By Karen Dale Dustman
KDustman@aol.com
Vaccines
-- Part I:
Move
over, politics, religion, and gun control.
The latest "hot" topic of debate: can routine vaccinations harm your pet. Even raising the
issue may seem a bit like questioning the virtues of motherhood and apple pie.
Vaccinations are, after all,
among the most prominent weapons in veterinary arsenals today against
devastating diseases
including rabies, distemper, parvovirus, and leukemia.
But then, critics point out, medical science also once considered leeches
de rigeur. And more and more
holistic practitioners are reporting cases in which they believe
over-vaccination may be linked to a wide assortment of veterinary ills.
More
conventionally-minded health professionals acknowledge that vaccines, like any
form of medical intervention, can have side effects in rare instances.
But, they say, the benefits of vaccination usually far outweigh the
risks. Who's right?
Conclusive data isn't in yet, but there seem to be valid points raised by both
sides. Here's a look at this thorny but fascinating debate.
Trouble
in Paradise?
For
Don Hamilton, D.V.M., a holistic veterinarian in Ocate, New Mexico, the turning
point was a Persian cat named Fluffy with a puzzling pattern of
repeated urinary tract infections.
"I read through her chart and found that for three years in a row,
she would come in for her annual vaccination, and about a month later, would be
back with a urinary tract infection," explained Dr. Hamilton.
Suspecting that Fluffy's annual vaccinations may have played a part in
her problem, Dr. Hamilton recommended that the cat not receive further
vaccinations. Fluffy has remained
infection-free ever
since, he noted.
Some
might call it a coincidence. But
for Hamilton, the idea that routine vaccinations may be linked to seemingly
unrelated illnesses was a significant insight. "Once you see something like
that and say, is it possible, and then look through your cases with the idea
that it is possible, then you see a lot of things you didn't see before,"
Hamilton said. "The
trouble is, we're so heavily taught that vaccines are helpful, and if not
helpful, that they're at least not harmful.
So when you see what I now think are vaccine-related damage, you tend to
say it's not possible, and dismiss it."
Reports
of vaccine-related problems in animals come as no surprise to Dr. Richard
Pitcairn, D.V.M., founder of the Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy in Eugene,
Oregon, and one of the first to point to a possible correlation between vaccines
and other illnesses. "We
do see a number of health problems we associate with vaccines, [often] having to
do with immune problems or allergies," confirmed Dr. Pitcairn. "It
also seems that animals become more susceptible to other infections, so a cat
that gets the feline leukemia vaccine might come down a month later with FIP
(feline infectious
peritonitis).
There is some evidence reported in the veterinary literature that after a
vaccine, the immune system weakens or the animal is more susceptible to diseases
of other sorts."
The
link between vaccinations and the immune system is cited by other veterinarians
as well, although some caution that immune problems may involve more factors
than just vaccination. "We're
seeing more immune problems in general," noted Jean Dodds, D.V.M. a
veterinarian with a referral practice in hematology and immunology in Santa
Monica, Cal-ifornia. "And it's
likely that vacinations are just one of the triggers in individuals that are
susceptible." Many
holistic veterinarians also report that their observations in practice seem to
support a link between vaccinations and a wide variety of ailments.
"You
take healthy animals and often very quickly after you vaccinate, you can see
simple things like itching of the skin or excessive licking of the paws,
sometimes even with no eruptions," said Dee Blanco, D.V.M., a holistic
practitioner in Santa Fe, New Mexico. "We see a lot of epilepsy, often
after a rabies vaccination. Or dogs
or cats can become
ag-gressive for several days. Frequently,
you'll see urinary tract infections in cats, often within three months after
their [annual] vaccination. If you
step back, open your mind and heart, you'll start to see patterns of illness
post-vaccination."
Vaccinations
may even contribute to premature death in animals whose immune systems were
already compromised, some veterinarians believe. "I had two situations where we had spent a long
time building up two older, severely immunocompromised dogs, and then their
owners had them vaccinated for just about everything known to man,"
recalled Dr. Carvel Tiekert, executive director and founder of the American
Holistic Veterinary Medical Association headquartered in Bel Air, Maryland.
