can be solved by a little pill." - Both the mystique of professional monopolies of expertise and
transnational corporation monopolies of technology, which in concert deny development to
the South, "must be shattered." Medicine should be "endogenous," that
is primarily derived from the cultural, human and material resources available to each
society.16
It is the view of the writer, that to ignore these conclusions and
oppose these recommendations will be but to help insure the continuation of oppression,
poverty, and disease throughout the Developing World. Furthermore, it will serve to deny
both the developed and developing nations with the enormous opportunity of properly
assessing and accessing a vastly untapped reservoir of vital experiential knowledge,
insights, and plant medicines which may tragically perish with the older generation of
increasingly marginalized and threatened indigenous "nature based" societies.
1 Bannerman, R., "The Role of Traditional Medicine in Primary
Health Care," in Traditional Medicine and Health Care Coverage–A reader for
health administrators and practitioners, 1983, edited by Bannerman, R., Burton, J.,
and Wen-Chieh C., The World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, p. 319
2 Medawar, C., "International Regulation of the Supply and Use ofP
harmaceuticals," in Development Dialogue, Vol. 25, 1985, The Dag Hammarskjold
Foundation, Uppsala, Sweden, p. 16-34
3 Sterky, Goran, "Another Development in Pharmaceuticals: An Introduction," in Development
Dialogue, Vol. 2, 1985, The Dag Hanunarskjold Foundation, Uppsala, Sweden, pp. 5 and 6
4 Greenhalgh, T., "Drug Prescription and Self-Medication In India: An Exploratory
Survey," in Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 25, No. 3, 1987, Pergamon
Journals Ltd., Great Britain, pp. 307-316
5 Shiva, M., "Towards a Healthy Use of Pharmaceuticals–An Indian Perspective,"
in Development Dialogue, Vol. 25, 1985, The Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, Uppsala,
Sweden, pp. 69-72
6 Phillipson, J. David, and Anderson, L., "Etlmopharinocology and Western
Medicine," in Journal of harmocolo Vol. 25, 1989, Elsevier Scientific Publishers
Ireland Ltd., pp. 61 and 65
7 lbid, p. 71
8 de Smet, P., and Rivier, L., "A General Outlook on Ethnopharmocology," in Journal
of Ethnopharmocology, Vol. 25, 1989, Elsevier Scientific Publishers Ireland Ltd., pp.
130 and 131
9 Labadic, R., "Problems and Possibilities in the Use of Traditional Drugs,"
plenary lecture presented at the Second International Congress on Traditional Asian
Medicine, September, 1984, Surabay, Indonesia
10 de Smet, P., and Rivier, L., "A General Outlook on Ethnopharacology," p. 127,
and see, de Pasquale, A. "Pharmacognosy: The Oldest Modern Science," in Journal
of Ethnopharmacology, Vol. 11, 1984, Elsevier Scientific Publishers Ireland Ltd., p.
13
11 de Pasquale, "Pharmacognosy," pp. 13 and 16
12 Primary Health Care, Report of the International Conference on Primary Health
Care Jointly Organized by the WHO and UNICEF, at Alma-Ata, USSR, September 6-12, 1978,
published by the WHO, Geneva, Switzerland, 1978
13 Medawar, "International Regulation of Pharmaceuticals," p. 19
14 Bannerman, "The Role of Traditional Medicine," p. 326
15 de Smet, P., and Rivier, L., "A General Outlook on Ethnopharmacology." pp.
135 and 136
16 Dag Hanimarskkiold Seminar on Another Development in Pharmaceuticals, June 3-6,
1985, "Summary Conclusions," in Develoment Dialogue, Vol. 2, 1985, The
Dage Hanunarskjold Foundation, Uppsala, Sweden, pp. 130-143
See also:
- Akerele, O., (The World Health Organization), "The Best of Both
Worlds: Bringing Traditional Medicine Up-To-Date," Social Science and Medicine,
Vol. 24, No. 2, 1987, pp. 177-181- van der Geest, S., (University of Amsterdam), "Pharmaceuticals in
the Third World: The Local Perspective," in Social Science and Medicine, Vol.
