MMR vaccine caused deafness in 2 UK children

[Dissent]

MMR vaccine caused deafness in two U.K. children, formally recorded in 10 - Miami healthy living | Examiner.com
Safe I tell ya its safe!

 

[waltky]

Sometimes Granny acts like she's deafer'n a rock when Uncle Ferd talkin' to her...

Deaf gerbils 'hear again' after stem cell cure
12 September 2012 - Researchers hope they will be able to one day treat deafness with stem cells.

UK researchers say they have taken a huge step forward in treating deafness after stem cells were used to restore hearing in animals for the first time. Hearing partially improved when nerves in the ear, which pass sounds into the brain, were rebuilt in gerbils - a UK study in the journal Nature reports. Getting the same improvement in people would be a shift from being unable to hear traffic to hearing a conversation. However, treating humans is still a distant prospect. If you want to listen to the radio or have a chat with a friend your ear has to convert sound waves in the air into electrical signals which the brain will understand. This happens deep inside the inner ear where vibrations move tiny hairs and this movement creates an electrical signal.

However, in about one in 10 people with profound hearing loss, nerve cells which should pick up the signal are damaged. It is like dropping the baton after the first leg of a relay race. The aim of researchers at the University of Sheffield was to replace those baton-dropping nerve cells, called spiral ganglion neurons, with new ones. They used stem cells from a human embryo, which are capable of becoming any other type of cell in the human body from nerve to skin, muscle to kidney.

A chemical soup was added to the stem cells that converted them into cells similar to the spiral ganglion neurons. These were then delicately injected into the inner ears of 18 deaf gerbils. Over 10 weeks the gerbils' hearing improved. On average 45% of their hearing range was restored by the end of the study. Dr Marcelo Rivolta said: "It would mean going from being so deaf that you wouldn't be able to hear a lorry or truck in the street to the point where you would be able to hear a conversation. "It is not a complete cure, they will not be able to hear a whisper, but they would certainly be able to maintain a conversation in a room."

About a third of the gerbils responded really well to treatment with some regaining up to 90% of their hearing, while just under a third barely responded at all. Gerbils were used as they are able to hear a similar range of sounds to people, unlike mice which hear higher-pitched sounds. The researchers detected the improvement in hearing by measuring brainwaves. The gerbils were also tested for only 10 weeks. If this became a treatment in humans then the effect would need to be shown over a much longer term. There are also questions around the safety and ethics of stem cell treatments which would need to be addressed.

'Tremendously encouraging'

 

[uscitizen]

But the US dioes not allow stem cell research...

 

[Noomi]

She had a needle and became deaf shortly afterward. Did she have an ear infection, or a virus during that time?

You can't link a vaccination to deafness anymore than you can link one to autism.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Why is this in politics?

 

[Mr. H.]

MMR vaccine caused deafness in two U.K. children, formally recorded in 10 - Miami healthy living | Examiner.com
Safe I tell ya its safe!

The vaccine didn't cause deafness so much as it encouraged the learning of sign language.

 

[Mad Scientist]

She had a needle and became deaf shortly afterward. Did she have an ear infection, or a virus during that time?

You can't link a vaccination to deafness anymore than you can link one to autism.

You didn't read the article did ya'?

 

[Noomi]

She had a needle and became deaf shortly afterward. Did she have an ear infection, or a virus during that time?

You can't link a vaccination to deafness anymore than you can link one to autism.

You didn't read the article did ya'?

I sure did. It says the 15 month old lost her hearing in one ear shortly after the vaccine. She could have had a virus.

Case in point - I am partially deaf. I had a virus and went on antibiotics. A few months later I got hearing aids. I got virus on top of virus and was virtually profoundly deaf in both ears. They cleared up, and my hearing has improved, but I still need hearing aids to help with communication.
Was it the antibiotics? I don't know. Maybe - but I am not about to play the blame game, and this girl shouldn't, either.

 

[waltky]

Measles vaccine program goes awry...

U.N. Stops Syria Vaccine Campaign After 15 Children Die
9/17/2014

The United Nations says it has stopped a vaccination campaign in northern Syria after at least 15 young children died. The World Health Organization, part of the UN, says it’s investigating. It’s not at all clear that the vaccines killed the children, WHO says, but it’s worth checking. “The deaths of the children — all of whom were less than two years of age — occurred in districts where a measles immunization campaign had been under way,” the U.N. children’s organization UNICEF and WHO said in a joint statement.[/i]

“Establishing the precise cause of the children’s deaths is vital,” the statement added. U.N. workers have been vaccinating children in Syria, especially refugee children, since a measles outbreak started in early 2013. Thousands of children have been infected with the highly contaguous virus. "For as long as the facts remain unclear, the suspension of the immunization campaign in both Idlib and Deir Ezzour provinces is a wise step," WHO and the UN said. "However, it is vital that immunization efforts against measles — a disease which is a leading killer of children worldwide — resume in Syria as soon as possible. Measles is a particular threat to children who have been displaced from their homes and communities, and who are living in camps or other insanitary conditions.”

U.N. Stops Syria Vaccine Campaign After 15 Children Die - NBC News