"Both of those dogs died within about a month of vaccination.
Can we prove a cause and effect? No.
Do I think there was a cause and effect?
Yes."
More
Subtle Effects:
In
addition to -- or perhaps underlying -- the more overt symptoms, some
veterinarians believe that vaccination can produce a chronic illness known
as "vaccinosis", which leaves the patient less able to fend off other
medical problems. "Animals react adversely to vaccines in two main ways.
The first is the more obvious immediate anaphylactic response, where the
animal may develop swelling of the face or ears, as well as pain and
inflammation at the site of inection," said Donna Starita Mehan, D.V.M., a
veterinarian in Boring, Oregon. "But
a larger number of animals develop an under-current, [a] subtle immune system
shift that compounds every time they receive a vaccination.
This may later manifest as any number of chronic degenerative illnesses
such as arthritis, skin or ear problems, gum or throat inflammation, behav-ior problems, central nervous system disorders
(i.e. epilepsy), or cancer." The
link between vaccination and disease, however, is an indirect one, explain those
who accept the vaccinosis theory. "It
is not necessarily that the diseases are
caused by the vaccine," emphasized Dr. Blanco.
"There are weaknesses inherent in all of us, either from our
environment or acquired or inherited tendencies.
If you have a family line of diabetes or hip dysplasia or whatever your
weak area is, the vaccine will essentially exacerbate the weakness and the
animal becomes symptomatic. I think
the immune system is finite, and overloading it [with
too many vaccinations] is really hard on the system.
The immune system says to itself, 'These rabies or other viruses in my
body are a life-threatening illness -- I must deal with this,' but there isn't
enough energy to also keep everything in balance. Therefore, the weaknesses are expressed."
Rabies
vaccine, in particular, is frequently linked by holistic veterinarians to
adverse changes in dogs' behavior.
"What I've seen happen is, after vaccination, dogs develop what we
call the 'rabies miasm', where they become more aggressive, more likely to bite,
more nervous and suspicious," noted Dr. Pitcairn.
"They may also have a tendency to run away, to wander, and also
sometimes to have excessive saliva, and to tear things up. It's not that they
have rabies, but they seem to express some
symptoms of the disease from exposure to the vaccine."
Some veterinarians even suggest that illness-es like parvo may be the
direct result of well-intentioned vaccination efforts.
"Parvo
wasn't around until about twenty years ago," Dr. Hamilton noted.
"I think parvo resulted because of the distemper vaccination.
I've seen cases where a dog tested positive [for parvo], and then within
24 hours it turned and became a full-blown [case of] distemper.
Now, conventionally they will tell you the dog was simply harboring both
viruses. I don't think so.
I think it just shifted, from one to the other."
Looking
for Links
What
exactly in a vaccine might promote such adverse reactions?
"Vaccine products may contain artificial colors, antibiotics,
aluminum, formaldehyde, BHA, and BHT, in addition to the viral antigen,"
noted Dr. Mehan. "Syncytial viruses inadvertently grown on the same media
may also be included as contaminants," she said. Other experts note that most vaccinations introduce a
substance directly into body tissues, rather than through the nose or mouth, the
normal routes of infection. And
there may also be a cumulative impact on the immune system with repeated
vaccinations, they say.
Even
some experts outside the holistic community believe that Americans may be
over-vaccinating their pets. "Almost
without exception, there is no immunologic requirement for annual revaccination.
Immunity to viruses persists for
years or for the life of the animal," wrote Ronald D. Schultz,
Ph.D., a professor and chair of the department of athobiological Sciences at the
University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary
Medicine, who has studied vaccines for nearly 30 years.
In a widely-quoted article co-authored with T. Phillips, D.V.M. published
in Kirk's Current Veterinary Therapy in 1992, Drs. Schultz and Phillips called
the practice of annual boosters one of "questionable efficacy."