25, No. 3, 1987, pp. 373-376- "Kyerematen, G., and Ogunlana, E., (University of Uppsala Biomedical
Centre), "An Integrated Approach to the Pharmacological Evaluation of Traditional
Materia Medica," Journal of Ethnopharmacology, Vol. 20, 1987, pp. 191-207- Huizer, G., "Indigenous Healers and Western Dominance: Challenge for
Social Scientists?," Social Compass, XXXIV/4, 1987, pp. 415-436- Quah, S., Editor, The Triumph of Practicality–Tradition and Modernity
in Health Care Utilization in Selected Asian Countries, Social Issues in Southeast
Asia Programme, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1989- Leslie, C., Editor, Asian Medical Systems: A Comparative Study,
University of California Press, Berkely, California, USA, 1977- Ademuwagun, Z., et at, Editors, (representing the universities of Ibadan,
Tennessee, and Iowa State), African Therapeutic Systems, (African Studies
Association, Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass., USA, Crossroads Press, 1979
ANNEX II:
AGROCHEMICAL AGRICULTURE THE NEED FOR A SANER ALTERNATIVE
By: Raymond Obomsawin
THE DILEMMA OF CHEMICAL FERTILIZATION
The worldwide use of commercial chemical fertilizers and pesticides has increased by
factors of 9 and 32 respectively, during the recent 35 year period.1 For an appreciation of the impact of this on soil and plant nutrition we should
consider the observation of Chesworth:
Geochemically, farming is a kind of rape, with annual harvests
removing plant nutrients one or two orders of magnitude faster than . . . (natural
processes) can replace them. . . . The inherent fertility of soil, a renewable resource,
is largely ignored in modern mechanized agriculture in favour of chemical fertilizers
largely mined from non-renewable deposits. A saner attitude once should be re examined as
a possible basis for future strategies.2
A highly significant practical concern is the increasingly high costs
associated with agrochemical fertilizers, coupled to their incapacity to provide a range
of essential micro nutrients to the soil.
Since the energy crises of the seventies, the cost of artificial
fertilizer has increased at least three fold, and most tropical countries are faced by
severe restrictions in foreign currency. The second drawback is that commercial
fertilizers are invariably incomplete. They look after N, P and K, but most of the minor
nutrients are left out . . . With this form of agriculture becoming increasingly beyond
the means of the Developing World, alternatives are needed. 3
A further critical question that is rarely given due consideration is
the popularly promulgated belief that synthetically developed chemicals bear no difference
from those which naturally occur in the biosphere. In response to this view, eminently
successful horticulturist D. Phillips contends that such a view overlooks the highly vital
"life force" factor. In his words "A synthetic chemical can appear to
represent a natural one only to the extent that a waxen image is a dummy of its living
model."4
PESTICIDE POISONS
Throughout the Developing World, it is estimated that close to a million people are
annually poisoned by pesticides, of which 40,000 die. It is also well worth noting in
comparison with the Developed World, "the incidence of pesticide poisoning is 13
times higher in the Third World." To give but one example, in Sri Lanka where there
was not a single death from malaria in 1978, in that same year it is estimated that there
were 1,000 deaths from pesticide poisoning.5
Not only is there an accelerated use of pesticides as pests adapt to and resist these
poisons, but the pesticide manufacturers make them ever more deadly. This all seems very
strange, when we consider that extensive research conducted by Cornell University
Entomologist, David Pimentel (editor of the Handbook of Pest Management in Agriculture,
CRC Press, 1981) and others, confirms that data covering the last four decades indicate a
direct cause and effect relationship between pesticide dependency–along with other large
scale agribusiness techniques and highly significant increases in crop losses due to pest
damage.
"The share of crop yields lost to insects has nearly doubled (7% to 13%) during the
last 40 years, despite a more than 10-fold increase in the amount and toxicity of
synthetic insecticide used." As if this wasn’t damning enough, it has also been found
that "often less than 0. 1 %" of pesticide applications actually reach the
targeted pest(s).6
BIOLOGICALLY SOUND ALTERNATIVES
TO PESTICIDES
To give only one example in the developing world of the potential for local alternatives
to toxic pesticides, while visiting Thailand’s Reanunakom District Health Centre’s
Traditional Herbal Medicine Program (Nakhon Phanom Province), I found that there has been
successful development of and early field trials for non-toxic plant source alternatives
to chemical pesticides. The biological product shown, had as its base a locally growable
variety of lemon grass.