Our
own experience with human vaccinations tends to support that idea, notes
Christina Chambreau, D.V.M., a veterin-arian with an entirely homeopathic
practice in Sparks, Maryland. "How
many of us get DPT, polio, tetanus, diptheria -- all the childhood vaccines --
every year?" she asked. "If
you don't, why do your animals need them?" Not so fast, caution more
conventially-minded veterinarians. There
are significant differences between humans and animals -- and between human and
animal diseases -- that need to be factored in.
"Remember
that dogs age 7 times faster than we do," said Roger Schwartz, D.V.M., a
clinical research veterinarian with manufacturer Hoechst Roussel Vet in
Somerville, New Jersey. "One
year for us is the equivalent of a month and a half for a dog. So a yearly
booster for them is like a seven-year booster for us." And although annual revaccination may sound a bit like
overkill, that's not necessarily the case, some experts emphasize.
Manufacturers' label recommendations for the frequency of revaccination are
meant to provide guidance for the general population of animals," Beth
Bielsker, D.V.M., manager of veterinary affairs for Solvay Animal Health in
Mendota Heights, Minnesota. "Are
there going to be some animals in which protection lasts longer than a year?
Yes, just as here will be animals where protection may be less than a
year. It is very difficult to make
generalizations in an area where the response to vaccine is very
individualized," she said.
A number of factors can inhibit the development of a proper immune
response, making repeated vaccinations important to ensure immunity, pointed out
Joseph Curlee, D.V.M., a veterinarian with United Vaccines, Inc. in Madison,
Wisconsin.
"Although
animals are 'vaccinated,' it does not infer that they have produced a protective
immune response," Dr. Curlee said. "Several factors to consider at the time of vaccination
of the animal are stress, pre-existing or incubating disease, poor nutrition,
parasitism, immune suppressive diseases or treatments, and age (maternal
antibody interference). Anyone of
these may result in an inadquate immune response to the vaccine which may
require additional vaccinations in order to insure that the animal is
protected."
And
while some may speculate that vaccine companies prefer to market a product that
must be readministered every year, it is actually in vaccine companies' own
interest to produce longer-lasting vaccines, Dr. Schwartz said.
"If a company can sell a product that lasts two years between doses
and the others on the market last one
year, guess who's going to win the race. There's
always a push to lengthen the interval, because that means you have a more
potent product."
However,
even traditional veterinarians agree there may be a limit to the number of
vaccinations an animal should receive. "The
reality is, yes, a vaccine does cost the animal something -- it costs them a
little bit of their metabolic energy to produce a response to that
vaccine," observed Dr. Schwartz of Hoechst Roussel. "Animals and
people are born with essentially a limitless potential to develop immunological
responses to antigens, [but] that 'limitless' part refers to the variety of
antigens that the animal can respond to. The
animal's metabolic ability has limits. It's like your computer at home -- how
many software programs can you put on it? Your hard drive has a certain capacity. If you have only 640 megabytes compared to several gigabytes,
for example, you may have to be more selective about what you put on it.
But remember, it is the software that makes a computer useful."
Tough
Tie-Ins:
Establishing
that an animal's health problems are vaccination-related can be difficult,
holistic veterinarians concede. "Those of us in alternative therapy feel
strongly that there are such problems, but that is based on in-the-field
obser-vation," noted Carolyn Blakey, D.V.M., an alternatives [sic]
practitioner in Richmond, Indiana. "The drug manufacturers and most
non-alternative veterinarians deny that, because the reactions are delayed --
quite delayed, frequently. So they say, 'Where's the proof that the vaccine did it?'
And they have a valid point, of course.
But once in a while, often enough that you can put your finger on it,
within a few days or a month [after vaccination], you can correlate a
deterior-ation in the animal's health."
Vaccinations
are also only one in a constellation of factors that may affect an animal's
health, holistic practitioners emphasize. "I
don't want to imply that [vaccination] is the whole cause," cautioned Dr.
Pitcairn. "More, it aggravates
or makes [an existing condition] worse. Maybe there is an inherited tendency toward allergies, and
then along comes the vaccine, or several together.
And it's too much."
Conventional
veterinarians point out, however, that the very frequency of a typical
vaccination program makes it easy to mistakenly blame a vaccine.
"For pediatric disease, for instance, it's very common in veterinary
practice to vaccine puppies on a three- to four- week interval, from
the time they are six weeks of age until they are 16 weeks old," pointed
out David Hustead, D.V.M., director of professional services for Ft. Dodge
Animal Health in Overland Park, Kansas. "Now, if a puppy gets any illness
from the time they are six weeks of age to 16 weeks, that illness is within
three weeks of the date they got a vaccine.
So it is very easy to say it had to be caused by a vaccine."
Vaccines
may also be inappropriately blamed for adverse reactions simply because
underlying conditions went undiagnosed, noted Dr. Bielsker of Solvay Animal
Health. "There are many reasons why an animal may occasionally become ill
after vaccination, most of which are not directly related to the vaccine that
was used," Bielsker said. "Often, the animal may have had an
underlying condition, such as kidney disease or heart disease, at the time of
vaccination, which causes it to become ill. However, the public may only hear
bits and pieces of what happened, and the true cause of the problem is
oftentimes never communicated. Am I
saying that vaccines themselves are never to blame for complications that may
occur? No. What I am saying is that, in my experience, it is very
rare."
As for the assertion that vaccination may lead to chronic illnesses, many
outside the holistic community find the notion a tough concept to swallow
without further proof. "These are very difficult questions.
The problems these people report are so vague they almost defy typical
scientific efforts to investigate," said Dr. David Hustead. "The data
is not there at this time to back up the contention [that vaccines may cause
low-grade, chronic illness]," agreed
Philip Kass, D.V.M. Ph.D., a researcher with the Department of Population Health
& Reproduction at the School of Veterinary Medicine at
the University of California at Davis.
"I'm not saying it's false, but I'm not saying it's true either.
I just don't think the hard evidence is there yet."
"The
immune system puts computers to shame [in complexity]," cautioned
Dr. Schwartz. "The simple answers are always the easy ones, but
they're almost always the wrong ones." Many holistic veterinarians,
however, remain convinced that the connection between vaccination and other
animal health problems is real. "It's happened often
enough to make us feel, sure enough, [it's true]!" said Dr. Blakey.
"But not often enough to make the 'scientific' community accept our
interpretation as completely valid. Because
it is observation. And that's not a
scientific study."
Other
Reaction Risks:
While
there's no proof positive at present of a link between vaccination and chronic
illness, it is accepted that vaccines do sometimes cause what are termed 'acute'
reactions in a small number of cases. Within
a few minutes or hours after the injection, an animal may develop swelling at
the site, fever, vomiting, anaphylactic shock, or even seizures.
Left untreated, the animal may die.
The risk that an animal will have a severe reaction to a vaccine is
extremely small, experts emphasize.
"For
vaccines to be licensed, they must meet USDA standards to show they are safe and
protective at or above a given threshold level," explained Dr. Schwartz of
Hoechst Roussel. "Generally,
only fractions of one percent of animals will respond adversely." Just as a
small percentage of humans experience life-threatening response to a bee-sting,
an animal's response to a particular vaccine depends on the individual's own
unique chemistry.
"You
and I can both receive the same vaccine, and you may not have a problem at all
and I may start breaking out in hives," explained Dr. Beth Bielsker of
Solvay Animal Health. "Does
that mean the vaccine is bad? I
don't think so. Your immune system processed it normally and mine sort of
superprocessed it." There
is also a small risk that vaccinated
animals may not be adequately protected against the disease for which the
vaccination was given, acknowledged Dr. Schwartz of Hoechst Roussel.
"Vaccines
don't have to be 100% protective, or we wouldn't have any vaccines because
there's nothing foolproof," he noted.
"Generally, the efficacy rate is well above 90%, but in some cases
it may be in the 80% range. The degree of protection is a function of the nature
of the vaccine, the nature of the disease it protects against, the length of
time since the last exposure to the vaccine or disease agent, and the individual
animal's ability to develop a protective response, once immunized."