In my discussion with the Program Coordinator P. Tongyus, it became evident that there
remains a considerable potential for villages to raise the basic ingredients as a means of
replacing their present dependence on commercial chemical pest control products.
Furthermore, there remains potential for large scale industrial production of such
non-toxic herbal pest control products, if interest could be further generated,
investments made, and appropriate marketing channels established.
THE PROMISE OF CLEAN ORGANICULTURE
METHODS
It is also of compelling interest that little acknowledged, albeit superior agricultural
methods such as the "clean culture" system (see pp. ??? in main text) developed
by Sampson Morgan bear great promise not merely for preventing disease and human
degeneration, but for alleviating the crippling effects of starvation in the
underdeveloped regions of earth.
At the time of Morgan’s experiments the average potato yield for the world, stood at about
6 tons per acre, that of wheat 15 bushels. In the words of Morgan, I broke all records for
potatoes . . . digging fine samples at the rate of 65 tons an acre, a success never
achieved by any other experimenter." As for wheat, he was able to produce up to 100
bushels per acre. He correctly perceived that the bankruptcy of the soil means the
impoverishment of the people; both in quality and quantity of food provided. In his words
"’ne colossal loss of foodstuffs through the present system is criminal." His
products included the largest apple that had ever been recorded at 34-1/2 oz and nearly
I-1/2 ft in circumference. Additionally "clean culture" methods produced plants
far more impervious to adverse weather conditions, including frost. The shelf life of
produce was also greatly extended.7
A further major benefit of clean culture–of great significance to more and regions–is
the fact that porous rock based "mulches" are generally highly potent in
reducing evaporation of water from the soil. In fact, evidence suggests that such mulches
actually serve to extract "moisture from humid atmospheres."8
A RECENT
INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVE IN CLEAN ORGANICULTURE
With support from Canada’s International Development Research Centre, the University of
Guelph (Ontario) Department of Land Resources Science–in cooperation with various
Tanzanian universities in the late 80′s undertook an historic applied research initiative
on the potential of locally accessible rock dust (what the University has coined as
agro-geology) applications to restore what has become largely infertile and acid soils in
the Mbeya, Morogoro and Mbozi regions of Tanzania.
At its outset, Johnson Somoka of Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania
realistically projected that through rock dust fertilization:
- vital micronutrients will be replaced
- reductions in dependency on commercial chemical fertilizers will be
achieved - farmers can anticipate -potential increases of 50% to 70% in crop yields.
(This particular project’s level of success, and potential for
replication was assessed upon its completion in 1991.)9
1 MacNeill, et al, CIDA and Sustainable Development, The Institute for Research on
Public Policy, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1989
2 Chesworth, W., "Late Cenozoic Geology and the Second Oldest
Profession," Department of Land Resource Science, University of Guelph, Guelph,
Canada, published in Geoscience Canada, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1981, pp. 54-56
3 Chesworth, W., et al, "Agricultural Alchemy: Stones Into Bread," Episodes,
Vol. 1983, No. 1, p. 3
4 Phillips, David A., From Soil to Psyche, Woodbridge Press Publishing Company,
Santa Barbara, California, USA, 1977, p. 195
·5 Chetelat, L.J., A Synthesis of Key Issues for Evaluation in Eaanded Programs of
Immunization, prepared for CIDA Policy Branch, Evaluation Division, Hull, Canada,
January, 1990, p. 36
6 Pimental, D., personal communication, May 8, 1990; Pimental, D., et at, Environmental
and Economic Impacts of Reduciniz US Agricultural Pesticide Use, draft text, Cornell
University Department of Entomology, October, 1989, p. 4; and Pimental, D., and Levitan,
L., Pesticides: "Amounts Applied and Amounts Reaching Pests," Bioscience,
American Institute of Biological Science, Washington, DC, Vol. 36, No. 2, February, 1986,
p. 86
7 Morgan, S., Clean Culture–The New Soil Science, Health Research, Mokelumne Hill,
California, reprint of 1918 Edition, whole text
8 Chesworth, Agricultural Alchemy, p. 5
9 Toomy, G., "Agrogeology–Rocks in the Service of Soil"–The IDRC Reports,
Ottawa, Canada,