Recent
research has also linked certain feline vaccines with injection-site
fibrosarcomas, a type of cancer. "Our
research confirmed that there was a relationship between giving vaccines and
developing tumors in cats," said Dr. Philip Kass.
Two vaccines seemed to be causing it the most:
feline leukemia and rabies, [regardless of the brand being given].
We also found that cats that had received multiple injections in the same
place had a higher risk than cats with only one vaccination there." But
despite the link with vaccines established by his research, cat owners should
not jump to con-clusions, Dr. Kass cautioned. "Not all vaccines cause fibrosarcomas, and not all
fibrosarcomas are caused by vaccines," he emphasized.
Breed-Specific
Reactions:
You
may have heard that purebred animals are at greater risk for developing an acute
vaccine reaction. Is that true?
Absolutely," noted researcher Dr. Ronald Schultz. "But what's
even more true is that certain families, certain lines of
genetics within a breed are more susceptible than others. It's not a simple Mendelian thing, however --it's multi-genic
and highly complex. So one parent
could have [a vaccine sensitivity], and the progeny could still be without
it." Among dogs,
breeds at highest risk of having an adverse vaccine reaction include Akitas,
Weimaraners, and harlequin Great Danes, noted Dr. Jean Dodds. "[These breeds] have highly genetically predisposed
blood lines," she explained. That
is, within the breed, there are very commonly bred lines that apparently have
this susceptibility." In
addition, some individual animals within a certain breed may produce a lesser
immune response to a vaccine than others.
"Clearly, all dogs within a particular breed --rottweilers are
prominent examples -- simply don't respond equally to vaccines;
some dogs may
not seroconvert (i.e., develop antibodies in response to vaccination) until two
years of age or older," said Richard Ford, D.V.M., a professor of medicine
at the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University.
"And of greater concern, we know that immunization failure is more
likely to be the result of the individual's inability to respond to the vaccine
than it is a failure of the vaccine's ability to immunize."
Such breed-specific results are understandable, noted Dr. Schwartz of
Hoechst-Roussel. "There is a thing called hybrid vigor;
the hybrid mongrel animals in this world tend to have fewer quirks when
it comes to [responses to vaccines] than purebreds," explained Dr.
Schwartz. "That's
because their family tree is a forest. When
you breed in certain traits, here
may a whole lot of other things thrown in, including insufficient immune
responses. That's one of those
trade-offs [in buying a purebred animal]."
Conclusion:
The
wisdom of current vaccination protocols -- especially of annual revaccination
for every animal -- is clearly being called into question. And in Part II of
this story, we'll take a look at what some experts are recommending as
alterna-tives. But even some of the
most outspoken critics of the way we currently vaccinate our pets stress that
their position should not be misconstrued.
"There have been so many things said recently about vaccines in a
negative context that I'm beginning to worry now that we have animal owners who
are very confused, and some are very scared," emphasized Dr. Schultz. "Animals shouldn't necessarily be vaccinated every year
-- it's something I've stated since 1978. But
some folks who are into holistic veterinary medicine have taken the view that
you don't need any vaccines, and [in my opinion]
that's
absolutely not correct."
"Everything
sort of has its day, things come and go, wax and wane," points out Dr.
Carvel Tiekert. "Are
people over-reacting? I don't know.
In my own opinion, perhaps a little bit.
But then, American society has never done real well staying in the
middle." Clearly, the issues are difficult ones;
there are no easy answers. But
there are many good sources of information. Perhaps
the best place to begin is by talking about the issue of vaccination with your
own veterinarian.
"Maybe
it's worth discussing it with two veterinarians to try to get a
point-counterpoint," suggested Dr. Schultz. "And I can assure you, if you discuss this issue with
both an allopathic and a homeopathic veterinarian, they will have a view and
counterview for you." "I
would encourage everyone to be really persistent consumers," advised Dr.
Blakey. "I want them to keep
their brain cells plugged in, ask hard questions, and ask them from more than
one source. There are some
wonderful books out there -- pick them up and read them.
It's a whole education thing."
SIDEBAR
I
VACCINES:
A Short Primer:
Edward
Jenner probably had no idea he was spawning a medical revolution when he
inoculated an eight year old boy with the relatively benign cowpox virus in 1796
and then confirmed the boy's immunity to smallpox.
But the principle used by this observant British country doctor has led
to the development of today's human vaccines for diptheria, polio, whooping
cough, and measles, as well as animal
vaccines against rabies, distemper, parvovirus, and other diseases.
Vaccines are produced by taking a virus or other disease-causing agent
(known as a pathogen), and either killing it or rendering it less dangerous by culturing it under
prescribed conditions in a lab. These
killed or "modified-live" organisms (known as antigens) are then
incorporated into a vaccine solution.
"Killed" vaccines may also include chemicals known as "adjuvants"
which help to enhance the immune-producing action of the vaccine.
"When
injected with a vaccine, the animal's immune system is forced to create a
response-- just as if they had been exposed to the disease," explained Dr.
Hustead of Ft. Dodge Animal Health. "Through
the process of creating this response, they learn how to deal with the more
pathogenic versions of the same organism."
There is significant con-troversy
in the medical community about which type of vaccine is preferable -- a
"killed" or a "modified-live".
Typically, modified-live vaccines require a lower concentration of
antigens and produce a longer-lasting immunity than a killed vaccine. However,
because a modified-live vaccine contains live (if attenuated) organisms, there
is a remote but real pos-sibility that these organisms can mutate into a
disease-causing form. Killed
vaccines avoid this potential risk, but often must be administered several times
to produce an adequate immune response. In
addition, the adjuvants incorporated into some killed vaccines may themselves be
responsible for adverse reactions in some animals.
Scientists
are also showing increasing interest in "recombinant" vaccines, which
use only a genetic fraction of the disease-causing organism -- enough to
stimulate an immune response, without the remainder which is responsible for
causing the disease. Researchers hope that these new technologies will prove
even safer than today's vaccines, while offering equal or better
protective results.
SIDEBAR
2:
Reporting
An Adverse Reaction:
What should you do if your pet suffers a vaccine-induced reaction? If theemergency happens at home, your first call, of course, should be to your veterinarian. Aferwards, however, reporting the problem may help other pet owners avoid a similar ordeal.
According
to Brian J. Erdahl, D.V.M., senior biologics specialist with the U.S. Department
of Agriculture's Biologics Hotline,
owners of pets who experience a negative reaction to any vaccine should promptly
notify both the Biologics Hotline and the manufacturer of the vaccine.
"We get reports from consumers, from universities, from
veterinarians through the AVMA's Practitioners' Reporting Network, and
occasionally by referral from the FDA," Dr. Erdahl explained.
"We are the ones that compile that data, and we keep a database of
reports on products." Not
every adverse reaction is considered indicative of a problem with the vaccine
itself, Erdahl noted.
"We
expect a certain amount of reactions; it's just inevitable," he said.
"When we get nervous is when one person gives us information on a reaction
to a particular product, and the next day we get a report with the same
information, from the same batch. Then
we say, is this something going on with the product, or is this the baseline
reaction we expect? If we think a
product may have a problem, we can and will require [additional] testing of the
product." Consumers may
contact the USDA Biologics Hotline toll-free at (800) 752-6255.
A specialist will ask you the name of the vaccine, the
manufacturer, and the lot number of the product.
Pet
advocates also recommend making sure that your pet's adverse reaction and
vaccine information (including manufacturer and lot number) are clearly noted on
your veterinarian's chart.
*************************************
Karin Schumacher
Vaccine Information & Awareness (VIA)
792 Pineview Drive
San Jose, CA 95117
408-966-9388 (phone)
408-554-9053 (fax)
via@eden.com (email)
http://www.eden.com/~via (website)
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We Must Have The Freedom To Choose &
Respect Everyone's Choice
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